ASP-model training business administration platform announced
Enterprise Study has launched ESP, a new training business administration platform that enables training businesses and corporate training departments to manage all aspects of course scheduling, bookings and e-commerce, training-centre operations and client-managed services through a desktop browser.
ESP is a Web-based training business administration platform
that takes the administrative processes involved in running a
training-centre operation and presents them in an easy to use
Web-based application - a back and front-office system all in
one.
Provided in a totally Web-based environment and accessed through
standard Internet browsers, ESP has many advantages over in-house
systems. ESP offers the functionality of a sophisticated, scalable,
enterprise-level training administration system for a fraction of
the costs and resources that are employed in developing and
maintaining in-house systems.
ESP integrates with existing systems, which means it can be used
for single, specific projects, individual client engagements or
particular markets and lines of business, as well as for enterprise
wide configurations that provide a total administrative solution
for the entire business.
ESP was established by two former QA employees, Richard Williams
and Steve Hurcombe, who were responsible for QA's early e-commerce
developments during the late 1990s building up QA's on line
transactions to over 30% of total training revenues.
Enterprise Study's technical director, Steve Hurcombe said: "ESP
provides training businesses and managers with more control,
reduces administration, improves customer services and widens the
proposition training providers are able to offer to their
customers."
"ESP is unique in that it provides the high functionality
associated with in-house applications in an application service
provider environment, thereby substantially reducing the
investments needed in staff, technical skills, hardware, network
resources, software licences and ongoing support and
maintenance."
ESP offers a compelling return on investment model and signals a
new era for how training companies and corporate training
departments are run. Steve Hurcombe: "You can start by saying
goodbye to all those servers. With ESP you could administer a
training business, from the beach, using a mobile phone connected
to a laptop computer and look like you are running one of the
world's largest training businesses."
ESP is highly scaleable and suitable for use by both large and
small training operations alike and can be used as an
enterprise-wide administration system or as a solution for a
particular new business line, a specific project or individual
customer engagement. Rob Clarke is marketing director of Global
Learning Alliance, a network of training providers in over 100
countries and one of the early adopters of ESP: "We use ESP to
manage the scheduling, on line transactions and reporting for
large-scale international managed services training contracts. We
need the functionality offered by the industry's large-scale
enterprise applications, yet we are only eight people so it's
totally impractical to even consider embarking on a major in-house
systems implementation. ESP enables the Alliance to run very large
training contracts, containing thousands of student transactions,
without increasing our administrative overheads.