April 11, 2005

There is currently a lively debate going on whether one of the effects of increasing productivity in the B2B sector will be many replacements of humans by technology and applications.

While there's no denying that technology has made some functions obsolete, there are plenty of cases in which technology simply makes people and processes better, thereby creating an overall efficiency boost that feeds back into the economy.

An excellent example comes from the Orange County Teachers Federal Credit Union (OCTFCU). This organization of 750 employees is responsible for briefing employees about the compliance features of four major pieces of legislation, the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Privacy Act, and the Patriot Act.

Previously, getting employees up to speed about these compliance requirements was a cumbersome and expensive process, explains Chris Johnson, e-learning specialist for OCTFCU. "Think of the time it takes for hundreds of people to travel, go to class, take tests, and travel back. It's a day of time for 750 people, and three months of time for two or three people to design and develop the class."

The inefficiency went further, extending to the limitations of the real-world classroom. "The fifty people in a classroom have different responsibilities," Johnson notes. "A teller has different requirements than someone in accounting." Still, in an actual class, redundancy is the price of being able to brief everyone on the same day.

These are some of the factors that got OCTFCU thinking about moving to an online paradigm for learning. The organization eventually hooked up with specialty vendor OutStart, which provided with them a learning content management system called OutStart Studio.

The software gives OCTFCU the ability to conduct learning on the employee desktop rather than in the classroom, creating what Jones calls "huge cost savings." Just as importantly, the online system offers and tests what each employee needs to know for their specific role.

Interestingly, this doesn't mean that the human instructors have been replaced. Actually, their talents have been tapped to create a reusable, customized format for learning, and then to support it going forward.

"At any time, you can push an 'Ask Expert' buttom to ask a question directly of the instructor," says Johnson, emphasizing that human interactivity remains a key part of learning at OCTFCU. "They have access to subject matter experts, and the experts maintain the course."

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