Teach your staffers well
User stories from the knowledge front
Canada’s oldest corporation is using some new technology to provide its more than 70,000 employees with online training. Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), founded in 1670, has become the first customer of the Bell e-Learning Center.
Says Jim Campbell, senior manager of program design with Hudson’s Bay Company’s HBC University, “The Bell e-Learning Centre offers our employees the convenience of learning on demand, where and when they want to. We selected it because of its flexibility, adaptability and ability to grow with our program needs.”The Bell e-learning Centre will Web-enable existing mainframe-based training programs to provide Hudson’s Bay Company employees with a comprehensive Internet learning experience.
Bell Nexxia, a division of Bell Canada, will provide its broadband LAN extension service for dedicated network access to the e-learning program. It will also be the company application service provider (ASP) for the program, allowing Hudson’s Bay Company to focus its internal resources on content and administration. Bell Nexxia is providing the e-business service through its partnership with Isopia, a supplier of e-learning infrastructure software. Isopia was acquired recently by Sun Microsystems.
“Bell e-Learning Centre will greatly improve Hudson’s Bay Company’s ability to train its employees located at corporate offices, remotely at retail locations and anywhere else Internet access is available,” says Derek Rickaby, VP, e-Business Solutions, Bell Nexxia.
The second phase of the service will include real-time instructor-led training over the Internet. Bell Nexxia is helping Hudson’s Bay Company with its decisions and support for third-party courseware.
Hudson's Bay Company was already almost 200 years old when Canada was created in 1867. While it began as a fur-trading enterprise, it evolved into a trading and exploration company that reached to the west coast of Canada, south to Oregon, north to the Arctic and east to Ungava Bay in Quebec; a land development company with vast holdings in the prairie provinces; a merchandising, natural resources and real estate development company; and, today, Canada's oldest corporation and one of its largest retailers. It offers a wide selection of goods and services through numerous retail channels including more than 500 stores led by the Bay and Zellers chains. It’s Canada’s fifth largest employer, with operations in every province