Inspiring and empowering businesses to revolutionize their digital customer education programs.
Before founding Northpass, I ran sales, marketing and operations for Edifice, an enterprise data services and SaaS analytics platform serving the retail industry. We collected data from over 200 global retailers and sold analytics applications to over 500 leading consumer brands. We grew revenue rapidly and were acquired by SPS Commerce (Nasdaq: SPSC) in 2012. Following the merger, I served as the general manager of SPS's analytics business.
Our products were sophisticated and required deep industry and technical expertise. Training users on our data and software was critical to the long-term success of our customer relationships. To educate customers, we created documentation and hired staff to train users at their offices or via web conference. While these methods helped clients succeed, they were expensive, time-consuming and didn’t allow users to learn on their own.
During that time, I also began noticing that our customers were listing their experience with our product on their LinkedIn profiles. Our users were building their careers on the retail analysis expertise they gained using our product and the operational efficiencies they brought to their company through our service.
"The lack of modern training solutions in the market ignited my vision for Northpass."
The need to improve training efficiency combined with the observation that our brand was helping people market themselves got me motivated to launch an online academy for our customers. Not only could we reduce the cost and increase the effectiveness of training, but we could also offer certifications to help our network of users become more successful in their roles and careers.
We had the content, trainers and learners, but finding a platform was difficult. There was no shortage of learning management systems, but all of them were antiquated, complicated and intended for HR or compliance training. We sought a product that was intuitive and would allow us to author our branded content without e-learning expertise. Our training wasn’t required, so it was also important that the user interface for learners was modern and engaging.
The lack of modern training solutions in the market ignited my vision for Northpass. I began speaking with other companies and quickly concluded that most managers needed a better way to train teams, customers and partners. Once I validated that this was a large and expanding market, I resigned from my post to found Northpass.
Our roots have always been in helping managers and subject matter experts create and deliver engaging training content. We believe that corporate learning should not be limited to just e-learning professionals. Instead, every manager should be able to build high-quality content that helps people succeed in their careers and improve business outcomes.
It’s an exhilarating time for corporate learning. Innovations in mobile, AR/VR, and social technologies, will continue to boost the value delivered by modern learning platforms. We look forward to that exciting future!
Regards,
Steve Cornwell
We’re always looking for smart, creative people to join our talented global team. Our employees benefit from the opportunity to work anywhere they feel most productive and happy. If you enjoy the excitement of developing new products and features that achieve our mission, we’d love to hear from you.
