FCS architects incisive e-learning solutions through the corporate-university concept

Date: September 28, 2004

Noida (Near Delhi): The Noida-based FCS Software Solutions Ltd has bagged and implemented projects to establish ‘corporate universities’ for 2 majors of the global corporate world.

According to Mr Vineet Narang, VP (Strategic Planning and Business Development) at FCS: “We have imparted new dimensions to learning solutions by architecting and establishing centers of excellence for e-learning. These centers reflect our expertise in end-to-end e-learning solutions.”

A corporate university centralizes all learning activities of the organization and enables the mapping of function-wise training requirements to employee needs. “It brings corporate branding to the learning initiative and instills seriousness into these endeavors,” says Ms Sabina Rahman, Creative Director at FCS.

FCS has moved to this next level of e-learning initiative by defining strategies for each level of the client organization and then visualizing a linking thread. “Today, the corporate world is realizing the need to align numerous organizational functions with the collective goals of the organization,” says Mr Narang.

At the same time, there is a constant need to shape sustainable success by empowering employees to align their emerging personal goals with the collective goals of the organization. “We have harnessed the sophistication of corporate-university concept to help our clients cross these milestones,” says Mr Narang.

Once the corporate world started linking e-learning with business benefits, it realized the need for a place where every individual from every function could come and find what he would need to learn to grow to the next level. Similarly, his manager too would need a place to perform gap and skill competency analyses and conduct performance reviews.

“However,” underlines Ms Rahman, “the key lies in instilling the feeling in every user that if he doesn’t get involved with his corporate university, doesn’t return again and again to upgrade his knowledge, progress would pass him by. ”

“The most critical test of a learning solution is to maintain and sustain the interest level of the target audience,” agrees Mr Narang. “We provide the marketing support to create an e-learning epidemic in the user organization.”

FCS exploits its expertise to provide the content that is just right for the various facets of an organization, such as sales, production, operations, etc, and integrate it with the employee database to create a collaborative platform. A platform that is live 24/7 with the help of newsletters and helpdesks providing trouble-shooting aid.

The FCS-developed corporate university platform complies with all the major learning standards—like AICC/SCORM, 508 compliance, etc. “We provide support through innovative learning strategies, including interactive learning approach with the use of gaming and insightful animation that conveys all without the need to use words, etc,” says Ms Rahman.

The icing on the corporate university cake is an assessment center, which helps measure user’s understanding of the content. “This sophisticated assessment center runs on the lines of standard certification pattern,” says Mr Narang, “and charts out the future learning path of every individual in the organization.”

FCS provides plug-and-play modules, which can be upgraded in keeping with the needs of the organization. The first phase, for instance, of a corporate university could be course catalog and registration facility, the second phase could be tracking and measurement using assessment center, and the third phase could be 360-degree analysis, including performance review.