by Lee Perlis
The following is a guest posting by Heather Bennett, Chief Learning Officer at M5 Networks, the market leader in cloud-based phone systems. 
Like most companies, we at M5 see sales as the heart of our corporate growth and success. So when we learned that Blackboard’s new application on the salesforce.com platform could make our sales processes even more efficient and successful, we were eager to explore it. As our implementation is underway, we’re very excited about the ways that Blackboard Learn for Sales™ is taking our employee and sales team training to the next level. Its seamless integration with Salesforce and use of social and informal learning tools will not only increase knowledge retention within our sales team, but it will also engage our staff to help them meet their personal and professional goals.
Our new partnership with Blackboard fits perfectly with the launch of People Team. This group will develop an online working environment for M5 that is fun, creative, and productive through social learning and employee collaboration. Blackboard provides an ideal tool for People Team, allowing us to shake up the entire corporate culture and bring our focus to cultivating talent within our company.
by Geetha Gangireddy
Though you may have never heard of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), they play a crucial, behind-the-scenes role in the American healthcare system. CMS’s important work includes promoting effective, up-to-date health care coverage and ensuring quality care for beneficiaries. The face of CMS is its team of 6,500 surveyors responsible for examining hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies and ambulatory centers to make sure that they comply with Medicare and Medicaid regulations.
The task of training the CMS team is a formidable one: surveyors are spread over twelve time zones, travel up to 80% of the time, and must maintain a broad knowledge base within the ever-changing healthcare industry. When CMS needed a way to make this compliance training more manageable, they turned to Blackboard Learn for the following reasons:
- Ease of Access: Even when traveling extensively, surveyors are able to stay connected to their course material and their peers online.
by Tom Holz
You may already know that professional colleges and universities are
well-suited for students with active lifestyles, including parents and individuals with full-time jobs. What you may not know, however, is that many professional colleges have specific programs and services that benefit members of our military, their spouses, and veterans. Here are a few of the top ways that professional colleges and universities serve members of our military:
- Schools such as Harrison College have specific policies in place that minimize penalties to service members who must withdraw from classes upon being called to active duty.
- Herzing University, which has been listed as a top military-friendly school, is one of many professional universities that offer credit for military training, experience, and testing.
by Geetha Gangireddy
Guest post by David Palmer, National e-Learning Consultant for DoD/Intelligence, Blackboard Professional Education Division. 
As an e-learning consultant here at Blackboard for over four years now, I work closely with Military Education institutions including the Department of Defense and other intelligence agencies, to implement e-learning programs. I focus mainly on distance learning and I often advise clients who are just getting started with deploying online programs. Blackboard has clients all over the world that continue to successfully implement online learning into their education plans. These training programs can be divided into three major modes of delivery: resident, blended, and distance.
1) Resident-based instruction: This approach is common for clients who want to use Blackboard Learn to supplement a course that is primarily based on face-to-face, classroom-style learning.
by Lee Perlis
Date: February 16, 2012 at 1:00 – 2:00 PM EST Speakers: Jeanne Meister (co-author of The 2020 Workplace), Gary Woodill (author of The Mobile Learning Edge), and Lee Perlis (Senior Marketing Manager, Blackboard) Register at: http://bit.ly/xtJZFY The digital revolution has changed how humans communicate, share information and collaborate; and have had a profound impact on many areas of life.
The mobile digital revolution has created an information explosion giving everyone with a mobile device the latest knowledge at their fingertips. Social networking and instant access to product websites have empowered consumers to learn about any item they want to buy, and to shop for the best prices. At the same time, the aggregation and analysis of “big data” collected about consumer’s habits gives power to data miningsales forces to predict consumer behaviors and buying patterns. Traditional sales techniques have morphed into collaboration with the customer. This requires fresh thinking about how to approach all aspects of sales.