Liberty Group Limited has taken a quantum leap forward in the training environment by implementing live e-learning through virtual classrooms. The insurance giant is benefiting from greatly reduced training times, major cost savings and consistent training delivery, ensuring high standards.
The insurer is using Symposium software from US eLearning company Centra, a Dimension Data i-Commerce partner.
Within two weeks of starting to work with the software, Liberty began delivering live courses.
"This is another major step in our vision to ensure Liberty is a real learning community," says Linda van der Loo, head of Technical Training, Sales Development and Accreditation at Liberty. "We needed a solution to enable us to reach our audience quicker, and allow student/teacher interaction without expensive countrywide travel.
"Symposium will increase productivity and quality of training while driving down costs. We can now deliver the right training at the right time, over our network, to people at their desktops."
Liberty`s first utilisation of this technology was highly effective. Live training was delivered to managers and trainers at their desktops at major sites throughout South Africa. During the session, participants were able to ask questions and interact with the trainer. This took a mere two hours. It would previously have taken two weeks, and entailed flights, accommodation and other attendant costs.
"This is an example of using technology to get tangible and immediate business benefit," says James Skuse , Divisional Director Sales Development and Accreditation at Liberty, who participated in the initial session. "Many of our trainers are actuaries or legal professionals, so their time is precious. We anticipate major savings going forward and a quick return on investment from this solution."
"This solution represents a further example of how network infrastructures can be utilised to improve business productivity dramatically," says Mark Bowman, Managing Director of Dimension Data i-Commerce.
"Centra delivers real-time human interaction and live group collaboration on the Web" says Nicola Slingsby of Dimension Data i-Commerce. "The software is very intuitive.
Symposium enables large groups of dispersed employees, partners and customers to interact, collaborate, and learn in real-time over intranets, extranets, and the internet. Symposium`s broad array of features includes integrated full-duplex audio, multi-point video conferencing and application sharing."
Liberty is currently using Centra`s voice-to-voice as well as video facilities.
Centra`s Symposium was recently voted "Best in Class" for live eLearning by eLearning industry expert Brandon Hall.
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Dimension Data Holdings
Dimension Data Holdings plc is a leading global network services and i-Commerce solutions provider, focused on enabling enterprises, telecommunications service providers and new economy companies to communicate and transact effectively in an e-enabled environment.
Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Dimension Data is ranked in FTSE 100 and operates in over 30 countries on six continents. The Group has achieved a two year compound annual growth rate in US dollars of 57% in revenue and 36% in basic earnings per share over the past two years. For more information, please go to www.didata.com.
With over a million users worldwide, Centra (NASDAQ: CTRA) is the world`s leading provider of software infrastructure and ASP services for live eLearning and business collaboration. Today hundreds of global organisations have standardised on Centra for the delivery of live eLearning, including American Express, Domino`s Pizza, ExxonMobil, Nationwide Insurance, and Procter & Gamble. Centra supports a vital ecosystem of strategic eLearning partnerships, which include alliances with Microsoft, PricewarehouseCoopers, Deloitte Consulting, Oracle, Saba and Global Knowledge. Headquartered in Boston`s technology corridor, the Company has sales offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.centra.com.
Software Infrastructure for Live eLearning and Collaboration
Already used in over 440 companies worldwide, Centra`s Web-based enterprise products and services share a common collaboration framework, and are optimized to address the full range of real-time business interactions necessary to accelerate internal and market-facing business processes. Every product features Centra`s hallmark voice-over-IP capabilities, robust collaboration tools, and intuitive user interface to enable live conversation and interaction over low-bandwidth network connections. Centra`s products include Centra Symposium for virtual classrooms, Centra Conference for Web conferencing and events, and Centra eMeeting for meetings and ad hoc team collaboration. Fully localized versions of Centra Symposium are available today in Japanese, Korean, Danish, French, German, Greek, Spanish, and Portuguese.