Partners shake up LMS market with Moodle Distribution for Corporate Enterprises
Three leading e-learning and open source companies (Kineo, Catalyst IT and Flexible Learning Network) have formed a joint venture company to develop and distribute a version of the Moodle Learning Management System for the corporate sector. The product, called Totara, is set to revolutionise the corporate LMS space as the first open source learning management solution designed specifically for the corporate sector.
The new joint venture company to be known as Totara has been
formed by three partner companies:
Catalyst IT - A leading open source company based in New Zealand,
Australia and the UK. Catalyst are one of the core Moodle
developers and have one of the largest Moodle development
teams.
Kineo - A leading global e-learning company with offices in the
US, UK, Israel and the Pacific. Kineo have been pioneers of
adapting Moodle for the corporate sector with over 80 corporate
Moodle clients including Tesco, Cable&Wireless, Timberland and
BP.
Flexible Learning Network - An innovative New Zealand based
e-learning company that leads the Mahara e-portfolio project, the
most popular open source e-portfolio system world-wide and often
used in combination with Moodle.
The new corporate distribution of Moodle includes a wide range of
new features designed to meet the specific needs of corporates,
including competency management, staff development plans, team
management, individual and corporate dashboard reporting, and the
management of classroom events.
Richard Wyles, Director of Flexible Learning, commented: "This is
a really exciting project. Moodle is already the world's most
popular LMS and we've been working with Moodle in various contexts
for around seven years now. We believe the idea of standardizing
some of our innovations to deliver a specific workplace learning
distribution will result in Totara rapidly becoming the LMS of
choice in the corporate sector."
Mike O'Connor, Founder and Director of Moodle Partners Catalyst IT
commented: "The Totara partnership has bought together three really
strong companies committed to developing a world beating LMS for
the corporate sector which leverages all the benefits of open
source software. We will also be leveraging the geographical spread
and size of the three companies to provide a responsive and follow
the sun support service to our clients."
Steve Rayson, Kineo's Managing Partner commented: "We know from
our Moodle work with clients from Nike to Toshiba, that there is a
real appetite for an open source corporate LMS. The Totara solution
provides a professional, scalable LMS at a fraction of the cost of
proprietary solutions."
The new Totara distribution will initially be available to clients
of Kineo, Catalyst and Flexible Learning Network. Totara will also
include a global 24/7 hosting and support service to respond to
what corporates need.
It will be made publicly available in January 2011. In the interim
interested companies wishing to view a demo or pre-order Totara,
can contact their regional representative as follows:
US - Steve
Lowenthal
Europe - Steve
Rayson
Pacific - Richard
Wyles
Pacific - Mike
O'Connor