'E-learning critical to companies'

E-learning will become as critical to companies as enterprise resource planning or customer relationship management, according to Sudheer Koneru, managing director (India), SumTotal Systems Inc.

Koneru was speaking at a seminar on 'E-learning: Mantra for skill development' organised by the National Association of Software and Service Companies in Hyderabad.

"E-learning has a strategic impact on organisations. The fact that many companies now have a person called a chief learning officer proves the importance being given to learning per se. And though organisations today adopt a blended approach by deploying classroom learning sessions with e-learning programmes, the fact remains that e-learning addresses the scalability issue of reaching to a large number of people," he added.

SumTotal Systems is a provider of talent, learning and business performance technologies and services.

According to Gartner, enterprise e-learning suites and management systems software new license revenue will grow at a 15.6 per cent compound annual growth rate from 2004 through 2009. According to IDC, the e-learning market is estimated to touch $28 billion by 2008.

Sangeetha Rajan, a consultant in the area of e-learning, classroom learning and psychometrics said, "Organisations need learning programmes that will ensure faster speed to market, reach out to more employees, optimise on cost and is flexible. A judicious mix of learning methods including manuals, classroom sessions and e-learning needs to be incorporated to ensure that every employee gets re-skilled."

The benefits of e-learning, she added, were savings in cost and effort apart from the fact that it enables tracking of learning behaviour and reaches across geographies.