Latitude Edutech: Creating Future Perfect eLearning Content for Corporate & Institutes





Latitude Edutech: Creating Future Perfect eLearning Content for Corporate & Institutes Date: Wednesday , December 02, 2015 The global eLearning market has sustained a steady growth with increasing mobile consumers and India is not far behind. It is the second largest eLearning market after the U.S. and is expected to grow more with government\'s $1.13 trillion Digital India initiative. DeiTY and MHRD endeavor to cover one million schools and 18,000 higher education institutes under the hood; the system is getting robust every day. Even with favourable policies and in-develop infrastructure, eLearning in India still lacks exceptional content. In this market, most of the eLearning companies go for robust platforms that enable them to host quality content, but the gap left between quality content and a robust platform required immediate attention. Hence Poornima Shenoy (Founder & CEO of Latitude), an edupreneur established Latitude Edutech realizing the value of sound content specifically for the Indian eLearning industry. Delivering End-to-end Quality Content Started in 2011 as an organization focused on training and skilling for students, Latitude pivoted to creating and delivering customized content for online learning to management schools, universities and corporate houses in 2013-14. Offering a comprehensive package of PEP Advantage - People, eLearning Experience and Process along with newly created DDC - Dedicated Development Centers for corporate customers - this eLearning startup has marked its presence delivering capabilities which are hinged on strong project management and domain strengths. For a long time now, eLearning has no longer been just a matter of convenience; it is the choice especially for corporates who are looking to train employees at various geographies and particularly field staff who cannot be disturbed from their operational activities. With the advancement of technology, the smartphone is the fastest growing tool for learning online. Corporates can provide a consistent content and delivery and in the local language. Poornima explains, \"Our model is fairly unique as it takes responsibility at every stage from ideation to uploading on an LMS. Our project management which is driven by arduous processes and the content driven by Subject Matter Experts makes it robust and reliable. We respect our customers\' IP and safeguard it at all times\". India being one of the toughest marketsis more price sensitive than most of the countries and witnesses long sell-cycles. Realizing the sensitivities involved in the market, Latitude is now moving towards a royalty-based model where costs and revenues are shared and this underlines the faith in the products that this startup creates in addition to a long-term commitment to partner with its customers. Poornima adds, \"Our track record is our strongest testimony. ELearning is the future and is inescapable. It needs a long term perspective and commitment\". Building eLearning\'s Future In a hierarchy-free work environment where content generation is the main business motive, people are the chief resource. Latitude has a large number the women with strong capabilities and its youngest member is just 23-years old. Speaking about work-culture and training, Gandhali Sewak, the Head of eLearning at Latitude expounds, \"We want our people to work in an environment where we respect divergent views, honor integrity and favor growth.Besides encouraging enrollment for online learning courses, we hold internal workshops where experts from diverse fields - Instructional Design and Client Management amongst many others share their experiences\". Powered by Aarin Capital and Nature Eco Ventures in a seed round, Latitude is now looking to scale up the business. While business comes chiefly from referrals, Latitude\'s diligence in delivering complex eLearning content using instructional design, videos, graphics, strong quality control and project management have been the key reason for their success. \"We are proud of the pilot project that we have done for NPTEL that saw translation into 7 Indian languages for a technical subject like Basic Electronics,\" says Gaurav Punjabi who drives their business activities. While transforming trends in technology is whirring education, convenience has become paramount for all. Through a robust back-end system, Latitude\'s journey will get more robust as they manage to maintain the quality of their output. eLearning is the bridge area between IT services and education and will be the medium in years to come. Panel Key Management Poornima Shenoy, Founder & CEO An edupreneur and technocrat, Poornima has been in the leading positions throughout her career. Focussed on building an eLearning delivery team addressing new verticals, she is now leading the charge of Latitude with her diverse experience of over two decades. *Gandhali Sewak, Head of eLearning* An engineer by profession, Gandhali brings in over 14 years of multi-geographical experience in content development, eLearning and project management. *Gaurav Punjabi, Head of Business* The founder member of the NASSCOM team in Bangalore, Gaurav has led successful business development career in Manipal Education Group, IESA and now heading business of Latitude. *Office:* Bangalore *Services-:* Content creation for eLearning with innovative models for universities and industry. *Achievements:* - Trained nearly 2000 engineering students with support from Govt. of Karnataka - Working on new industries like renewable energy and healthcare *Customers:* Applied Solar Technologies, eUniversity, HAL, IFIM Business School, iNurture, Innove, Janaagraha, NTT Data, Quest, Tata Solar Power, Simplilearn, and TUV Rheinland amongst others *Advisors:* - Umashankar Vishwanath - Pankaj Saran *Board Members:* - Alok Sharma, NEV - Rajesh Moorti, Aarin Capital - Dr. Nita Sharma - Satish Shenoy, Accumen