Wednesday 12 October 2011

‘Banking’ on e-learning to improve organizational growth

Excelsoft provides backbone for an integrated learning practice in the BFSI sector

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company is a joint venture between ICICI Bank – one of India’s foremost financial service companies and Prudential Plc- a leading international financial services group headquartered in the United Kingdom. Total capital infusion stands at Rs. 47.80 billion, with ICICI bank holding a stake of 74% and Prudential Plc holding 26%. It began operations in December 2000 after receiving approval from Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA). Today, its nation-wide reach includes over 1,900 branches (inclusive of 1,074 micro-offices), over 210,000 advisors; and 7 bancassurance partners.

95% of the workforce of the company is into sales through different channels such as agency channels (independent agent all over the country), proprietary sales force (employee of ICICI Prudential), BANCA (non-banking brokerage house). The company is always in need of educating and training its workforce in order to make them knowledgeable about insurance products that the company offers.

The Requirement

The core problem faced by the company was an inability to attract employees to its existing LMS and lack of active support and service from the existing software provider on issues being faced with the platform. Employee interest was routinely turned off from using the LMS due to the unattractive course page. There was also lack of some important and significant features course status display and performance comparison which was hindering the success of learning programmes.

The Solution

ICICI Prudential deployed Excelsoft’s course management module which is a part of Saras Corporate Solution. The solution contained architecture, features and a user interface which was vastly improved and dynamic capturing the interest of employees. Significant value was also added with incorporation of flash animation as well as facility to check course status, performance and rank. A bulk enrolment facility made it easier for the administrators to allocate courses to employees as well as automatically chart a roadmap for new recruits through the induction and training process.

Benefits

·         Significantly improved employee participation in training programmes encouraging course completion as well as enhancing learning retention
·         Equipped the sales teams with product knowledge in a flexible manner reducing time-to-market and boosting the sales effort
·         Provided easy administrative features reducing complexity saving valuable time and effort of the HR team

Monday 10 October 2011

Providing the learning construct in the infrastructure sector

SARAS for training employees of the engineering construction industry in UK
The Engineering Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB) was created by Act of Parliament in July 1991 in recognition of the vital role the industry plays in the UK economy. The engineering construction industry designs, constructs and maintains process plants for the oil, gas, water, environmental, food, power generation, pharmaceutical and chemical industries. The UK engineering construction industry is the largest in the EU. Around 80,000 people are employed in this industry.

ECITB is the centre of excellence for advice, information and skills development for the engineering construction industry. The board holds funds on behalf of the industry and manages training programmes, distributes grants for training and develops qualifications for people across the industry. It focuses on improving site-based craft and supervisory skills, together with office-based skills of design and project management.

The Requirement

ECITB wanted to implement an e-learning solution to enable the employees located offshore, in the oil rigs, to access training
materials on Offshore Supervisory and Management topics. A system for asynchronous collaboration between the trainees and the experts located in the mainland was also required.

The Solution

Based on the study of the requirement a solution for management and delivery of learning with a strong emphasis on collaboration was identified. SARAS managed learning environment comprising of Learning Management System, tightly integrated with a lite version of the SARAS Assessment Management System has been implemented.

Benefits

·         Effective training and remote asynchronous tutoring of learners was implemented leading to increased effectiveness in retention of learning
·         The entire project yielded a high Return on Investment (ROI) with the entire learning need fulfilled at remote locations saving transit costs of learners and trainers

·         Remote tracking of trainee activities was possible ensuring the reach and implementation of the training