International Learning Guru names SupportPoint EPSS "the Future"

Addressing a select group of Australian senior learning and development executives, Charles Jennings, one of the world’s foremost authorities on organisational learning, explained how the face of training is changing, with EPSS products like Panviva’s SupportPoint altering the approach to learning and performance support accordingly.

Reuters is currently piloting SupportPoint to improve the accuracy and throughput of sales orders and the commissioning of financial information products. This is part of Reuters focus on performance support, which began with the 2003 implementation of its Referenceware knowledge support system and continues now with its implementation of SupportPoint , initially for Reuters sales order management operations.

Mr Jennings cited a 1025% increase in productivity within 6 months of Referenceware’s implementation.

“The research tells us the amount of information that knowledge workers need to hold in their heads to do their jobs has fallen from 75% in 1986 to around 10% in 2006” said Mr Jennings.

“Consider this, along with the fact that the world’s information is growing by 30% each year, and we have a situation that doesn’t suit the traditional corporate training models.

“It is becoming less and less useful to ‘know’ things, because it is highly likely that they will be out-of-date in a short time. A better strategy is often not to learn them– but to have the ability and tools to search and find the current and correct information when you need it.”

And despite the fact that approximately 80% or organisational learning occurs informally in the workplace and through networks of colleagues, corporations are still spending about 80% of their training budgets on formal learning, said Mr Jennings.

This is where SupportPoint enters, offering fast and easy access to up-to-date, personalised content about systems, products and processes, giving people the information they need to complete a task as they require it.

Panviva CEO Ted Gannan said the phrase ‘learning on the job’ is taking on a new, modern meaning.

“Information overload hinders performance for many businesses,” said Mr Gannan.

“As more and more businesses are engaged in takeovers, conglomeration and upgrades, IT systems become increasingly complex, and keeping the knowledge stream in-check and maintaining customer service standards is a challenge – but not an impossible one.

“We only have to turn to the Internet to see information being split into digestible chunks that can be selected and accessed by users as they require it – just look at Google, podcasts, and RSS feeds.

“Businesses need to adjust their learning strategies accordingly, or they will be swallowed by an unstoppable information wave that will drown those who refuse to address innovation in learning.

“Training, as we’ve known it, is no longer the solution to a business’s learning and performance issues.”

SupportPoint is Panviva’s flagship electronic performance support system (EPSS), aimed at improving workforce performance, accelerating user adoption and compliance, and reducing training and support costs by offering personalised, context-specific, self-service support that builds know-how at the moment-of-need. More than 50,000 users around the world already rely on SupportPoint across a broad range of industries, including manufacturing, insurance, distribution, telecom, utilities, and government.