Kordia develops learning network

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State-owned transmission company Kordia believes its "Harvard-style" training system will help other firms distribute knowledge and expertise throughout their businesses.

Kordia Business School is a programme allowing the company's employees to share content and information using seminars and video conferences.

"We built it to leverage the experience we've got within the business. We've got a whole lot of people who are talented and knowledgeable, but they weren't getting an opportunity to share what they knew. We wanted to create a platform for them to be able to do that," said Kordia communications manager Emma Morrison.

During the company's presentations, up to 200 employees from around the country can be watching via Microsoft Live Meeting.

These seminars are interactive and allow the viewers to discuss the content being shared and raise questions with the speaker.

The scheme also has training modules, letting the company educate a large number of staff simultaneously.

As well as live conferencing, Kordia also stores the sessions in an online library so any who miss out can see what was shared.

The company is now getting other businesses' interested in the schooling programme.

"We've got account managers who are packaging this up as a product to sell to companies. We're in discussions now with some of New Zealand's largest companies on where we could take this and what this could do for their business. It's fantastic for businesses with disparate staff where it's really difficult to bring them together for training," she said.

Launched in August last year, the information-sharing platform was developed after Kordia chief executive Geoff Hunt took a course at Harvard University and was impressed with the communications systems used by the Massachusetts academy.

"Geoff came back brimming with enthusiasm to build something where we could share our expertise internally," Morrison said.

While the concept was based on a US scheme, the technology enabling Kordia Business School was borrowed from a distance-learning system the company built for University of Auckland's Liggins Institute.

Kordia uses its own internal network to run the school, but others could have a similar programme using satellite broadcasting or the fibre broadband. being laid as part of the Government's ultra-fast broadband scheme, Morrison said.