Kallidus 8 Provides Complete Learning Environment, Harnessing the Power Of Formal and Informal Learning To Help Users and Managers Take Greater Advantage of Social Networking and Knowledge Management Tools.  Kallidus 8 Comes With Innovative New Reporting Capabilities Delivering Valuable Business Information to Managers and the Boardroom 

e2train, the UK’s leading supplier of learning and performance technologies, today announced the launch of Kallidus® 8, an enterprise-wide learning and performance environment. The new system offers an easy to use ‘iGoogle style’ web gadget learner interface which will enable learning professionals to integrate formal and informal learning within a single solution. e2train has also built a new reporting platform into the system, making it one of the most powerful enterprise wide learning solutions available today.

A recent survey from industry analysts, Bersin & Associates found that 68% of knowledge workers now feel that their biggest learning problem is an “overwhelming volume of information.” Similarly, one of the key challenges learning and development professionals face today is how best to make use of informal learning and to generate valuable business and performance-based information from it.

Kallidus 8 helps learners and their reports manage this information, taking advantage of new social networking and knowledge management tools, but ensuring that this takes place within a formal, structured and easy-to-navigate environment. In this way, informal learning can operate seamlessly with more formal learning, such as instructor-led teaching, e-learning and blended learning. 

Kallidus 8’s new ‘i-Google style’ web-gadget driven interface enables the administrator to easily specify user profiles which provide their own set of windows and tools. It also comes with valuable new reporting capabilities – essential for executives in measuring and tracking training against performance.

The launch comes at a time when there is clear market demand for new ways of learning and reporting on such learning. A survey of over 100 senior L&D managers held only this month by e2train found 87% of respondents agreeing that the most important attributes of any Learning Management System (LMS) was informal learning capabilities and management reporting capabilities but over 60% claim that their current LMS does not meet their requirements in these areas.  

Linking learning closer to organisational needs was also deemed to be the single greatest personal learning challenge faced by L&D managers today (28%) followed by increasing L&D’s profile within the organisation (17%) and social learning and the use of Web 2.0 tools (16%). 45% of respondents said they would provide more comprehensive or more frequent reports to the board, if they had the necessary tools to do so. Currently, learning is reported on and discussed at boardroom level by the majority of companies on a monthly (35%) or quarterly basis (39%) basis. 7% of organisations have no board level discussions regarding the value of learning.

Said e2train’s Managing Director, Rob Caul:

“The corporate learning landscape continues to evolve. New surveys tell us that the use of formal e-learning programmes continues to grow. But we also now have to cater for the dramatic rise in the use of informal learning tools. As learning professionals, that presents us with new challenges. To be really effective we need to manage access to these tools – and make them properly user friendly from the learner perspective. Above all, we need to understand how all these operations can be rolled together so they are shown to be contributing to business value.” 

“We are convinced that Kallidus 8 can meet these challenges, providing a truly collaborative, flexible, enterprise-wide learning solution that can generate and disseminate critical information and whose reporting capabilities can provide real resonance with managers right up into the boardroom.” 

Kallidus Learning Management System is an affordable and completely scalable system, which deploys, manages and reports on all forms of learning via the Internet or intranet. Key features of Kallidus 8 include:

• An innovative new SAP-based group business reporting tool, which enables business metrics gathered from Kallidus 8 to be disseminated across the organisation and incorporated into other management-wide systems. Kallidus 8 also tracks learning investments to determine where they add value.

• Kallidus ‘Performance’ enabling users to define skills and competencies and apply to specific job roles and subsequently individual performance reviews. Training interventions can then be designed and rolled out against these skills.

• A easy to use and intuitive platform with the home page based on web gadgets and a personal management ‘dashboard’ for the user from which they can access relevant training information. Kallidus 8 also comes with an easy to navigate learning page. 

About e2train

e2train is the UK’s leading provider of learning and performance technologies to blue-chip, public sector and SME organisations. 

The company provides enterprise-wide solutions based on its market leading Kallidus® Learning Suite which enables organisations to create, manage and deliver both formal and informal learning programmes that support long-term growth and deliver measurable business benefits and returns on investment.   

e2train has a diverse and long standing customer base spanning most industry sectors. Customers include Yorkshire Building Society, Nationwide, O2, Nissan Europe, PMI, NHS South West, Waitrose, The Environment Agency, Chubb Insurance and South Wales Police. e2train has a particular strength in the financial services industry where Kallidus is used by nine of the top 12 building societies in the UK, and a long track record of working in partnership with the Health Service and Local and Central Government. 

Founded more than 10 years ago, and based in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, e2train is a privately held company with more than 30 employees. In 2008, e2train was recognised for the second year running as one of EMEA’s fastest growing technology companies in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA 2008, with revenue growth of 1547% over five years. 

e2train’s products are developed in-house and are complemented by customer-focused consultancy and support services. e2train also works in strategic partnership with leading industry suppliers who provide a wealth of services and solutions that enhance its learning and performance technologies.

For further information

Paul Fisher/Tanya Randall, Axiom Communications Management Tel: +44 (0) 1285 713 776 / Fax: +44 (0) 1285 713 071 Email: pfisher@axiomcomms.com or trandall@axiomcomms.com