Zoologic adapts to Europe's needs

After thousands of banking redundancies, it may have been a good time for an outplacement provider to spread its wings and soar into new geographical markets. But for an online training provider, nose-diving seemed a distinct possibility.

Rosemary Charles, the head of Zoologic's European operations, was unfazed. Sitting in Zoologic's new premises in Lombard Street in July, she reflected: "This is a particularly good time to expand a business. As long as you don't go wild, it's much better to set up in a recession: office space is cheaper."

Seven months on, Zoologic shows few signs of profligacy. Its London office employs only three people: Charles, a salesperson and a technician. Equally, its online training programmes are not the flashy variety in which animated cartoon tutors have a starring role; parts of explanatory diagrams move, at the very most. Low-key is the watchword.

Charles says: "We have always been a very cost-conscious company. Online training is a mass-market business. It's a commodity product and it's all about value and margins."

E-learning companies can be divided into two types: providers of learning management systems, or the infrastructure that tailors online training to the needs of individual learning; and providers of learning delivery systems, or content. Zoologic is among the latter.

The company has made its name providing bite-sized "modules" of online financial training covering everything from derivatives to how to read a balance sheet.

Zoologic had ample opportunity to hone its product before the European launch; it is one of the leading providers of online training to Wall Street.

Charles says US rivals are few and far between: "Zoologic is the biggest player in the US. We're number one over there and there's very little competition."

The company's global clients include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank.

"It is easier to go into Europe if you are already known in the US. The big international banks are very familiar with us," says Charles.

The European online training market is not quite as devoid of competition as the market across the Atlantic. Zoologic's arch-rival in London is Intuition, a training provider owned by entrepreneur Dermot Desmond.

However, after less than a year in its European premises, Charles contends that Zoologic and Intuition are neck-and-neck in the online training market in Europe: "It's 50/50: the US-centric banks tend to go with Zoologic; the UK-centric banks tend to go with Intuition."

US pre-eminence is no guarantee of a smooth ride, however. Zoologic is finding it necessary to adapt to the needs of customers in Europe. The US dollar may be the international currency and English the international language of business, but it seems Europeans like learning in national currencies and national tongues.

In response, Zoologic is bringing out a series of new courses, with currencies delineated in euros and pounds sterling. "Culturally, it has a subtle importance. Having everything in dollars can be a barrier to attracting new customers," says Charles.

The company has no plans to break into foreign language training yet. This is an area that Charles says is well covered by Intuition.

In Europe and the US, Zoologic is also avoiding the market for customised training solutions, an area once popular with companies that were flush with funding during the dot-com era.

"Customised training is very costly to make. Customers want it to be very exact and it can be a bit of an unknown quantity," says Charles. She says the company's mix-and-match approach, in which customers can choose from several thousand different learning modules, approximates customised online training anyway.

Over the past year or so, Zoologic strategy has evolved in the direction of what is known as "blended" learning in which online training is combined with instructor-led training, instructors available by web cam and even one-to-one coaching.

"The aim is to become one vendor offering many solutions," says Charles. The company recently appointed a new head of blended learning in the US, Laura Friedman, who joined the firm from the New York Institute of Finance, which is now part of FT Knowledge.

Blended learning may be the latest thing, but Charles has high hopes for the European growth of Zoologic's online offering: "A recession is very good for a change in learning style. People are less willing to leave their desks when jobs are at risk and if you use e-learning correctly, you can save millions of pounds."