IOCORE, global IT service provider, is extending the deployment of its exclusive e-learning product, TopClass, into South African markets that have particular compliance and regulatory requirements, such as financial services and pharmaceuticals.
IOCORE has been the exclusive reseller of TopClass in the SA market since 1999. Developed by Ireland-based WBT Systems, TopClass is a robust, scalable and easy to use e-learning solution.
It is the first international learning management system (LMS) to have established a successful blue-chip customer base in SA. IOCORE`s implementations of TopClass at Liberty Group and Alexander Forbes Risk Services have become international reference sites for WBT.
TopClass is an out-of-the-box, Web-based training solution which delivers and manages online learning content. Its Learning Object architecture converts and delivers existing content into Web-based courses, makes existing content assets easy to re-use and update.
It provides all administrative functions in the Web-based training environment, including cataloguing, registration and competency assessment. The Learning Object architecture is open, and integrates well with different LMSs, in any type of learning environment.
Des Noctor, VP of International Sales and Marketing at WBT Systems, says: "Our definition of `blended learning` is the optimum combination of elements to achieve the learning objectives of a module, including Web-based content, printed manuals, role play or instructor-led workshops. TopClass is well suited to any of these scenarios."
The market focus for TopClass has primarily been on the financial services industry, which explains its local flagship customers through IOCORE being the Liberty Group and Alexander Forbes Risk Services. Noctor explains the rationale: "We believe that although e-learning is a horizontal application, it is more urgently applicable in certain industries, particularly those with onerous regulatory and compliance issues such as financial services and pharmaceuticals.
"As a recent Gartner report puts it, `the need for compliance at an enterprise level will be a driving factor in making LMSs an enterprise-class application`. Our focus on financial services grows out of the conviction that we can do a better job by focusing, and also that there is much added value that TopClass can bring to the industry, for example there is a significant correlation between e-learning and sales in the broker environment. We`ve seen this in SA in the Liberty Group, where the use of TopClass has halved training time and doubled sales by agents."
Debbie Jordan, Solution Accounts Manager for e-Learning at IOCORE, agrees. "There is an urgency for e-learning solutions of the quality and flexibility of TopClass in financial services due to compliance. In SA, regulatory compliance has been an added catalyst for renewed motivation for training. Locally, the Skills Development Act (SDA), Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (FAIS), and Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA), have spurred many organisations into action - to recover levies in the case of the SDA, and to ensure compliance and certification in terms of the other Acts. In fact, our work with Liberty Group has been the key to developing our product to train in compliance with the FAIS."
Noctor elaborates: "We launched our new product, TopClass Compliance, because this is such an important issue globally. Our customers can use the product to perform regular audits of their training activities, to check workflow, personnel records and training histories - they feel it`s all about best practices - as well as about safeguarding their corporate reputations. We`re looking forward to working with IOCORE in the future in the SA market to continue to customise our products to industry requirements."
For more information, please contact Debbie Jordan, Solution Accounts Manager for e-Learning at IOCORE, on (011) 790 2000.
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