Irish Experience Shaping Global Innovation

Irish companies have been producing leading eLearning technology for 20 years, starting in the 1980’s before mainframe and diskette training gave way to the Internet Age. While most global eLearning corporations are relatively young and inexperienced, the Irish market has come of age. Today’s Irish companies are effectively combining infrastructure and content to provide end-users with the industry’s most accessible and compelling eLearning experiences. Some of the largest global eLearning companies have come from Ireland, including industry leaders such as Skillsoft and Riverdeep. These well established Irish eLearning companies are now spawning a variety of new industry start-ups with cutting-edge solutions.

Delivering World-class Technology

Irish companies span all aspects of eLearning and include providers of content, technology, and services. Content providers such as Skillsoft and Intuition are authoring and licensing world-class instructional material and preparing it for web delivery. WBT Systems and other technology providers are developing underlying technology such as authoring and content creation applications, collaboration tools, and learning management systems (LMS). Irish service providers such as Interactive Services and Pulse Learning are experts at providing consultancy services and customizing eLearning delivery.

Irish eLearning solutions serve a wide variety of vertical markets, including corporate, financial, pharmaceutical, professional services, education, public services, and telecom/utilities. While its breadth of solution offerings and vertical partners is vast, Irish companies are recognized globally for providing innovative solutions to complex problems and existing technologies.

Forging Global Relationships

Geography has had Irish eLearning companies thinking globally from the start. Exports account for 95% of all Irish eLearning revenue with major U.S. corporations such as Bearing Point, Pfizer, Verizon and Citigroup partnering with Irish firms.

These existing relationships have cast a global spotlight on Irish eLearning technology. For example, Citigroup selected Interactive Services, world leader in the development of creative learning solutions that solve real business problems. "Citigroup demands the highest levels of proficiency from its finance associates who play an integral role in ensuring the current and future success of Citigroup's business,” said Robert Gimbl, director of finance learning and development at Citigroup. “eLearning developed by Interactive Services, has enabled Citigroup to skill new associates and prepare more senior staff for a future role in finance leadership. The eLearning program has enabled associates to develop knowledge of financial concepts, accelerate their time to competency and add their greatest value to Citigroup business operation".

In 2005, the World Bank selected Ireland’s WBT Systems to manage, develop and deliver training to an audience of 36,000, including its 10,000 employees, as well as to client organizations around the world. This deployment has been key to the Bank’s larger effort to integrate knowledge and learning into a single point of access through its Knowledge and Learning Environment (KLE) project.

Driving Tomorrow’s Innovation

Since 2006 the global eLearning market has grown by $24 billion (IDC). By 2010, the U.S. eLearning systems market alone will surpass $12 billion (Frost & Sullivan 2004). This year, more than one-third of all training will be by deployed via eLearning technologies.

While the corporate market remains the focus of the global eLearning industry, instruction is starting to move beyond the internal organization. Irish companies are developing eLearning tools aimed at moving information externally, from an organization to its external audiences—customers, investors, and partners. eLearning delivery methods are also changing. In addition to web-based applications, Irish companies are creating new “mLearning” technologies to deliver eLearning technologies via PDA;s and wireless devices such as cell phones.

Contact:
Sharon Kaliouby
Tel:
+1 617 235 1607
Cell:
+1 857 204 3234
Email:
Sharon.kaliouby@enterprise-ireland.com