Totara for Finance Training: How Totara Learn Solves Online Learning Challenges in the Finance Industry

Over the last few years, we have observed some unique trends and challenges when helping to implement online training and education programs for financial institutions like banks, mortgage, and insurance companies. Organizations in the finance sector have very specific needs concerning compliance, regulations, and how they track and manage this information. That said, Totara Learn - a leading open enterprise training solution - offers the ideal functionality to effectively support professional education and employee training for companies in this complex industry.

eLearning Challenges in the Finance Industry

According to Lorri Freifield of Training Magazine, businesses and organizations in the finance industry continuously anticipate a “constantly shifting regulatory environment” with increasing regulatory pressures and varying compliance and licensing requirements to adhere to based on state and country. Financial institutions - including banks, mortgage, and insurance companies - are under pressure to become more customer-centric as regulatory pressures in the industry continue to grow. Data protection and avoiding cyber risks have become more paramount than ever. And, the need to be more agile is leading more and more banking CIO’s to manage their technology portfolio in a way that emphasizes activities that truly differentiate their institutions from others while also providing optimal ROI.

eLearning Needs in the Finance Industry

Working with our clientele in the financial market, we consistently hear similar needs surrounding learning and development including:

1. Financial institutions are looking for a more agile, lightweight LMS. They require flexibility to provide internal training for regulatory compliance or external training to partners and customers.
2. New learners should seamlessly gain access to the system through integrations with a company's internal active directory or CRM.
3. Systems should be flexible and have automation and self-service capabilities for learners. This way, trainers and course developers can focus on creating dynamic course content and pulling together analytics for the regulatory bodies that track them.
4. The need for a more effective way to provide reporting to those regulatory agencies. Once an employee completes their training, the company’s compliance team will need to aggregate that data into reports that can be easily disseminated to the regulatory bodies.
5. Training should align with the organization's core competencies and hierarchy structure so that learners have access to the right type of compliance-related content at the right time.
6. Many institutions prefer a degree of automation in the platform once the courses are developed and updated. Since learners may have to recertify themselves in the same areas within a given period, an LMS platform should be able to auto-remind learners when their certification expires and when it’s time to renew, thus saving the organization the effort of manually reaching out to each learner to prepare for their next certification.
7. Content that can integrate well into the LMS. Some content providers have “LMS” capability, but with limited access to develop their own proprietary content in the system or the ability to integrate openly with other solutions that may enhance the learning experience.
8. Financial institutions are putting their customers first. Similarly, these institutions demand that same customer-centric approach from the vendors that they work with. They expect an LMS vendor to support the use and development of their training ecosystem. They need a truly collaborative partner that responds to any inquiries they submit in a timely and thorough manner.

How Totara Learn Solves Finance Training Challenges

The Totara LMS, powered by Open LMS Education, is uniquely positioned to serve these specific online learning needs within the finance industry. As an open-source platform, Totara provides:

• Easy integration with multiple plugins and tools like eCommerce solutions, webinar tools, and industry-specific regulatory compliance content that enhances the learner's training experience.
• Easy integration with front-end systems like Active Directory, HRIS or CRM systems so that user data can be seamlessly imported into the LMS and access easily granted to learning content, while completion data can sync back to those front-end systems to check the box on how training impacts the business.
• Critical ISO 27001 compliance that financial institutions must rely on to ensure their data is protected.
• An open code base that allows for fewer limits on how it’s used. This helps companies become more innovative with their training.

More specifically, training, compliance, and HR professionals will love that Totara provides:

• The flexibility and ease of use that is demanded by compliance and training professionals in the finance industry. They often have little time to figure out complex and feature-heavy learning solutions.
• Easy self-registration by learners into courses, with the ability to limit what’s viewable based on which audience they belong to.
• 60 “out of the box” reports providing analytics on performance and engagement.
• A hierarchy-based reporting structure that allows reporting access to line up with your organization’s own reporting hierarchy.
• Role-based learning plans that align with organization-specific goals such as certifications, licenses, or badges.
• Auto reminders of when certifications expire and when they need to be renewed.

Reaching Your Finance Training Goals with Totara Learn by Open LMS

As a Platinum Totara Partner (and Totara Learning’s 2018 Global Partner of the Year), Open LMS Education provides the hosting, implementation, integrations, and support on top of your Totara Learn instance. As your Totara experts, we ensure that your Totara instance is configured and deployed based on your unique requirements. We provide the type of industry-leading customer service that financial institutions expect from a service provider. With our unlimited service model, Open LMS offers:

• Unlimited configurable reports, which is critical for putting together completion data for regulatory agencies.
• Branding and theme services to provide your site with cohesive branding and the white labeled look and feel you desire.
• Recommendation of plugins like eCommerce and webinar tools and content that can enhance the learning experience beyond the scope of a typical LMS.
• Integration services into an organization's HRIS, CRM, or Active Directory.
• Unlimited storage space for courses and content.
• 24/7 support for all administrators. On average, our typical response time to a support ticket is under 1 hour!

Open LMS boasts a customer satisfaction rate of 99% over 11 years of business. With our customer support focus, it’s no wonder that our clients remain with us year after year! In this customer-centric, highly-regulated, and ROI-driven environment, Totara by Open LMS helps you optimize training programs in the finance industry to meet your specific goals and needs. Learn more about the benefits of Totara Learn here. Or, contact us with any questions about eLearning best practices!