Thomson NETg, a part of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC), and OutStart, provider of the only proven, content-centric software product family for learning, announced today a partnership whose joint solutions will provide a unique and powerful new way to create, customize, and deliver enterprise learning.
By combining Thomson NETg’s library of award-winning instructional material with OutStart’s advanced learning applications, companies and government agencies for the first time will be able to:
Edit, update, and save more than 100,000 NETg Learning Objects (NLOs) to create learning content specific to the unique needs of their employees, partners, channels, and customers;
Repurpose NLOs with their own information, resulting in custom content that is highly tailored to their organizations;
Assemble and deliver any combination of NLOs, updated NLOs, and their own unique content personalized to each learner’s specific needs.
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“The ability to produce company-specific content has been outstripped by demand for some time,” said James Lundy, Gartner vice president and distinguished analyst. “Customers need to make learning more strategic within their organizations and this changes the boundaries that had existed between off-the-shelf content libraries and learning software.”
Thomson NETg customers will be able to use OutStart Evolution to create courses that employ NETg content at the object level. Through a simple process, NETg objects are added to the Evolution repository. The NETg objects are then available for authors creating learning with OutStart Evolution. The NLOs can be repurposed and assembled with other content to create new courses, changed to create new objects, or left as is, all at the discretion of the author. The NETg objects can be delivered through Evolution or through whatever LMS a customer may be using.
By making NETg’s extensive, award-winning library of instructional content available to developers, organizations can create high impact training that is specific to their training needs and operating environment in record time. This benefits organizations that can now develop industry-, company- and/or learner-specific instruction more quickly and efficiently, thus improving overall performance.
“By partnering with OutStart, we continue to deliver on our vision of truly flexible Open Learning for complex enterprises,” said Joe Dougherty, president of Thomson NETg. “By providing our Learning Object library – which consists of more than 100,000 instructionally-designed objects – to our clients to use as they require, we enable them to more quickly and efficiently achieve success through their learning programs.” This new capability was demonstrated last month at NETg’s annual user conference, NETglobal 2004, and received an enthusiastic response from attendees.
OutStart Evolution is an enterprise application used to create and deliver learning which includes a powerful repository to enable advanced content management. NETg NLOs represent the backbone of NETg’s award-winning library of instructional content.
“It is exciting to be the technology provider that helps realize such a vision,” said Massood Zarrabian, CEO and president of OutStart. “The potential impact on clients and the market is enormous when you consider just what can be leveraged here – NETg content and company-specific knowledge. We look forward to helping pioneer the change.”
About The Thomson Corporation and Thomson NETg
The Thomson Corporation (www.thomson.com), with 2003 revenues of $7.6 billion, is a global leader in providing integrated information solutions to business and professional customers. Thomson provides value-added information, software tools and applications to more than 20 million users in the fields of law, tax, accounting, financial services, higher education, reference information, corporate training and assessment, scientific research and healthcare. With operational headquarters in Stamford, Conn., Thomson has approximately 39,000 employees and provides services in approximately 130 countries. The Corporation’s common shares are listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC). Its learning businesses and brands serve the needs of individuals, learning institutions, corporations and government agencies with products and services for both traditional and distributed learning.
Thomson NETg (www.netg.com) is a global enterprise-learning leader delivering Open Learning Solutions that include a comprehensive offering of award-winning content, multiple delivery options, cutting-edge technology and expert consulting services. After more than 30 years, NETg continues to be the learning and professional development partner of choice for innovating organizations worldwide.
About OutStart
OutStart provides learning and knowledge-sharing software applications to mid-market, government, and Global 2000 organizations. OutStart customers build competitive advantage by making customers, employees, and partners more knowledgeable and better trained through superior content development, management, and delivery. The company’s approach is learner-focused and content-centric.
OutStart’s award-winning, product family enables people to know exactly what they need to be better at their jobs and to learn when, where, and how they want. Customers like AT&T Wireless, Kaiser Permanente, Steelcase, the US Navy, and Westland Helicopters rely on OutStart to increase individual and organizational performance, improve knowledge transfer, and lower operating costs. Headquartered in Boston, MA, OutStart has offices throughout the US and Europe and can be found on the Web at www.outstart.com
