Customer education and dynamics of cloud platform services consumption

In order to optimize service utilization and enhance user accessibility IT service providers offer customer education. While research indicates positive impact of customer education on company performance, there is a scarcity of experimental studies evaluating its economic impact. The purpose of the study is to compare the dynamics of Yandex Cloud services consumption by client companies whose employees were trained and those who were not trained under the vendor's program. The training program involved participants completing the «Cloud Services Engineer» open online course offered by Yandex Cloud. The experimental group exhibited an average normalized increase of 4.4% in daily consumption of cloud platform services, whereas the control group showed a 2.2% increase. Difference between the two groups was significant (Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, KS = 0,14; p = 0,04). Given that cloud business revenue is often in billions of rubles, the difference of 2.2% can be considered large. The increase in consumption may suggest that the training has equipped employees with requisite knowledge and skills in cloud technologies, thereby enhancing their ability to effectively address professional challenges within the context of employer's operations. The findings may be applied in decision-making process regarding the establishment or enhancement of training programs for clients of cloud vendors. Additionally, these results may be helpful in training specialists to effectively articulate the value of their contributions to business.