A bit late in the day, and 15 years on from the release of Gloria Gery's pathbreaking book Indian eLearning companies seem to have discovered EPSS. Better late than never!
What are Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS):
"An integrated electronic environment that is available to and easily accessible by each employee and is structured to provide immediate, individualized on-line access to the full range of information, software, guidance, advice and assistance, data, images, tools, and assessment and monitoring systems to permit job performance with minimal support and intervention by others." - Gloria Gery
Gloria Gery today is an independent consultant based in Tolland, Massachusetts. She specializes in performance centered software design and in developing and implementing eLearning and performance support systems. Don't miss these articles, and presentations from her website.
Click here for some more definitions of ePSS
The Learned Man! predicts that before long the larger Indian vendors will start to add ePSS to their suite of products and solutions. As of now Tata Interactive Systems appears to have been the first off the block by hiring former Director of KM at Zurich Financial, John Kusi Mensah to spearhead their ePSS practice. Tata though, has traditionally been an innovator (having made it to Gartner's coveted magic quadrant for e-learning content) and we should soon see other Indian vendors trying to play catch up and come out with their own EPSS products and solutions.
Indian vendors for some time will have some serious catching up to do if they are to come anywhere near established players like Panviva* from down under. But considering that Indian companies have risen to the challenge and are admirably taking on competition in the bespoke content markets, it should only be a matter of time until they hit the nail on the head. The Learned Man! as always, will keep you clued in.
*Panviva, by the way, had its origins in the mid-1990s as a content company. It soon realised that content was commonplace but the tools for delivering it to users of applications were very basic. So it set out to develop its own software for doing so. After an injection of venture capital in 2000 it built its product into an innovative authoring and delivery system that can be used in a range of environments in which users need immediate access to detailed information, such as call centres or for users of complex applications.
Panviva has been profitable for the past two years, and now has about 40 staff. It has offices in Britain and the US, where is sees much of its future occurring, and has users in 10 countries, including banks, insurance companies and many government departments. Read more here.
Resources:
EPSS Central
Here's another good resource site from the US Navy:
https://www.spider.hpc.navy.mil/
Posted by: Harold Jarche | February 21, 2006 at 06:11 PM