TIS the way to learn via @tatacompanies

Tata Interactive Systems recently featured, for the third consecutive year, in a global top 20 list of training outsourcing companies. In this interview with tata.com, Amita Karia, CFO and Saurabh Mittal, head of marketing at TIS, talk about the company’s focus areas and its learning products

Could you tell us about Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) featuring among the top 20 training companies of the world?
TrainingIndustry.com continually reviews training outsourcing service providers to help organisations make informed decisions about their training partners. Based on the review, it releases the Top 20 list that recognises leading training outsourcing companies for their high-quality services and comprehensive capabilities. Selection to the Top 20 list is based on the following criteria:

Industry visibility, innovation and impact.
Capability to deliver multiple types of training services.
Company size and growth potential.
Strength of clients.
Geographic reach.

The strengths of TIS in each of these areas have led to the company receiving this global recognition for the third consecutive year.

How many companies – in India and overseas – does TIS provide learning solutions to?
TIS offers custom e-learning services and products to three segments — corporate, government and education. With a team of over 800 multidisciplinary specialists, TIS creates 3,000 plus hours of learning content across more than 220 concurrent projects every year. TIS’s solutions have proven their effectiveness at over 60 Fortune 500 companies, leading educational institutions and government departments. The fact that nearly 75 percent of TIS’s business is from repeat customers is an indication of the quality of its solutions.

TIS recently launched ClassEdge, an integrated learning solution for Indian schools. Could you tell us more about it?
Tata ClassEdge, an innovative and comprehensive educational solution from Tata Interactive Systems, is designed to help teachers deliver high-quality instruction, with an effective blend of classroom activities and interactive multimedia demonstrations.

Based on the Multiple Learning Experiences Model — an instructional framework developed by Tata Interactive Systems — Tata ClassEdge aims to enhance students' social and thinking skills along with ensuring a thorough understanding of the curriculum content. The model is based on the premise that students learn better through a variety of multi-sensory experiences, including hands-on activities, discussions, debates, creative and critical thinking exercises, collaborative research, field trips and multimedia programmes.

Tata ClassEdge offers lesson plans designed to aid effective teaching. It provides short-duration multimedia programmes that help students visualise complex concepts, and offers worksheets designed to promote critical and creative thinking. The interactive teacher tools enable efficient use of teacher time. ClassEdge facilitates objective-linked practice and assessment and utilises advanced technology including interactive whiteboards and non-obtrusive projectors.

Currently, our focus is on private schools and we will soon be approaching the government sector to extend the benefit of Tata ClassEdge to government schools. TIS is also keenly evaluating opportunities to improve the quality of education being delivered in Indian schools and colleges through other supplementary products.

What are the other products in the pipeline for 2012?
TIS is launching a new product called LearnNow in 2012. LearnNow is a complete ecosystem for deploying learning and performance support on a mobile platform, which may be a tablet or a smartphone.

LearnNow has two components. The first allows organisations to rapidly deploy learning and performance support on any platform. Organisations can track and manage the learning path of any employee and also generate continuous assessments on-the-fly. This will enable organisations to maximise the adoption and completion rates of its learning programmes and also increase compliance rates.

The second component is content that can be deployed on the LearnNow platform. Through the revolutionary technology of fluid resolution and universal navigation, TIS will enable organisations to provide on-the-job support to their field staff to increase sales force effectiveness, reduce time taken to perform field audits, reduce repair and maintenance time, etc. Through the launch of LearnNow, TIS aims to deliver tangible performance gains to organisations and in turn increase their competitiveness.

Are there plans to open more development centres, besides the existing three, over the coming months?

TIS has four development centres. They are located in Mumbai and Kolkata (India), Zug (Switzerland) and Tubingen (Germany). We will continue to service clients through these four development centres. However, based on client requirements, TIS also co-locates its team of consultants, instruction designers, visual designers and project managers, either at client premises or in close proximity to it.