Today, we come back to the French market with one of its precursor: OnlineFormapro. Its offering includes a full range of software, off-the-shelf content and dedicated services. Now if you consider its customer references, you have one of the leaders of the French market.

So today, I am proud to welcome Michèle GUERRIN, CEO of OnlineFormapro.

Sébastien FRAYSSE (SF) – Before paying particular attention to your LMS – Online Manager – could you briefly present OnlineFormapro and your software range?

Michèle GUERRIN (MG) – Company Onlineformapro, created in 1999, is the publisher of a global fullweb e-learning solution. Our solution includes an LMS (OnlineManager), an authoring tools suite (OnlineAuteur), a collaborative work platform (OnlineAgora) and a webconference (OnlineVisio). Moreover, we publish e-learning contents with an on-shelf contents catalogue (office automation, Management, basic knowledge, health related trades, accountancy…) and we design trade-specific developments in a large number of activities sectors (Banks, Department stores, Medical, Industry, Services…).

Our customer segmentation is varied. We hold more than 350 customers like Leroy Merlin, SFR, APRR, Start People, Michelin, Novartis, Celio, Mc Donald’s, Vallourec, Schneider Electric as well as more than 40 universities, Ministries and training centers. This type of customers can also be found on the international level (Senegal, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, the Ivory Coast, Quebec, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain…).

SF – The e-Learning market in general and the LMS one in particular are very competitive markets. How do you manage to get distinguished within these markets?

MG – OnlineManager has been the first French LMS. From the start, it has offered a multi-level, multi-lingual, multi-profile management and has integrated collaborative work environments. It could already be interfaced with GDRH software or LDAP directories. These functionalities can still be found in most LMSs today. Nevertheless, enriched with our experience and always paying close attention to our customers’ needs, we keep on improving our LMS to remain ahead of time. As an example, nowadays there is much talk about « webservices », what we already offered by 2005.
Moreover, our LMS, associated to the OnlineAuteur suite, is by the way a fullweb LCMS, allowing the trainers and teachers to get access to the creation of quasi-professional contents.

Our primary concern has always been to combine « technological performance », « ergonomics » and « use easiness », assets which are acknowledged by all our customers.

Because of our anteriority and our varied experiences, we can provide our customers with a support and services which are really appreciated as they are based on numerous actually experienced situations.

SF – Without going into a detailed listing of the different functionalities offered by Online Manager, what are, in your mind, its strong assets and differentiating factors?

MG – According to our customers, adopting OnlineManager is quite simple, rapid and friendly. Effectively, we pay particular attention to ergonomics and graphical interface, which helps to forget the computing environment.

Its deployment is rapid and its robustness demonstrated.

We propose a complete customization to perfectly match the functional needs and the visual identity of each of our customers.

SF – Do you commercialize Online Manager independently, without the other layers of your offer? Or do you consider that your LMS is part of a whole (tools and services included) and is valuable as such?

MG – Our offer is both global and modular. It is proposed in SaaS or acquisition modes.

The global solution, hosting and service included, is a securing solution for some customers. However, we commercialize each layer of our solution in an independent way.

SF – What shall be your future development axes? Which new functionalities or capabilities do you judge important to develop in the coming years?

MG – We remain faithful to our constant concern for innovation. Our R&D team is already working on the next version of OnlineManager which shall notably take into account the training different diffusion supports (mobile phone, tactil tablet, web TV…) as well as the informal learning modes.

SF – Thank you very much for this great interview. I invite our readers to visit the OnlineFormapro website, as well as its very interesting blog.