CASE STUDY
LMS Solution

300 MORE COURSES WITHOUT ADDING STAFF

Winter 2005
By Catherine Upton
Elearning!

Founded in 1950, The Cincinnati Insurance Company is one of the nation’s top 20 property casualty insurers. CIC operates in 31 states to market a broad range of business and personal insurance through independent insurance agencies.

The Challenge:
3500 Employees, 300 Courses and Only 10 Trainers
As CIC rolled out new products and services, its training department scrambled to ensure that the company’s field personnel completed government-mandated training requirements as well as instruction associated with the company’s insurance products. While CIC’s human resource system could store some class information, the software could not deploy and automatically track Web-based courses.

“The size of our training staff wasn’t increasing, but our workload was,” says Mark DesJardins, Vice President, Cincinnati Insurance Company. “So we wanted a system that would cut costs, automate an array of training processes we had in place, and boost our ability to offer top-notch courses to our associates.”

CIC’s 10 Education & Training associates serve 3,500 personnel in headquarters and home-based offices across the United States These associates include claims adjusters, sales and marketing representatives, machinery and equipment engineers, loss control representatives, and field auditors.

At the same time, CIC increased by 300 percent the number of courses it offers its associates, without adding to its training staff. Course topics include management and leadership, insurance-specific topics, and company policies and procedures. By all accounts, the process in place wouldn’t grow with CIC’s needs. So, CIC explored other options.

The Solution
The Company bought Pathlore Software Corporation’s Learning Management System (LMS), which would deliver, track, and report on training distributed over the Internet. “For the price, they offered the best value and functions of the education management software we reviewed,” DesJardins adds. “The fact that the firm was profitable with a good reputation was a selling point, too.”

The Results: More Training At 50 Percent Lower Costs
CIC now offers its employees 150 courses, 90 of which are delivered online. For example, by rolling out a course on commercial general liability (CGL) policy to employees via Pathlore LMS, CIC saved more than $100,000. Indeed, making the CGL program an e-learning course cut 50 percent off the cost of delivering this training.
“With Pathlore LMS, we can deliver training online to employees prior to the date they arrive for classroom instruction,” DesJardins says. “This gives classroom instructors a way to focus on more complex discussions, while condensing training.”

DesJardins says he’s cut the duration of some classes from 12 hours to eight. He notes this often eliminates an extra day of travel expenses for field personnel.

For more information, visit http://www.pathlore.com/pdf/pathlorelms.pdf

back to current magazine page

Subscribe Now—to secure your own personal editions