Pathlore Software Corporation, a global leader in providing learning-management
software and services to industry and government, has announced that the Virginia
Institute of Social Services Training Activities (VISSTA) at Virginia Commonwealth
University, a partner to the Virginia Department of Social Services, has bought
a Pathlore learning-management system (LMS) for 40,000 people.
Among the users
will be day care providers, adult day care providers, adoptive parents, foster
care parents, lawyers, judges and 8,000 social workers.
The LMS is software that tracks and reports on training over
the Internet. According to Pathlore, its LMS will cut the time that VISSTA
staff spend creating and taking training, allowing them more time to actually
perform their jobs, including providing patient care.
Each year VISSTA trains thousands of people who provide social services for
120 sites in Virginia. However, a substantial amount of time was spent on scheduling
courses, tracking attendance, issuing reports for reimbursements, and getting
instructors and students into classrooms. VISSTA's area training centers (ATCs),
which employ staff at five centers across Virginia, performed most of those
duties.
Before buying the Pathlore LMS, the VISSTA system was actually five separate
tracking systems that made it challenging to get a state-wide and strategic
view of training and development needs, as well as to generate accurate statewide
reports.
"There was a lot of legwork involved in tracking who took a single course,"
says Steve
Thomas, Pathlore's president and chief executive. "The process included
a lot of paperwork and follow-up phone calls."
Once the LMS is in place, Pathlore says VISSTA's finance team will be able
to run reports after classes end and get reimbursements from the U.S. federal
government in 30 days.
"Along with speeding up reimbursements, they'll save administrative costs
with the LMS," Thomas says. "Instead of phone calls, local staff will
be able to go online to register for classes.
"Virginia, like most states, has budget concerns, so having Pathlore's
hosting services supply the software and day-to-day IT management has made it
possible for VISSTA to buy an LMS," Thomas adds.
Those benefits are clear to researchers at Framingham, Massachusetts-based
IDC, too.
"While researching pricing for hosted learning-management systems, IDC
found major discrepancies in price," says Michael Brennan, program manager
for IDC's Learning Services research. "We found one vendor charging between
30 and 70 times more than Pathlore for hosting a comparable number of customers."
About Pathlore
Founded in 1995, Columbus, Ohio-based Pathlore develops software that manages,
tracks and reports on corporate training. Customers use Pathlore’s products
to increase sales, comply with government regulations and adhere to quality
initiatives. The privately held company’s client roster includes Delta
Air Lines, NEC America Inc., Novartis, PNC Bank, Southwest Airlines, more than
100 hospitals and health care providers and government agencies on three continents.
Pathlore has offices and strategic partnerships around the globe. For more information,
go to http://www.pathlore.com.
Pathlore makes software to track and manage education delivered
over the Internet.
Further information from:
Stuart Hornsey, Pathlore Software Ltd, 00 44 (0) 1923 698498
Bruce Duff, Pathlore, 00-1 614 781 7285 (direct line)
Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, 00 44 (0) 1727 860405
For product/technical information: call Pathlore on 00 44 (0) 1923 698498,
or visit Pathlore’s
website at www.pathlore.com.
For additional information on Pathlore
LMS 6: visit www.pathlore.com/customerzone.asp.
