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The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.

November - 2009 - issue > Company Spotlight

KESDEE: A Global E-learning Portal for the Financial Sector

Zoya Anna Thomas
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Zoya Anna Thomas
In 2006, Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) signed a multi-year contract with KESDEE for licensing KESDEE’s e-learning solutions for the training of it’s globally spread staff. The reason for making this choice was clear – KESDEE is the largest financial e-learning company in the world that provides courses customized to customer needs. Today, the SCB employees access its e-learning courses through a private label e-learning portal developed by KESDEE, which incorporates the Standard Chartered logo, look, and feel on every screen. All 700 e-learning courses of KESDEE are mapped to the competencies that are needed for different employee groups within SCB and have been repackaged accordingly.

The San Diego, CA based KESDEE’s off-the-shelf e-learning catalog consists of a comprehensive portfolio of e-learning courses on finance, accounting, insurance, and risk management. Moreover, the company also provides Web based tutorials for certification exams in risk management and financial analysis (ePRM, eFRM, eAPRM, and eCFA among others).

What makes this firm a frontrunner is its customized course offerings. For instance, in a case when the client is an India-based company, KESDEE includes case studies from the region and tunes the course material keeping in mind the regulations prevalent in India and localizes the content to make it relevant to the country.

The very fact that the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System uses KESDEE’s e-learning portal speaks volumes for the firm. Also, among its clients are prestigious organizations like, J.P. Morgan Chase, the Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, Deloitte, and Citigroup.

Leading its highly innovative and specialized team is Swarna Srinivas, a graduate from Harvard University, whose vision is to further expand KESDEE’s global presence. Originally the firm focused only on the B2B market that comprises of enterprise clients. But Swarna led the company’s entry into the B2C markets and has since started a new division that focuses on eCoaches (Web based certification tutorials) and retail sales. A regular face at international business forums, Swarna has had the distinction of being invited to address global conferences. In fact, early this year Swarna was invited to speak at ICELW (International Conference on E-learning in the Workplace) held at Columbia University in New York, where she elaborated on e-learning as a source of value. She has been invited to present a paper titled ‘E-learning: Moving up the Corporate value chain’ at the prestigious Online Educa Berlin 2009.


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