blueU is one of only three preferred bespoke e-learning suppliers to BP. It is the only supplier of bespoke e-learning to BP’s financial skills team.
We have successfully delivered over 40 individual bespoke e-learning courses for BP in the last four years, across diverse divisions, via many different medias (including CD, Internet, Intranet, Extranet), and in multiple languages. Some courses were designed from scratch whilst others were converted from existing materials.
The success of our partnership with BP can be attributed to:
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Our practical, supportive approach to e-learning development, which is an effective blend of instructional design, adult learning theories and multimedia assets.
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Our willingness and ability to work with other third party suppliers: from a technical perspective we have collaborated with Smartforce to ensure any of the courseware we develop integrates smoothly with BP's LMS; and with other consultants and training providers such as PWC.
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Our understanding of BP's culture and how this is reflected in training design, developed over a 4 year period of working with them.
- Our commitment to doing what we say we will do. We have repeatedly delivered on our promises to BP.
Intercompany Trading Process
BP has many operating companies and there was evidence that increasingly, trading reconciliations were not being achieved to a consistent standard, resulting in delays in period close, which in extremis stopped BP reporting to the city and its shareholders. The e-learning course was designed for use by BP staff, specifically Accountants within BP Finance, plus the staff of supplier organisations such as PWC, Accenture, and SAIC. Technically the course had to operate in the BP Common Operating Environment, plus a wide range of other non-standard environments.
We liaised closely with BP's partner organisations to ensure the e-learning would work effectively for both internal staff and those sitting outside BP's firewall. The resulting solution was a highly interactive and engaging 3 hour e-learning programme, designed to meet the needs of different learners. Learners were provided with different learning routes, depending on their 'starting point' and specific role within Intercompany trading. Additionally a 'Just-in-time' element of the e-learning was developed providing learners with fast access to simulations of specific forms that they were required to complete. These simulations could be easily run alongside the real 'live' systems to increase learner confidence and ensure accuracy and speed of staff undertaking Intercompany processes.
The following is a direct quote taken from Don Morrison’s book E-LEARNING STRATEGIES, How to get implementation and delivery right first time (Wiley, 2003), in which he showcases the Intercompany Process e-learning course designed and developed for BP by blueU.
Putting it into practice
"Intercompany Process is Digital Learning’s current benchmark case study. The genesis of the Financial Group initiative was an awareness of shortcomings in the hugely complex inter-company accounting transactions which lead to a high error rate. The driver for the initiative - and the e-Learning which supported it - was the potential for interest savings in capital which previously had been tied up while errors were corrected.
The e-Learning content was distributed globally to 4,000 learners who - because BP’s accounting processes are outsourced - were largely staff of the big five accounting firms like PricewaterhouseCoopers and Accenture. Content was hosted on BP’s extranet so vendors who work outside the BP firewall could access it. PWC who have the contract for BP’s European accounting provided subject matter expertise. Digital Learning’s role was to provide Tier Three support - consulting the project team in the areas of hosting, tracking and localization. Content was developed and launched in English then translated into five languages.
Content development followed a rapid prototyping model. Once the prototype had been signed off, development to completion took only 6 weeks. The form of the content was self-paced learning - six modules delivering two and half hours of study plus downloadable tools.
One of the project’s learning objectives was to deliver time to competency with the new programme in 3 months. In practice, time to competence was achieved in just 6 weeks - that meant savings began to appear 6 weeks earlier than expected. Because of the high value of transactions, the improvement in time to competency contributed to an impressive ROI.”
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