Amfori simplifies its blended learning management with Totara Learn

Amfori represents the interests of retailers, brands and importers worldwide. The organisation promotes the values of international trade and sustainable supply chains via trainings and workshops, and monitoring processes.

The Challenge

With 1,900 members and 41,000 factories or producers reached, the amount of people to train is enormous. Amfori needed a platform that was tailored to their target audience and their growth.

Another challenge was the complex process of organising training. One factory can be linked to multiple members. Amfori had to make sure these factories are only contacted once and efforts are not duplicated. Also, Amfori members needed a clear overview of the programs that their producers have started or completed.

Offering training in multiple languages for culturally diverse countries and members with different levels of education was another challenge.

Finally, Amfori wanted to be able to monitor the impact of their training and the evolution of participants in the learning process.

The Solution

Neo constructed an LMS for Amfori using existing Totara Learn functionalities, and added extra features tailored to Amfori’s needs. The result is a user-friendly platform called Amfori Academy, in which Amfori members can manage and assign training to their complex supply chains.

The most challenging part of the development was integrating the complex supply chain hierarchy of all Amfori members. Neo had to map it, integrate it into the standard Totara LMS setup and then make it easy to use for every member. They also had to make sure that members only have access to the data of their own supply chains. And finally, because of the complex supply chain hierarchy, they had to develop a tailored report module. That way, members can easily track results of producers within their supply chain through reports.

As well as this, Neo integrated flexible audiences, something Amfori is really pleased with. These predefined audiences are linked with fixed rights, certificates and programs. The only thing Amfori has to do is add a new user; everything else is fully automated.

Recently, Neo added an auditor program that allows Amfori to follow up on their auditors. That way, auditors get access to the Amfori Academy and can join a certification program to become a certified auditor. This is important to guarantee the quality of the audits conducted and to make sure these are in line with the requirements of Amfori-BSCI.

Because Neo took the time to fully think through the basic structure of this LMS and the implementation of the complex supply chain, they are now able to easily add extra features like the auditor program to make Amfori’s platform even better. In the end, the platform was able to successfully merge Amfori needs and way of working with the LMS structure of Totara.

“Neo was able to offer us not only a technological solution but they also understood the business solution. They took the time to understand what our real needs were, analyzed them and challenged us on it. They weren’t there to just sell something that already existed, but to deliver something that met our core needs.

Neo understood the importance of a user-friendly platform as we have many different users and each and every one of them has to be able to use the system effectively.”

The Results

When Amfori started the project, they were looking for a platform that would simplify their e-learning, and the registration and sign-in for their workshops. Their Totara Learn environment now offers a lot more than that. It hosts a place for all of their capacity-building activities.

Amfori is using everything the platform has to offer, including workshops, webinars, webcasts, informative videos of how to use the system, quizzes and document sharing. At the end of each course, Amfori can acknowledge that participants have completed it by unlocking a certificate of achievement. Members can also use the platform to engage with Amfori. For instance, participants can provide feedback on the materials and the trainers.

Amfori has organised more than 300 face-to-face sessions in the last year in various countries around the globe.