Smartforce, KPMG to co-develop e-procurement learning solutions

e-Learning company, SmartForce has announced an agreement with KPMG Consulting to co-develop a customised e-Learning solution for customers implementing e-Procurement strategies based on Ariba B2B eCommerce Solutions.

The solution that is under development will combine SmartForce`s e-Learning platform and content along with content developed by KPMG Consulting. The teaming of SmartForce and KPMG Consulting builds on an existing agreement between SmartForce and Ariba, a business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce solutions provider, to co-develop an e-Learning solution based on SmartForce`s e3 application architecture and e-Learning content.

KPMG Consulting will be able to provide integration services to companies licensing the solution. "e-Procurement solutions provide organisations with the ability to streamline supply chain processes and facilitate e-business transformation," says Milton Goldschmidt, MD of SmartForce Africa.

"Effective implementations are contingent on enabling employees and suppliers to use the features of their selected software solution easily. "Scalable cost-effective learning solutions, tailored to specific business requirements, can help ensure success. The e-Learning solution that is now under development will be designed to facilitate customised training for e-Procurement throughout an extended enterprise," he says.

Keith Fairhurst, partner of systems integration at KPMG Consulting, says a key factor for the sustainable success of e-implementations is the appropriate training of users.

"e-Learning is an ideal medium for this form of education as it is able to reach many employees with the same message at the same time. KPMG Consulting chose to focus on e-procurement for the initial programme as it has exhibited the highest global growth. Additionally, e-procurement touches many departments within an organisation, therefore, a business would greatly benefit from an e-learning-based training solution.

"We expect to deliver many more e-learning programmes for other solution sets in the future," he says.