Leading International Communications Company Migrates Training in Eight Weeks

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The international communications market is a cutthroat environment where the boundaries of success and failure are as static as sand in a gale.

Given that the boundaries are so flexible and the margins for success and failure are so tight ““ witness the recent problems experienced by Vodafone ““ every opportunity to be simultaneously cost effective and develop the growth potential and efficiency of the company should be seized with both hands. The drive for constant improvement in the private sector is one of the reasons cited by private business in support of its participation in the public sector in the UK.

This is evident from the recent Confederation of British Industry (CBI) report on FE which called for a removal of the present barriers to free competition and participation in FE from the private sector. The argument is that the drive for greater efficiency combined with the competitive ethos will offer a greater service provision for the consumer. In support of the findings of the CBI report that employers are investing in training for their staff, it has been announced that leading international communications company Cable & Wireless has signed a contract for training provision with global online learning provider SkillSoft.

Agreements

The agreement that has been signed will be an annual end ““ to ““ end contract. SkillSoft provides online learning and technology products for professionals in business and the IT industry, and will bring their varied portfolio of learning delivery systems ““ including in-depth content resources, learning management system, virtual classroom technology and support services – to bear in this significant contract.

The task is indeed an impressive one in its scope. There are anywhere up to 10,000 Cable & Wireless staff using E learning around the world, which will be taken up by SkillSoft. The full training portfolio has migrated to the online learning provider, through the learning portal “SkillPort” and the brand new system being launched “iLeARN”. The transfer will include the transfer of more than 40,000 historical training records and will also see SkillSoft take on the instructor led and classroom training.

Maintaining Competitive Health in Training

Commenting on the signature of the contract for Cable & Wireless, Mike Booth, manager of e-learning services, said: “Careful management of our cost base helps to maintain our competitive position. By migrating our learning infrastructure over to SkillSoft and creating “iLeARN”, we have been able to reduce operating costs by 65%, whilst also providing a greatly enhanced model that meets the needs of our business. “iLeARN” is already getting a great response: around 25% of our UK based colleagues used it within the first month alone, completing well over 1,000 hours of e-learning.”

The Managing Director of SkillSoft also commented on the agreement reached with Cable & Wireless, and stressed the benefits that his company’s experience could offer. Kevin Young, managing director of SkillSoft, said: “The need for flexible end-to-end people development solutions is becoming more and more apparent ““ particularly in the case of large, complex global organisations which need to respond quickly to rapidly changing business environments.”

Jethro Marsh

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