Epic prototypes Access 2 Learning for The Royal Bank of Scotland Group

Epic Group plc, the UK's leading e-learning company, has produced the interactive prototype for a centralised portal for all learning within The Royal Bank of Scotland Group (the RBS group). The Access to Learning (A2L) portal, in its final form, is planned to increase cross-group efficiency and support the implementation of a new learning strategy within the RBS group, which will see a move to a more learner-centric model within the organisation.

The prototype is now being presented to the appropriate managers and stakeholders within the Bank as a means of demonstrating the functionality of the proposed portal, securing buy-in from these stakeholders and creating an appetite for A2L. The prototype will also help, in this analysis phase, to identify what are liable to be the most useful and used resources.

The RBS group is the fifth largest banking group in the world, comprising eight divisions and well-known financial services names such as Direct Line and NatWest. During the development of the prototype, Epic developed multiple personas to represent the different user groups who will use the final portal - as a means of helping to understand the needs, requirements and expectations of this broad audience.

'User stories' were produced by Epic for each of the three dominant user groups: managers; 'structured' users - those who are likely to follow a defined learning path to remedy an identified performance gap; and 'unstructured users' - those with no defined learning route, who would interact with the A2L portal to remedy a self-identified performance gap.

Epic has a long-standing relationship with the RBS group and was therefore able to work in close collaboration with the client, forging a strong working relationship based on mutual understanding and respect.

Dave Buglass of the RBS group said: 'We are delighted with the final output from Epic which has brought to life a concept which we've been working on for the past 10 months. Epic's experience and knowledge of portal developments has added a further dimension to our thinking and will allow us to move forward with more confidence during delivery of the project.'

Donald Clark, CEO of Epic Group plc said: 'The Royal Bank of Scotland Group has been a major success story in e-learning. This is the next step in what will continue to be one of the leading corporate e-learning initiatives in the world.'