"It’s all about connecting people and capturing their knowledge share. When we started developing our altoconnect, we focused very much on learning communities because we believe this is where the future of learning lies", say Vicky Jones, MD at Commelius.

The new social-learning platform allows businesses to connect their employees by building learning communities of best practice, where they can exchange ideas and information, share hints and tips, and help each other. It also makes it possible for learning and development teams to easily capture and measure performance of such groups and get involved in the social-learning experience that takes place among their learners.

Jones adds, "The first place people go to when looking for information is the internet and social media. Social networking has become a big part of our everyday lives. We often follow our favourite newspapers, people who have something interesting to share, and join groups with similar interests. It’s the essence of social learning, but the majority of it takes place outside the reach of learning and development managers, so they can’t capture and measure it. And as much as altoconnect is about connecting learners, it’s also about giving the L&D team an opportunity to observe the social learning that takes place in their organisations, track it, get involved, and give direction to this informal way of gaining knowledge."

Already used by some of Commelius’s largest clients, altoconnect will be available on the market from this August.