Operam – Modernising training on an easy-to-use LMS

Advisory services and education in ISO 19650

Operam specializes in the business processes associated with the management and collaborative production of information (aka BIM) during the delivery and operational phase of built assets.

They provide a range of specialist products and ISO 19650 advisory services to organizations across the built environment in support of their digital transformation, including both advisory and education, in the form of the Operam Academy: a scalable blended learning solution tailored to the needs of the construction industry.

Their learning product has recently gained acclaim in the form of winning ‘Best BIM Training Programme’ at the 2019 BIM Awards, and is getting global interest from both organizations and individuals alike.

The training challenge

It’s a story as old as time. Or at least as old as business. Growth and success bring new challenges. Operam noticed the growing need for advice and education in the development and implementation of information management processes. And they delivered on that promise. But they also needed to scale up their training offerings.

Enter Sam Allsopp, Head of Learning, instructional designer, and expert in building learning ecosystems. Sam joined Operam to build a platform that could take the existing classroom-led training run by the Director, Paul Shillcock, into an online space.

As their audience spans the globe, Sam wanted to take that training directly to them.

You could do that by hiring a bunch of trainers and sending them around the world on planes. For a number of reasons, that’s not the most efficient way to deliver training. We were looking for a scalable platform to do that job.

Why Operam chose eFront

As an instructional designer, Sam was focused on three key requirements when he began reviewing learning management systems.

First, he wanted the system to support modern protocols, xAPI in particular. “We wanted to measure a lot more about our learners’ experiences,” he explains.

Then, he wanted a platform that was easy to navigate and simple for the end user. And, finally, there was the cost.

Sam shortlisted 10 systems, and eFront shot ahead from the rest because it met his criteria. It had support for xAPI, responsive design with a simple look and feel, as well as customizable features.

With eFront, Sam built Operam Academy. An award-winning learning ecosystem that helps educate global teams on the international standards and best practices for the management of information.

The Results

There are many systems out there that have a lot of menus and things that bury you under a tide of information. eFront’s main strength is the simplicity of the learning experience. For our learners, that has been a key benefit.

While too early in the process to return quantitative results, the feedback from customers has been decisively positive. Case in point: Operam won the award for Best BIM Training Programme in 2019.

Customers come to us and look at our platform, and then look at our competitor’s offerings, and are impressed. With the customizable features of eFront, we’ve been able to make our product sing.

While eFront is an out-of-the-box solution, the way they have been able to customize it with CSS and HTML to change the look and feel has been an enormous asset.

It’s been beneficial bringing eFront in line with our brand and our product. The overall impression of our product is much better than some of the other systems out there in our market.

Would Sam recommend eFront to another instructional designer?

The platform provides a good introduction to learning management systems. It’s feature-rich, and the company is always developing and improving it. I would recommend it to a professional like myself. It has much to offer.

Samuel Allsopp

Head of Learning

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