Mike Booth is an enthusiast, not in the train-spotting way, but with an infectious, inclusive, get-up-and-go attitude toward his job at Cable & Wireless. After several years in the banking sector, he joined the telecoms group in 1993 as one of the first thirty hires for a new contact centre.

As C&W learning technologies manager, Booth oversees the company's eLearning strategy, its learning infrastructure, a learning-and-development helpdesk, and the administration and development of eLearning solutions. "Being part of a huge transformation is exciting, but not for the faint hearted", says Booth, who has pushed eLearning onto the executive agenda. He has backing from an HR director who is an advocate of the subject and by managers who are themselves users of eLearning solutions.

ELearning was not always held in such high esteem, however, and it is to Booth's credit that it has become pivotal to C&W's transformation. He explains: "In 2006, I had to rethink the learning model, as the old one we were using was no longer fit for purpose. We needed a pragmatic, flexible, and lower-cost solution that could deliver speed to market."

"This meant moving from an enterprise-wide learning management system with a hardware-and-software infrastructure that was very expensive, to a hosted service model. This reduced operating costs and got eLearning onto the agenda at board level."

Booth selected SkillSoft to manage C&W's eLearning infrastructure - which internally is called iLeARN - and its learning and development helpdesk. A second key partnership was made with eLearning developer Kineo.

With infrastructure and development outsourced, Booth does not lead a large team of in-house learning professionals and feels his role is as much about governance as managing the team that runs the outsource contracts. From this vantage point, he can see the big picture and respond quickly to needs for learning.

Next on Booth's list is a platform built by performance-management specialist SuccessFactors called 'Your Career'. It will be integrated with iLeARN so that colleagues can track their careers, fill any gaps by dipping into the eLearning infrastructure, and discover what it takes to move from one job to another. The solution will also keep managers up to date on their colleagues' training and give the company a holistic view of where skills are focused and where there may be shortages.