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How
do businesses thrive in the New Economy?
One key way is by insuring that managers and employees
continually hone their professional skills and keep up to
date on techniques for team leading, managing, strategic
planning, marketing, human resource development, and
customer service.
To help members of its B2B trading network use these
benefits for their employees—on a barter basis—BarterItOnline.com
today announced an alliance with Nashua, N.H.-based
SkillSoft, a leading provider of e-Learning services
critical to corporate growth in the New Economy.
“Web-delivered, self-directed courses and performance
support tools have proven to be a cost-effective,
efficient, and productive way of staying current and
helping to produce bottom-line benefits,” said Richard
L. Cravatts, CEO and Founder of BarterItOnline.com.
“Company-sponsored education programs also have a
high-perceived value among employees, and are instrumental
in instilling loyalty, productivity, and retention in the
workforces that have access to them.”
SkillSoft's courses will be offered in two products: ''The
Professional Effectiveness Library'' and ''The Business
Education Library.'' The first focuses on teaching
communication skills. The second covers technical business
skills such as sales and finance. Some of the individual
courses are ''How To Lead A Team,'' ''High Impact Business
Writing'' and ''Sexual Harassment Awareness.''
“We see being able to provide online corporate education
and training to our members and their employees as a
perfect example of how barter can be used to leverage a
company’s growth,” said Cravatts. “Bartering
products and services from your company to help improve
the quality of your workforce makes good economic sense,
especially since America corporations are currently
spending some $50 billion a year on continuing education
to upgrade their employees’ abilities and skill
levels.”
And while online education has only captured a tiny
portion of a global education market pegged at $2
trillion, Framingham, MA-based IDG has estimated that its
share will grow to $15 billion by 2002. Other analysts are
enthusiastic about their projections for the future of
online learning, as well: ninety per cent of businesses,
corporations and higher education institutions, they say,
will be using the internet for online learning in the next
few years.
“In a time when a whole new industry is being creating
online, it seemed logical that options for bartering be
applied to the New Economy,” said Cravatts. “ For that
reason we’ve included some innovative services on
BarterItOnline.com to help businesses ramp up quickly,
competitively, and in a way that conserves the sometimes
limited infusions of venture capital—online education
being the key resource for us to help strengthen our
users’ businesses.”
BarterItOnline takes the unique step of creating a
user-friendly business ‘portal,’ with tools and
resources for doing business more effectively–in this
case, however, all the tools are related to operating,
promoting, making more profitable, and expanding one’s
business through barter.
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