The provider of e-learning and related tools and services, Omniplex, has announced that it has provided a learning management system (LMS), rapid e-learning authoring tools and training in how to use all these products to Aurum Holdings Ltd, the UK’s largest prestige and luxury jewellers. Aurum includes the Watches of Switzerland, Mappin & Webb and Goldsmiths brands within its portfolio and is the UK’s largest stockist of Rolex, Cartier, Breitling and TAG Heuer.

Earlier this year Aurum  replaced its existing LMS and authoring tools with the Absorb LMS and Articulate e-learning authoring tools – all of which were supplied by the e-learning solutions provider, Omniplex.

Following training by Omniplex, Aurum staff have produced more than a dozen product and sales orientated courses for the 1,500 members of Aurum’s retail team working in Watches of Switzerland, Mappin & Webb and Goldsmiths stores.

Matthew Lloyd, Omniplex’s managing director, commented: “Aurum is one of a growing number of companies that are looking to achieve more from their learning and development activities and so they are investing in best of breed LMS and authoring solutions.”

According to sources close to Omniplex, this is merely the tip – albeit a golden tip – of an iceberg which has seen the company keep growth steady, in revenue terms, at 38 per cent this year (compared with a mere 35 per cent last year).

Over the past year, the company has apparently signed up some impressive names as customers – including Inmarsat, Lufthansa, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, American Express, Cable and Wireless, the Freight Transport Association, Matalan, Mitsubishi, Pepsico, the Home Office, the NSPCC and even the Professional Golfers Association (PGA).

Omniplex’s managing director, Matthew Lloyd, has been quoted as saying: “We’re focusing on – and committed to – providing our clients with the very best e-learning products and high quality customer care. That we are being successful in this is being borne out by our growing reputation, turnover and profitability.”

Comment: Traditionally, recessions have been good news for the learning technologies sector, because organisations tend to move away from the more costly classroom-based learning delivery towards technology-delivered learning. Yet those who monitor this sort of thing have been saying in recent months – off the record – that the current downturn has seen this trend continue but to a much smaller degree.

So, it’s encouraging to see at least one success story of a similar magnitude to those in previous ‘good old, bad old days’.