Harlequin delivers Regent Inns' first taste of e-learning

Regent Inns is a highly-respected business, founded in 1977, which last year achieved a turnover of £86.2 million. The business is based on the 'Walkabout' and 'Bar Risa/Jongleurs' outlets - distinctive bars offering their own unique ambience and hospitality.

When Regent Inns wanted to implement a centralised procurement system, the company chose iPOS, from Professional Advantage, which would integrate with Regent Inns' current Sun Systems infrastructure. Establishing a centralised procurement system would better position Regent Inns for growth - and enable distributed purchasing to be rationalised.

Regent Inns had realised that getting their staff to learn the new system would be a key factor in its success. But they also had a problem: because the staff were distributed throughout the UK, providing training by conventional means would be time-consuming and costly.

Regent Inns approached e-learning specialists Harlequin Training Solutions - to provide an e-learning solution. Regent Inns commissioned Harlequin to provide an e-learning 'tour' of the new system.

The e-learning had to be fun - and reflect Regent Inn's chic and contemporary branding. It had to be written and deployed quickly - in fact, Harlequin would have just three-and-a-half weeks to develop the bespoke e-learning content.

It was decided that all employees would be able to view and take all elements of the e-learning should they wish, but that the e-learning would 'stream' people to those modules most relevant to them, depending on their role. For example, a house manager would need to learn the 'requisition', 'goods receipt' and 'invoice approval' modules, whereas an accounts payable employee would only need to learn 'invoice entry'.

The e-learning programme provided a tour of all of the system's six modules.

Despite the tight deadline, the e-learning tour was delivered on time and has been extremely well-received. It has enabled people to gain exposure to the new iPOS system very quickly - and will be fundamental to the system's success within Regent Inns.

This was Regent Inn's first experience of using e-learning - and the company is pleased with the results. So pleased, that Harlequin has now been commissioned to provide e-learning on a second project, a back-of-house point-of-sale system.

Chris Wootton, IT projects manager at Regent Inns, commented that: "Harlequin has provided us with an excellent service. This has allowed us to focus on deploying iPOS - while they proactively created our entirely bespoke e-learning tour. It's the first time we've used e-learning, but now that we've worked with Harlequin, it certainly won't be the last."

About Regent Inns
Regent Inns was founded in 1977. The business continued to grow throughout the 1980s and in August 1988 was acquired by Lockton Inns PLC. In April 29 1993, the company were floated on the London Stock Exchange. Through this listing the company raised £6.5 million and with these funds continued to grow. The Regent Inns estate continues to grow and present two highly successful and distinctive brands namely 'Walkabout' and 'Jongleurs' which present a comprehensive and extensive range of outlets where customers are drawn to distinctive bars offering their own unique ambience and hospitality. In 2002, Regent Inns reported a turnover of £86.2 million and operating profits of £21.5 million.

More about Regent Inns on line:
http://www.regentinns.co.uk