ORTEC transforms staff & client training

The challenge

Before implementing Totara Learn, ORTEC faced significant roadblocks in its learning and development strategy. These challenges affected both internal employees and external customers, leading to inefficiencies and limitations in scaling training programs.

Lack of a unified Learning Platform for employees 
Internally, there was no structured learning system for employees. Training programs were scattered, and compliance and certification processes lacked standardization. ORTEC needed to implement a learning strategy to improve employee onboarding, expertise, and continuous development.

Suboptimal and isolated customer training 
In ORTEC’s former LMS, each customer had a separate course setup, leading to content duplication and significant maintenance efforts. Updating learning materials across multiple instances was time-consuming, costly, and suboptimal. ORTEC lacked a centralized and flexible approach that allowed both customer-specific and shared content without compromising ease of maintenance.

The solution

To address the challenges of fragmented learning and inefficient customer training, ORTEC implemented Totara Learn, establishing a centralized yet flexible platform for both employees and customers. This transformation has optimized training processes, enhanced accessibility, and improved scalability across the organization.

Many clients require the ability to supplement ORTEC’s standard e-learnings with their own methods and procedures. To support this, Totara’s permission settings have been configured to grant client-administrators limited editing rights, enabling them to tailor training content to their specific needs while preserving the integrity of ORTEC’s core materials.

Enhanced learning experience and business impact 

The impact of this transformation is evident in several key areas: 

• Increased training reach: ORTEC now conducts over 75 classroom training sessions per year for more than 1,000 employees, complemented by a growing library of e-learning courses, certification programs, and digital badges.
  
• Comprehensive training delivery: ORTEC provides a wide range of online training sessions and self-paced e-learnings, making scalable learning a reality.
  
  With the onboarding program, job-based learning, learning paths, and classroom training, ORTEC equips managers with insights into employee development. This enables easy one-on-one discussions and helps prioritize projects by focusing on key learning objectives short- and long-term.

• Optimized software implementation: By deploying e-learnings prior to a project, the customer becomes familiar more quickly with the terminology, the look and feel of ORTEC’s software products, and can then quickly work with consultants to achieve the right setup for their business processes. 

• Stronger international engagement: ORTEC’s e-learning solutions are gaining global traction, reducing lead times by attracting more customers and accelerating software implementation. Clients increasingly rely on them for both training and ongoing reference, further enhancing software adoption.. 

Without Totara, managing ORTEC’s extensive learning ecosystem—spanning both employee development and customer education—would not be feasible. By leveraging Totara Learn, ORTEC continues to enhance the learning experience, improve efficiency, and support business growth through a structured, scalable, and adaptable training platform. 

The results

Centralizing all learning activities in one platform has transformed training into a true team effort. The reduction of manual work—at around 40%—freed up valuable time to focus on high-quality content, developing e-learning modules, and refining learning paths.

The 40% less time spent on administration translates directly into more time dedicated to content and learning innovation.

Additionally, the recurring curriculum setup is now far more efficient, making annual planning significantly easier by automating course rollovers, streamlining enrollment processes, and minimizing manual adjustments.

• Cost savings through automation and efficiency 
  Transitioning from Excel sheets to Moodle and then to Totara in 2021 significantly streamlined operations. This shift enabled rapid growth, expanding the portfolio from Netherlands-based seminar training to a global offering of both seminar and e-learning programs.

• Time saved on training delivery and administration 
  Managing training sessions across multiple time zones, handling waiting lists, tracking interest, and following up with participants has become far more efficient. With Totara, scheduling a curriculum is no longer a manual burden— All administrative tasks for setting up the training sessions used to take around 2 to 3 months. With Totara Learn this is now reduced to three to four weeks.

• Speed of project rollout and implementation 
  The ability to swiftly roll out training programs worldwide has accelerated learning initiatives. The structured and centralized approach makes it easier to manage both in-house and external learning.

• Improved learner engagement and completion rates 
  Providing a seamless learning experience has contributed to higher engagement and course completion rates, which saw a growth of 56% from 2022 to 2024.

Enhanced tracking and reporting accuracy 
In 2024, management reports were integrated into Totara Dashboards, allowing managers to track team performance effortlessly. Future enhancements in 2025 will include insights into external training activities and integrations with platforms like Udemy.