July, 17 2000

Innovative Employee Knowledge Program Introduced at The Hartford

HARTFORD, CT -- The Hartford, a Fortune 500 company, has introduced a business-driven learning environment - a corporate university - designed to support and sustain knowledge development for its information technology professionals and other technology users throughout the company.

Announcement of the program's implementation was made jointly by Thomas Bailer, The Hartford's Assistant Vice President of Corporate Education, and Jatin DeSai, Chief Executive Officer of DeSai Systems, developer of the Enterprise Learning Automation (ELA) solution to be implemented by The Hartford. DeSai is a Connecticut-based provider of learning systems and outsourcing services.

The enterprise-wide learning program, designed to align training and development with The Hartford's business strategies, will enable the company's workforce to become responsible for learning and career self-management under supervisor direction. The ELA solution is additionally geared to leverage The Hartford's corporate technology architecture and support recruitment and retention of key employee knowledge assets.

Corporate University is expected to create a continuous, life-long organizational learning environment that will improve employee skills, knowledge, and competencies at all levels. "We anticipate," said DeSai, " that the corporate university program will significantly increase company productivity and organizational strengths that, in turn, will impact positively throughout The Hartford's customer world."

Corporate University, will offer a broad menu of learning programs, methods and resources from which employees of The Hartford may choose. The program's primary objective is to close learning gaps and increase knowledge by matching learning to employee job roles and skill needs. Education will be delivered in multiple formats including instructor-led, distance learning (Internet, intranets) and self-directed.

The number of subjects in the corporate university course catalog, which contains titles from more than 160 content providers, currently surpasses one thousand. The catalog will continue to expand as dictated by existing customer need and DeSai's introduction of new corporate university programs worldwide. More than 100,000 client employees currently qualify to participate in learning programs that have been introduced to the corporate community by DeSai.