BUPA benefits from e-learning

An e-learning programme, developed specially for BUPA by the global e-learning producer Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) has reduced training time by 40 per cent, reduced travel costs significantly and is proving so popular with BUPA staff that only one person has requested the classroom-delivered training alternative to the e-learning programme since that programme was introduced in June.

The TIS-developed programme teaches BUPA staff how to operate their Blackberry PDAs efficiently and effectively. Since its introduction in June this year, it has reduced the training time for this from two and half hours in a classroom to just one and half hours of e-learning – with consequent reductions in training-related travel times, which averaged four hours per trainee.

Tiina Paju-Pomfret, manager of BUPA’s Business Technology Training (BTT) department, explained: “BUPA staff who spend time travelling and need to be contactable via email can receive a Blackberry PDA. Of course, all those who have a Blackberry need to be trained in how to get the best value from its many functions.

“Our first solution to this need was to set up a series of two and a half hour classroom-delivered training sessions. However, it proved difficult to get people, who were spending much of their working life travelling, together at a mutually convenient time and place for training.

“Fortunately, the introduction of a learning management system (LMS) pilot which embraces all of BUPA’s business units – enabling the monitoring and tracking of a wide range of training programmes – gave us the opportunity to develop an e-learning course to replace the instructor-led Blackberry training programme,” she said.

“Using the LMS, we can check that the training has been done - and the trainee’s skills are not only assessed objectively but also recorded. The learners are happy as they can take the course at a time most convenient for them and receive their new Blackberry faster.”

Since introducing the e-learning programme - specifically developed for BUPA by global e-learning producer, Tata interactive Systems (TIS) - BUPA noticed an immediate improvement in skills transfer and a reduction in training costs.

Paju-Pomfret explained: “The e-learning programme lopped an hour off the training time taken to achieve competence and it saved, on average, one and half hours travelling time per trainee. So, the e-learning programme not only reduced the time taken to train staff by 40 per cent but also resulted in clear cost savings.”

BUPA had worked with TIS before – notably on a specially designed and produced e-learning product for its Care Services business unit – so it knew TIS’s capabilities, quality of work and track record.

“We have received a great deal of highly positive feedback about the e-learning course from those who have taken it and, as an organisation, we are beginning to reap the benefits of the programme through improved efficiency in our communications,” she continued.

The e-learning programme has the added advantage of providing easily accessible refresher training at any time for a Blackberry user who wants to check on any aspect of operating a Blackberry.

“Since June, we’ve been allocating a day a month in our training programme in order to run an instructor-led course in using a Blackberry,” said Paju-Pomfret. “However, since the introduction of the e-learning programme, only one person has asked to attend the course. Everyone else in BUPA prefers the e-learning course.”

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Notes for editors

About BUPA

BUPA is the UK market leader in health and care with a strong international presence. It has 8 million customers in 180 countries and 44,000 employees. Its main interests are health insurance, hospitals, care homes for older people and young disabled, health assessments, workplace health and childcare services. Sanitas in Spain, HBA in Australia, IHI in Denmark and Amedex in the US are all part of the BUPA Group. BUPA is a provident association which reinvests all its surpluses back into the business. The BUPA Foundation is an independent charity which funds medical research.


About Tata Interactive Systems (TIS)

Tata Interactive Systems (TIS), a global leader in e-learning, is a part of the $22bn Tata Group. Truly international, TIS has a presence across the US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, Japan, India, and mainland Europe. TIS offers corporations, universities, schools, publishers, and government institutions a diversified and innovative bouquet of learning and training solutions including Simulation-based Learning Objects (SimBLs™), Story-based Learning Objects (StoBLs™), courseware and curriculum design, special-needs education, assessments, electronic performance support systems (EPSS), mobile learning, along with other corporate training and consultancy services. Our multi-disciplinary expertise and 16 years’ experience across domains helps us design e-learning programmes that are unique to clients’ requirements and specifically crafted to boost knowledge retention and application.

Apart from holding ISO 9001 certification, TIS is the only e-learning organisation in the world to be assessed at Level 5 in both the SEI-CMM and P-CMM frameworks. TIS’s quest for excellence is reflected in numerous prestigious industry awards, including a Silver Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Award 2005 and 2004, APEX Award of Excellence in 2005 and 2006, BETT Awards in 2004 and 2006, and two Business World–NID Design Excellence awards.

For more information log on to www.tatainteractive.com


About the Tata Group

The Tata Group, established in 1904 by the great visionary Jamsetji Tata, is one of India’s largest and most trusted business houses. The group pioneered the industrial revolution in India by founding the first steel plant, power plant and chain of luxury hotels, to name but a few.

The Group employs more than 220,000 people in 93 companies across diversified industry sectors including steel, automobiles, cement, telecom and IT. Generating revenues to the tune of $22 billion per year – some three per cent of India’s total GDP – it is recognised as a leader in several industry segments such as such as steel, power, software exports and chemicals. It is also the parent company to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Asia’s largest software producer.

For more information, log on to www.tata.com

Further information from:
Alan Samuel, Tata Interactive Systems, 020 7905 0156, www.tatainteractive.com
Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, 01727 860405, www.boblittlepr.com