Russia’s Largest Bank, Sberbank, Leverages Saba to Improve People Development
Saba Selected to Enable Learning Across the Bank’s Branches and Geographies
Bracknell, UK – March 25, 2013 – Saba (NASDAQ: SABA), the premier provider of people-centric enterprise solutions, announced today that Sberbank, the largest bank in Russia, is using its solution to transform people development across the country through a strategic program called the Virtual School of Sberbank. Founded in 1841, Sberbank comprises 17 local banks with more than 18,000 branches and over 230,000 employees throughout Russia.
Following numerous acquisitions and mergers, Sberbank faced an unprecedented challenge and opportunity to transform itself into a unique and diversified financial institution. With its employee base increasing and new cultures joining the bank, the goal was to find a way to easily train managers and personnel while increasing collaboration and crowd sourcing to spread best practices. Sberbank created the Virtual School of Sberbank and selected Saba’s modern learning platform based on its ability to meet key criteria such as ability to scale, visual usability, extended testing functionality and accessibility from anywhere at any time. The Virtual School of Sberbank is planned for an initial three-phased rollout during 2013.
The first phase was implemented in January to 1,500 managers who are using Saba’s learning management system, webinars and base testing functionality to interact with each other across various locations and to study via e-learning courses to increase their competency level. Today, the Virtual School of Sberbank gives access to 54 online courses, with new classes introduced on an ongoing basis.
“In the first few months since rollout, we’ve seen increased access to learning and development programs, and across a range of regions and acquired companies,” said Andrey A. Leushev, vice president of the Innovative Products Department at Sberbank. “We can already see how the usability, scalability and flexibility of Saba’s learning platform will enable us to develop our people in ways that we couldn’t before, thus helping make our teams more agile, current and efficient. We’ve provided an initial group of management with learning courses and compliance training, and look forward to the next phase of the rollout this summer.”
Sberbank’s plans for this summer rollout are to extend access to the Virtual School of Sberbank to more than 20,000 management-level employees. The goals of this second phase will be to form a unique knowledge base, provide usage of a single standards model, spread and scale best business practices, and to set up and launch a new, unified corporate culture. The last phase of the initial rollout is scheduled for December.
“Saba is pleased to have the opportunity to meet the needs of Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank,” said Leo Hanna, senior vice president and general manager, EMEA at Saba. “Our people-centric learning platform is enabling them to scale across branches and geographies to provide their employees with numerous new kinds of people development opportunities. We’re excited about our continued work with Sberbank as it leverages our robust solution to accelerate its workforce transformation through the use of formal and informal learning and training programs.”
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About Saba
Saba (NASDAQ: SABA) enables organizations to build a transformative workplace that leverages the advent of social networking in business and the ubiquity of mobile to empower an organization’s most mission-critical assets – its people. The company provides a set of people-centric enterprise solutions to various businesses and industries worldwide. Saba delivers cloud-based learning management, talent management and social enterprise solutions to transform the way people work.
Saba's premier customer base includes major global organizations and industry leaders in financial services, life sciences and healthcare, high tech, automotive and manufacturing, retail, energy and utilities, packaged goods, and public sector organizations. Headquartered in Redwood Shores, California, Saba has offices on five continents. For more information, please visit uk.saba.com or call +44 1344 389250. SABA, the Saba logo, and the marks relating to Saba products and services referenced herein are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Saba Software, Inc. or its affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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Safe Harbor
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including, without limitation, Sberbank’s plans for an initial three-phased rollout of Saba. The actual plans to rollout Saba, or the timing or outcome of the rollout, could differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. Readers should refer to the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2011, and similar disclosures in subsequent reports filed with the SEC. In addition, Saba faces additional risks and uncertainties, including risks that could affect its ability to complete the restatement of its historical financial statements, file its delayed annual report on Form 10-K and periodic reports on Form 10-Qs, regain compliance with the NASDAQ listing requirements, and access credit facilities. The forward-looking statements and risks stated in this press release are based on information available to Saba today. Saba assumes no obligation to update them.