Centra's eLearning Infrastructure Powers One of the Nation's Largest Energy Companies.Business/Technology Editors LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 16, 2001 Southern Company Standardizes on Real-Time "Virtual Classroom" Technology from Centra to Speed Training and Information to 26,000 Employees, Providing Competitive Edge in Electric Utility Market Centra (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on : CTRA CTRA Canadian Therapeutic Recreation Association CTRA College Terrace Residents' Association CTRA Canadian Telecommunications Resellers Alliance CTRA Committee To Restore America ), the world's leading provider of software and ASP services for eLearning and collaboration, today announced that Southern Company (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : SO), one of the largest producers of electricity in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , has standardized on Centra's powerful enterprise eLearning platform to deliver live, interactive online training to their 26,000 employees located throughout four southeastern states. Centra-powered eLearning is helping Southern Company to train employees on important management, leadership, and business skills. This has enabled the company to dramatically reduce training time and costs, while improving performance - providing a competitive advantage in the transitioning energy market. By combining Centra Symposium(TM), Centra's award-winning virtual classroom application, with traditional classroom courses, Southern Company provides its employees with a unique, blended learning Blended Learning is the combination of multiple approaches to learning. Blended learning can be accomplished through the use of 'blended' virtual and physical resources. A typical example of this would be a combination of technology-based materials and face-to-face sessions used program. Workers can interact online in real-time with managers, trainers, and peers from the convenience of their desktop computer - in advance of physical training sessions, or afterwards, to share experiences and develop best business practices. One of the first courses to be offered online will be human resource practices training for managers, with plans in place to expand training programs to cover topics of professional development and customer service. "Centra has enabled us to create a more flexible learning program for our employees that takes advantage of low-cost Internet infrastructure, making it easy for us to expand and improve upon the types of training we can offer," said Al Martin, Director of Employee Learning for Southern Company. "With Centra, we can improve the productivity of our employees at a lower cost. This is of critical importance as we navigate today's energy market, where the faster we train and empower our employees, the better we are equipped to compete with a growing number of energy suppliers vying for the same customer dollar." Software Infrastructure for Blended eLearning Used in over 500 companies, government agencies and universities worldwide, Centra's enterprise products and services are based on CentraOne(TM), a robust and extensible thin-client architecture for eLearning and collaboration. By leveraging the core capabilities of the Web-based CentraOne platform, Centra is the only company to offer a full range of compatible eLearning and collaboration solutions - from voice-enabled virtual classrooms, Web conferences, and online meetings to powerful products for content management, personalized eLearning, and standards-compliant authoring. Through this integrated environment, organizations can increase the overall effectiveness of their eLearning initiatives, targeting the appropriate mix of live and self-paced learning formats and activities for each audience or strategic business task. "Southern Company has been extremely progressive in their approach to building an effective blended learning program. These important efforts will help to accelerate knowledge transfer throughout the organization and go a long way toward helping to alleviate increasing cost pressures in the energy market," commented Chris Reed Chris Reed (Japanese: クリス・リード) (born July 7, 1989) is an American-Japanese ice dancer who currently represents Japan. He competes with his sister Cathy Reed. , Vice President, Corporate Strategy for Centra. About Southern Company Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is a super-regional energy company with more than 32,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity in the southeast. It is one of the largest producers of electricity in the U.S. Southern Company is the parent firm of Alabama Power, Georgia Power Georgia Power is an electricity corporation based in Georgia. It is the largest of the four electric utilities that is operated by Southern Company. Georgia Power is an investor-owned, tax-paying public utility that serves more than two million customers in all but four of , Gulf Power, Mississippi Power Mississippi Power is an electric utility and a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta based Southern Company. Mississippi Power has 1,253 employees and serves most of the cities, towns, and communities within the 23 counties of southeast Mississippi. , Savannah Savannah, city, United States Savannah, city (1990 pop. 137,560), seat of Chatham co., SE Ga., a port of entry on the Savannah River near its mouth; inc. 1789. Electric, Southern Nuclear, Southern Company Generation and Energy Marketing, Southern Company Energy Solutions, Southern LINC and Southern Telecom. Southern Company brands are synonymous with synonymous with adjective equivalent to, the same as, identical to, similar to, identified with, equal to, tantamount to, interchangeable with, one and the same as excellent customer service, high reliability, and prices that are 15 percent below the national average. For more information, visit www.southerncompany.com. About Centra With more than 1.3 million users, Centra is the world's leading provider of software infrastructure and ASP services for eLearning and business collaboration. Today hundreds of global organizations have standardized on Centra for the delivery of live eLearning, including Accenture, Century 21, Domino's Pizza For Domino's Pizza in Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the Principality of Monaco, see . Domino's Pizza, LLC (NYSE: DPZ) (LSE: DOM) is an international pizza delivery corporation headquartered just outside Ann Arbor, Michigan, United , EMC Corporation EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is an American Fortune 500 and S&P 500 manufacturer of software and systems for information management and storage. It is headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA. , McKessonHBOC, Nationwide Insurance, Siemens, Stanford University, and Procter & Gamble. Centra supports a vital ecosystem of strategic eLearning partnerships, which include alliances with Microsoft, PricewaterhouseCoopers, EDS (Electronic Data Systems, Plano, TX, www.eds.com) Founded in 1962 by H. Ross Perot (independent candidate for the President of the U.S. in 1992), EDS is the largest outsourcing and data processing services organization in the country. , Cisco, HP Europe, Oracle, Saba, Docent and Global Knowledge. Headquartered in Boston's technology corridor, the Company has sales offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.centra.com. |
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