Epic makes the Heartbeat faster

Epic, the UK's leading e-learning company, has created a high quality online programme for BUPA in record time. From initial meeting to delivery, including testing, the global health and care organisation's first foray into e-learning took less than five weeks to produce.

Heartbeat Product Knowledge is part of a blended learning programme that aims to provide the sales and customer care departments of BUPA UK insurance business with the appropriate product knowledge to deliver the 'Heartbeat' personal health plan, an umbrella brand for a range of medical insurance options aimed at the 'personal' market.

The tight timeframe was required in order to prepare customer-facing staff for a launch-to-market in early November. Factors enabling Epic to meet the deadline were good relations with the client and Epic's unique processes, developed during 18 years of operation.

The design for the programme was produced (literally) overnight. Initial storyboarding of the content, something that would ordinarily take between six and seven days, was accomplished in two, with the client on-site at Epic. Time was further saved throughout the project through online collaborative working based around ECHO, Epic's extranet facility for clients. And Epic's proprietary production methodology, CONSTRUCT, cut time in production through use of a template-driven script-to-screen methodology.

Neither was quality sacrificed for speed. The finished programme is an engaging, highly interactive piece of learning that includes audio interviews with the project sponsors and decision-based simulations allowing users to apply their learning in realistic scenarios - bringing the product to life in ways which are not possible using purely traditional means.

Phil Knight, BUPA Head of Training & Development, UK Membership, said: 'One of the critical success factors for the launch of our new BUPA Heartbeat options is ensuring our people are familiar with every element of the new schemes. This was a complicated exercise, because we are introducing five new options to our personal health plan, all of which need to be individually tailored to each person's needs and circumstances. Epic gave us the opportunity to do this using e-learning, an innovative and creative approach which makes it much easier for people to absorb information. Epic was able to turn our brief round in record time and we are delighted with the work they have done for us.'

Ian Farringdon, Director at Epic, said: 'E-learning is ideally suited to support the delivery of product knowledge. But if it cannot be developed quickly and to a sufficient standard, then it loses its value. We've worked hard to establish a set of best practices that mean we can work quickly and efficiently to meet demanding deadlines for product launches, while also being scaleable to cover full product portfolios.'