SAS

Role

Solution architecture
Development
Support
Systems integration

Industry

Technology

Technology

Totara, PHP

partner since November 2020

Delivering Personalized Learning to 150,000+ Learners

about

SAS (Statistical Analysis System) is a data and AI software company providing analytics and decision-intelligence solutions to diverse organizations across the globe.

Through SAS Education, they deliver hands-on learning to internal employees, partners, customers, educators, and students, enabling them to succeed in a data-driven world.

the challenge

It was time for an upgrade. SAS was growing. But their education system was struggling to deliver high-quality experiences to their multinational and multilingual audience. Additionally, delivery formats and learning discovery couldn’t keep up with increasing demand.

Not only did their platform have to serve a global learning force, but it also needed to accurately segment into structured user types. SAS learners include internal employees and partners looking to strengthen their product knowledge, software customers training and certifying their employees, and educators and students gaining the in-demand data and AI skills.

SAS needed a learning platform that could:

  • Support a scalable, user-friendly experience.
  • Reduce the friction between catalog browsing and course initiation.
  • Deliver personalized experiences to distinct learner audiences.
  • Expand training offerings without increased complexity for administrators or learners.

the solution

SAS Education partnered with Synegen to use Totara Learn as the foundation of a modern learning environment. We extended the Totara platform, bringing the browse, access, and consume experiences into one experience. This streamlines administrative tasks and maintenance while enabling a more efficient way for users to access learning.

Totara Learn’s audiences and dashboard are flexible, making it easy to tailor the platform for varied learning groups and customer accounts. Goal completion and training are more easily attainable, since each audience is guided to the most relevant content, messaging, and resources.

Even more, Totara Learn supports complex delivery through customized plugins, including:

  • Live instructor-led training integrations: Learners are directly connected to virtual sessions and practice environments where they can complete exercises and demonstrations alongside instructors in real time.
  • eLearning delivery: Multiple course versions and translations are supported through a customized video player.
  • xAPI tracking: More granular insights into learner progress and engagement are provided throughout each learning experience.
  • Tailored eLearning: Virtual lab reservation systems are tailored to the specific versions being completed.
  • Multi-country scheduling: Class pricing that dynamically changes based on each learner’s location.
With this foundation, Synegen helped SAS Education further expand experiences by introducing Totara Engage. Through curated playlists and resources, this provides bite-sized, informal learning. Now SAS blends structured learning with informal content, allowing learners to engage in the format that best suits their needs.
 

By adapting Tag Collections, playlists were seamlessly integrated into the existing learning catalog through consistent course, program, and playlist tags.

the result

With Synegen and Totara, SAS Education built and scaled a highly personalized learning ecosystem. They’ve expanded reach, increased access, and now support a broader mix of training experiences across customer accounts, academic programs, and live delivery.

Key outcomes include:

  • Supporting more than 150,000 learners across 35,000+ organizations.
  • 180+ personalized customer dashboards delivering tailored learning experiences.
  • 200+ customer courses and webinars available through the platform.
  • Three academic dashboards and two free academic software integrations, serving more than 2,200 academic users.
  • More than 2,300 live web events delivered through the platform.
  • Reduced cost per customer from $300 to $68, significantly improving operational efficiency.
  • Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 59 for digital learning content.

Ultimately, these results demonstrate the importance of personalization and access. 

SAS Education has scaled significantly, but never compromised its operational efficiency, customer success, and ever-expanding access to training across commercial and academic audiences.

“Totara’s flexibility serves as the cornerstone of the learning ecosystem, enabling innovative solutions that help new customers adopt the software and demonstrate the ongoing value of SAS solutions. Through the platform’s continuous evolution and release of cutting-edge features, customer retention is driven by keeping innovation at the forefront of everything delivered.”

Jim Farrell,
Director, Learning Design and Development, SAS Education