ACCA

Company: LotusCustomer: ACCASubmitted by: NoiseworksThe Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) is using Lotus LearningSpace to deliver a series of ‘Continual Professional Development’ (CPD) accountancy courses to its members and students worldwide.Named ACCAdemy.com, the system enables ACCA to increase the range of courses which it offers, as well as deliver them to a wider audience.

Courses such as ‘International Accounting Standards’ and ‘Mastering Effective Conflict’, will be offered to the Association’s 250,000 members and students and the wider business community via the Web.Ross Midgley, ACCA’s IT director, says, “ACCA is a globally recognised organisation with members and students in 160 countries. ACCA’s syllabus has been recognised by the United Nations as providing the benchmark for a global accountancy qualification. The internet enables us to deliver high quality training without the costs and geographical limitations of traditional classroom courses.”

Benefits of ACCAdemy

– Time independent – Students can access courses at anytime from anywhere in the world.- Tailored learning – courses can be designed for individual students’ needs.

– Saves time and money – online courses are less expensive for students, and save time as travel to the classroom is not required.- Immediate results – the courses are interactive, allowing students to monitor progress.

Why Lotus LearningSpace?

– Capacity – LearningSpace is scalable, able to support in excess of 8,000 learners.- User-friendly interface – Non-technical students can easily access the course information.- Interactivity – Students can submit work online for assessment.

– Reliability – LearningSpace is a tried and tested means of distance learning.

The Solution

Transition Associates, a Lotus Premier Business Partner, proposed and developed the Lotus LearningSpace solution. Hosted by BT, the solution integrates with the ACCA’s existing online web support and information facility, providing users with an additional service from ACCA’s web portal. The whole project took just under six months to complete, from conception to deployment.Miles Corbett, managing director of Transition Associates, comments: “This was a project with the potential for huge impact on ACCA’s business. ACCA’s members, especially, will benefit from ACCAdemy.com. Not only can they learn how and where they choose, they can now opt to learn when they want. This means they don’t have to undertake CPD learning inside fee-earning hours, thus maximising their earning potential. ACCA can now provide instant learning worldwide, to a consistent standard, using a system which requires almost no manual administration.”Having evaluated a number of technologies, ACCA found that LearningSpace was the only solution available which met the following criteria:- Minimal disruption to implement- Simple online solution for learning- Reliability of proven technology- Compatible with existing CPD structure- Security

Accessible Education

Access to the courses is given to members or students after registering through ACCAdemy.com – www.

accademy.com – with users paying a discounted rate for the online lessons. Following registration, the user is sent a Web address and password, permitting them to open their course. The process is completely automated, and utilises a complete e-commerce engine ? giving ACCA an online business with almost zero administration.A further benefit of using an online learning solution is that students can set the pace at which they learn. Students are able to control the pace and volume of learning, giving them the opportunity to dictate how quickly they complete a course.

Using the internet access ACCAdemy, courses are available 24 hours a day, serving members and students around the world.