Newsletter July/August 2007

Business breakfast on 20 September 2007 in Thalwil:
aimed at decision makers as yet unfamiliar with Comartis

On 20 September 2007, Comartis AG invites interested decision makers from the HR and education fields to a business breakfast in Thalwil, on the shores of Lake Zurich. This event will be concerned with the "Effectiveness and ROI of the further education of employees".

Prof. Dr. Andrea Back (University of St. Gall) will devote her keynote speech to strategy and the use of scorecards in e-Learning initiatives. Frank C. Schirmer (Learnvision GmbH) will explain the absolutely imperative requirements for the assessment of education measures and will talk about how to assess the ROI of such measures. Omar Lahyani (CEO of Comartis AG) plans to introduce the new i-qbox Human Performance Suite and to describe its use in education controlling.

You are a decision maker and have not received an invitation yet? Please send an email with the subject "Breakfast" and containing your complete business address to info@comartis.ch no later than 31 August 2007. Note that the number of participants is restricted. Comartis AG hopes that all participants can extract useful suggestions from this event and that they will enjoy the breakfast!

The next trade fair is just around the corner:
Zukunft Personal from 11 – 12 September 2007 in Cologne

Zukunft Personal, Europe's largest trade fair for human resources management, which takes place in Cologne from 11 – 12 September 2007, offers those interested the possibility to learn more about the extensive features of the i-qbox.

Omar Lahyani (CEO) and Reto Schilliger (Vice President Marketing & Sales) will represent Comartis at the shared Swiss booth in hall 2.2.

3rd i-qbox e-Learning Forum at AXA Winterthur:
a review of a well-attended event

On 28 June 2007, about 50 participants met at the third i-qbox e-Learning Forum in Winterthur. After the welcome speech by Stefan Schnegg from AXA Winterthur, Urs Horber, head of the training center and member of the board, presented information about the implementation of e-Learning at the host company, which took place quite some time ago, and described its significance at the company today. Peter Brägger and Andrea Dorner then showed how the i-qbox is used in this context on the basis of two practical examples: "Seminar Administration" and "Certification Compliance and Ethics". With an emphasis on Web 2.0, Stefan Schnegg illustrated the requirement for support of the informal learning process in the form of future Intranet structures and LMS systems.

In his presentation, Frank C. Schirmer from Learnvision GmbH, looked into the economic benefits of education and described the requirements that must be fulfilled to be able to assess these benefits. The second guest speaker, Jens Dieckmann, introduced Datango, a software product which supports the education aspects of software rollouts.

On the part of Comartis, Reto Schilliger presented the results of the pre-survey which was conducted with the help of the i-qbox and which dealt with selected issues concerning existing trends and possible enhancements to the i-qbox. At this point, the winner of the culinary gift certificate was selected randomly among the participants of the survey. Afterwards, Reinhard Anton illustrated the current plans and the successful international growth.

At the end, Omar Lahyani (CEO) and Andreas Plimpton (CTO) informed the audience about the planned further development of the i-qbox which has been renamed Human Performance Suite on account of the functionality that is being added.

The breaks, the apéritif following the workshops and later the delicious dinner offered the participants plenty of opportunity to exchange and discuss.

BMW too relies on Comartis i-qbox:
Competence Management Aftersales (CompAS)

As a premium car manufacturer, BMW attaches great importance to the development of employee competence in all branches around the globe. The timely planning of education on key subject areas is essential to enable demand-oriented competence development.

Planning of AS education is based on predefined target competences and the assessment of the actual competences of each individual employee. In the future, the i-qbox will have added functionality for online self assessment and third-party assessment as well as knowledge tests.

In a first step, the functionality for self-assessment by the employees and for third-party assessment by a superior, including GAP analysis and evaluation based on derived reports, will be introduced at BMW Group.

The need for education will be determined by comparing an employee’s self assessment with the superior's assessment and subsequently with a reference competence profile. The possibility to generate reports by country, dealer or function enables the creation of global views.

The implementation of an online knowledge test is planned in a second step. This test will help identify any need for action regarding specific fields of competence.

More info... 

Another project completed at Credit Suisse:
extension of the "External Education Management and Advice" tool

For some years now, Credit Suisse has been managing all external education and further education with the help of an online tool. After a reengineering by Comartis in 2005, the tool has been substantially extended during the last twelve months.

TEEMA (Tool for External Education Management and Advice) supports the complete workflow surrounding external education and further education. The workflow starts when an employee applies for an external education product. In a structured process, the employee’s superior and individuals in other positions authorize the application with an electronic signature. Settlement of course fees is also handled within TEEMA. Due to its specific features, the tool is able to take into consideration the usual agreements on remuneration of course fees, the expected duration of employment and/or the successful completion of the respective course.

TEEMA does not only assure standardized processes but also creates clearly defined conditions for paid further education. This is also of financial benefit to employees with regard to the new salary certificate.

TEEMA was enhanced in two phases, from fall 2006 to spring 2007. Despite a rather ambitious schedule, the accepted solution was available to all users on time.

More info...

Postcards and stamps under the hammer:
at StampCorner.ch, online, quiet and discreet

Every stamp collector has by now heard of the auction platform StampCorner.ch. Due to the extraordinary selection of stamps and old postcards combined with a great editorial section, the website is frequently visited. The fact that all items on offer are sold by a dedicated auction house and not directly by private individuals strengthens the confidence of the buyers. Thematic special auctions make sure that collectors who are interested in very specific areas are also addressed in an optimal way. 

In the last few months, Comartis was entrusted with the task of extending the successful auction platform to include several new features. Those interested now have even more convenient options to gain the winning edge over other financially strong buyers. Another new feature makes sure that items that are on offer at too high a price are not doomed to gather dust: it is possible to underbid the start bid if the price set by the seller is too high. It is then up to the sellers to decide if they wish to sell their "treasure" for less. And for those who like the very low prices: stamps are now available from CHF 1.--.

Reduction of corporate costs through automatic test optimization

The number of questions in a test is a financial issue, especially for large tests which include a lot of users.

Calculation example: a question with an average time to answer of 1 minute means a workload of about 80 hours for a company with 5 000 employees.

The i-qbox makes it possible to identify – after an initial test with a small sample group – those questions that have no statistical connection with the overall result and the classification "Passed". These questions can then be automatically removed from the test without jeopardizing the reliability of the final assessment.

Comartis way – the cost-saving way!