Using digital technology to streamline operations is common practice these days, particularly since the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic and the need to work remotely.
While the world was already moving in this direction, the coronavirus sped up the process exponentially, to the point that some organisations have abandoned office work for good.
However, integrating digital solutions is not all plain sailing. It requires a focused, pragmatic approach involving specialised training to ensure every member of the organisation is au fait with the system. Failure to do so effectively renders it useless to owners, managers and employees.
In startling results, the Everest Group found in a study that a staggering 73% of surveyed companies failed in their digital transformation.
The reasons cited are that the companies did not have clear goals, senior management was reluctant to take up the systems, expertise was lacking, and the focus fell only on the technology, not the business as a whole.
Conversely, organisations that succeed in their transformation process meet all these criteria – and more.
In South Africa, end-to-end online learning solution provider New Leaf Technologies has been assisting the Chartered Accountant Medical Aid Fund (CAMAF) to meet the need for a quality online training experience with insightful analytics to measure success rates.
It has also provided for learning improvements.
CAMAF, which was established in 1951, caters to accounting professionals by offering superior benefits to qualifying members.
The fund, which serves 47,086 principle members and their dependents, focuses on a niche market, and is able to provide a range of benefits, including healthcare and a wellness programme, that significantly surpasses those offered by most open schemes.
When CAMAF approached New Leaf Technologies, it pointed out that its training methods needed to be streamlined and simplified, with the key being easy access.
Its digital platform also had to include the ability to incorporate videos, assessments as well as surveys into its learnings, while also being seamlessly integrated with SAGE 300.
Dawn Burt, CAMAF’s learning and development manager, says the fund’s major requirement was to create eLearning courses that included transfer of knowledge through high-end training instructional design including CAMAF products, HR compliance, in-house system training as well as industry training wherever needed.
Over three months, New Leaf Technologies supplied its aNewSpring Learner Experience Platform training so CAMAF could build and weave its own content into the platform.
The platform effectively allowed access to online training across all digital devices. This enabled CAMAF to effortlessly roll out training remotely when Covid-19 arrived in SA and people were required to work from home.
Because New Leaf Technologies installed its solution prior to the arrival of Covid-19 on South African shores, the fund was extremely well-positioned to train learners seamlessly though the various lockdown stages.
It also benefited from significant cost savings by choosing the solution, particularly in aspects like logistics and out-of-office time, which provided an exceptionally high return on investment.
An exciting innovation was a mobile app equipped with QR code capabilities, which allowed CAMAF learners to simply scan the code to take them directly to the necessary training.
Today, all CAMAF’s 147 staff members have access to the eLearning Platform.
“The value that we have received from this platform has far exceeded our ROI (return on investment) projections. In addition, it has proved invaluable return in speedily executing, monitoring and evaluating training interventions in our current Covid-induced hybrid working model,” Burt says.
The effect of the implementation of these systems and processes is felt organisation-wide.
Data analytics has allowed CAMAF to assess the learner performance and also identify key areas where learners are not yet competent. The result is that the fund has been able to identify learning gaps and plug these where necessary.
Burt says there are other areas where data analytics have proved particularly useful.
“It has assisted us to monitor learner competencies such as the total number of courses and total subscriptions, with a clear indication of the number of subscriptions not yet started, are in progress or completed,” she says.
“We are also able to view the impact and engagement of each course. Using the key indicators for learning success, while focusing on time constraints and competency requirements, we encourage staff engagement as it is a key indicator of learning success.
“Another welcome aspect is that the time preference overview enables us to monitor the time learners prefer to go online to complete an eLearning. This also provides us with an overview.”
Of course one of the biggest advantages is that CAMAF is now able to get an entire picture of each learner’s profile, including total logins, subscription status (including completed, in-progress and not yet started, active and inactive users, total log ins and total courses), dates and time of login, number of courses completed and progress per course per learner.
This allows for quick feedback to the learners, which benefits the programme as a whole.
“Using analytics, we are better able to develop a self-regulated learner approach using readily available courses to drive learner engagement and self-growth. Analytics allows us to measure learner competency and identify whether our eLearning is meeting its objective. Currently we have a 99% success rate on completion of courses,” Burt says.
