Florida Law Enforcement Agencies Save Over $290,000 With Web-based Training; VERTEX Solutions' E-Learning Pilot Program Significantly Increases Access to Online Courses.

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

FALLS CHURCH, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 17, 2001

VERTEX Solutions (www.vertexsolutions.com), dedicated to increasing performance by improving the way individuals, teams and organizations learn, has completed work on an initial twelve-month e-learning pilot program for law enforcement officers in Florida's Charlotte and Levy Counties.

A final report was released in October that quantifies Web-based Training (WBT) in terms of quality, quantity and added value for the pilot by tracking the experiences of 458 law enforcement personnel using over 800 online courses. The report findings illustrated dramatic benefits for individuals and entire agencies.

Working with sheriffs' offices in the two counties, along with the Federal Bureau of Prisons and other agencies, VERTEX served as the primary solution architect under contract with the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC). Integrating the right mix of capabilities from a broad range of resources is a standard VERTEX approach with its diverse Federal government clientele.

This project required close cooperation and coordination with Success Process Management, a partner who brought significant law-enforcement expertise to the team. The courses used in the pilot included commercial-off-the-shelf or "COTS-based" soft skills, such as leadership training and information technology training, as well as custom-developed training specific to law enforcement such as crime scene procedures. Pilot participants were able to select courses based on personal interest and relevance to their particular duties.

"There has been a strong push for more training of rural law enforcement officers for quite some time. The events of September 11th have brought the issue even more to the forefront," said Lt. Gary Hoffman, Director of Training, Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, Co-developer of CEdAC and FLETC Distance Learning Field Supervisor. "The VERTEX program allowed us to reach more trainees with the same budget and gave them the flexibility to choose which courses they wanted to take and from where they would take them. This really helped get people involved and excited."

The program saw dramatic cost savings and increases in participation compared to other training methods:

-- $295,868.00 saved on travel expenses

-- A 226% increase in the number of people trained in Charlotte County

-- A 144% increase in the number of people trained in Levy County

-- An additional $576.00 per officer was saved since they could remain at their
duty stations during training and didn't need to have shifts covered or work
overtime.

The virtual solution was available to students 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from any Internet-accessible location. This flexibility allowed law enforcement personnel to take classes from duty stations, home, and even courthouses while awaiting cases going to trial. The report identified that training was accessed during the pilot program in the following manner:

-- Work - 38%

-- Home and work - 36%

-- Home - 23%

-- College/University - 1%

-- Work, home and other - 1%

The report also tracked when the courses were accessed throughout the day. The most common access times were from noon to 6 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to midnight, but there were literally participants using the courseware 24 hours a day.

While 73% of the participants had never taken a course over the Internet before, after completing the pilot program all of them felt that Web-based training should be available to other law enforcement professionals around the country. Ninety-nine percent of the participants said that they would recommend this method of training to others.

"FLETC needed a very flexible solution that could be adapted to work with any number of participants," said Jeff Kidwell, VERTEX Solutions' account manager. "While there are obvious advantages to Web-based training, the courses can also be adapted to instructor-led, computer-based training, book and video classes depending on the requirements, without sacrificing the consistency of the course content."

By building a distributed learning architecture, the VERTEX team has laid the initial groundwork for providing greater consistency and standardization of law enforcement training nationwide.

As the pilot program participants reported, having personnel throughout various departments and agencies trained on the same material would facilitate uniformity and help interdepartmental and interagency operations run more smoothly. Based on the success of the Florida pilot, similar programs are being initiated with other jurisdictions.

About VERTEX Solutions

Headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, VERTEX Solutions is in the business of enhancing performance by improving the way individuals, teams and organizations learn within the federal government.

Their experienced and multidisciplinary team can provide end-to-end learning solutions covering a wide range of planning, information technology, content development, business process reengineering, and change management interventions.

VERTEX has implemented enterprise-level learning programs for federal government agencies and private sector corporations ranging in size from 10,000 - 240,000 employees. For more information, call 703/564-7085 or visit www.vertexsolutions.com.