GuideOne Insurance is enhancing its national training abilities in ways never before possible through a partnership with Phasient Learning Technologies LLC, an Ames Web-based learning company.

Marq James, assistant vice president of sales support at GuideOne, says Web-based training will help the company to overcome some of the challenges in training a national sales force.

“A major barrier for us has been getting all of our field trainers across the nation to deliver the information, and even when we have national meetings, not everyone is able to come,” he said. “Being able to deliver consistent information has been a challenge.”

Web-based courses eliminate travel time for trainers and agents, along with the down-time that results when agents are pulled away from their home bases. As of June, West Des Moines-based GuideOne, one of the leading insurers of churches in the United States, had enrolled 1,500 of its agents and support staff in a comprehensive curriculum of 23 online courses created with the help of Phasient, and the initial response has been positive.

“Their ability to turn vision into product has either met or exceeded our expectations,” James said. “We have thrown a lot of coursework at them, and they’ve been able to pump it out.”

Though it has only been in operation for three years, Phasient has already attracted several large Iowa-based companies, including Principal Financial Group Inc. and Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., as clients because of its ability to create online learning materials that produce measurable results and retention. James said Phasient stands out among its competitors because of its innovative products and approach to adult learning styles.

“As we looked at the e-learning space that existed a couple of years back, we were really trying to seek out an organization that seemed to understand the adult learner,” James said. “They (Phasient) took into consideration busy adults’ lives and shared our passion for trying to make a rich media experience with interaction and simulations.”

Dan Murray, Phasient’s president and CEO, said his company focuses on techniques that bring the user into the content, which improves learning and retention.

“We’re very good at sitting down with various experts from within the company and building structured information and programs that are useful, deliver results and offer a reference tool going forward,” Murray said. “You can very quickly and effectively see increased understanding of the products.”

The companies for which Phasient has designed training materials have reported anywhere from 15 to 56 percent improved understanding of their product lines. James said another selling point for Phasient is its technology. With tools provided by Phasient, companies can make their own changes and edits to course content, allowing the course information to change as needs arise.

“Our business, like others, changes often,” James said. “We’re able to immediately make changes in real time so that it’s all updated. Leveraging the Web and its ability to provide that avenue for us has been a big benefit. Now we don’t have the hassle of reprinting and redistributing.”

Besides offering convenience to GuideOne by providing an organized distribution platform for information, and convenience to agents by allowing them to move through the courses at their own pace, Adams expects a substantial cost savings.

“We have 20 hours of course content generated so far, and you’re talking about a three-day meeting at least to deliver all that information to agents,” Adams said. “It’s a pretty easy cost-benefit analysis.”

Murray and Adams agree that Web-based training cannot completely replace traditional training, but it can lay the groundwork for more productive face-to-face sessions.

“That face-to-face time is critical for learning, but what we have seen is that the quality of the classroom training improves when they have had these courses because everyone has a foundation from which you can build more advanced concepts on,” Murray said. “As companies look to keep their budgets under control, it becomes even more important to ensure that when they do bring people together, they have a running start at it.”