Far be it from us to throw shade on one of the major poets of the twentieth century, but we’d call out T.S. Eliot on his assertion that April is the cruellest month. February is by far the worst – it’s cold, wet and grim, and despite Christmas being a distant memory, everybody is still skint.
Still, there are some lights in the darkness. One of them is Learning Technologies 2020, Europe’s biggest workplace learning event, and we’re going to have on bobbydazzler of a stand at it (J20 – but not that you’ll stand any chance of missing it). The other is the unveiling of the annual Fosway 9-Grid™ and that light is shining particularly brightly, given that they’ve recognised Fuse Universal as a Core Leader – again.
There’s been something of a paradigm shift this year. Rather than separating the contenders into LMSs and NGLEs (Learning Management Systems and Next-Generation Learning Environments), Fosway have divided them into two new categories: suite or specialist. Given the direction that L&D is moving in, this is a timely and valid differentiator.
Fuse’s position as a Core Leader is bolstered by recognition from luminaries Craig Weiss and Josh Bersin – the former having tagged Fuse as the #2 learning system for 2020, whilst Josh was the first person to identify Fuse as the leader in a new category – the Integrated Learning Platform.
It’s particularly satisfying coming off the back of an industrious year. 2019 saw substantial upgrades to Fuse’s powerful analytics and personalisation, as well the rollout of its translation and transcription engines – AI and machine learning functions that have been created in the last year and are now built into Fuse as standard.
And not being ones to rest on our laurels, 2020 promises to be even more (r)evolutionary. As CEO and Chief Storyteller Steve Dineen says: 'Fosway have made a brave choice to segment the players differently this year in recognition that the market is shifting. The question for people looking to change will be driven by the end goal they want to achieve – is it performance and value-driven, or continuing with the older approach and the learning suites designed for that purpose? Interesting times ahead.'
With the very nature of work and learning changing constantly, it’s going to be a year of excitement and challenges. But we’d agree with T.S. Eliot on that count: if you aren’t in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?