e-Learning: Saba Makes A Knock

With

knowledge being the backbone in a digital economy, organizations are placing

greater emphasis on training and re-training their employees with skills to meet

the latest business challenges. Training has achieved prime importance, with the

old adage ‘knowledge is power’ being never more true than now.

Training is not merely a tool for updating your knowledge. It

enables you to specialize in special fields of knowledge. But corporates are

still struggling with various issues like the content of a training program,

speed of training, effectiveness or the possibility of training a large number

of people. Training your employees spread across the globe is another issue that

corporates are confronted with. Yet another challenge in training is to

balancing different styles of working people. For the US market alone, IDC has

estimated the size of online learning to be $2 billion. It is projected to grow

to $5.5 billion by 2002.

Training benefits

The challenge lies in empowering the employees to develop and

constantly enhance their skill-sets. Organizations should not only provide

information but also distribute and capture knowledge. This should be carried

out in an atmosphere conducive to a dynamic learning environment, so as to

transform an information driven business into a knowledge driven business.

Mumbai-based Saba Software India plays a part in making the

knowledge economy a reality with its internet learning solutions. Saba Corp,

Saba India’s parent, was founded in 1997 by former Oracle executives and is

headquartered in Redwood City California. It offers consultancy in management,

business process reengineering, technical implementation, education and support

services. Education management systems is its flagship product. Saba recently

introduced the version two of Saba Learning Online, which extends the online

capabilities of existing Saba education management systems platform by enabling

learners to switch between self-paced, instructor led and study group modes. It

has among its clients Baan, Ceridian Corp, Netscape Commn and Wells Fargo bank.

Saba has partnered with LearningByte International to offer its e-learning

solutions.

Saba enables businesses to deploy their employee training,

competency development and customer education activities over the web. It

provides the front and back-end applications to capture, track and manage all

the information and transactions that surround education resources, products and

services. The ability to create the right competencies with the right education

programs is of utmost importance. Saba Learning Enterprise provides the

information and expertise that identify the needs of the employees and

accordingly provide them with the appropriate education programs.

By tailoring learning to fit specific employee needs there

can be a significant increase in the competency levels at low costs. Saba

identifies and maintains detailed employee profiles, thus enabling planning and

implementing personalized training programs based on individual needs. Paul

Greening, VP, Asia Pacific, Saba, says, "Saba education management system

(EMS) is not just about controlling an organization, but the whole management

aspect of it." Saba EMS is half instructor-led and half web-based.

There is a growing need among corporates for unified and open

internet learning solutions. According to Gaurav Mehra, MD, Saba India, "We

are excited that LearningByte, the training