Mr. Purlich, knowledge pills remind me of medicine - do you consider yourself as a doctor for companies?


Daniel Purlich: In a way you could see it like that. But what we really want to communicate is that our knowledge modules can be taken as quickly as pills and do correct certain deficiencies. Before I started this business last year, I worked as head of eLearning in the Spanish telecom company Telefonica. I was responsible for 100.000 users, and in Spain everybody uses this expression for small bits of knowledge. And the translation works just as well.


And which ingredients are inside your pills?


Daniel Purlich: We wanted to develop content for employees so that they gain the minimum skills that are important for their company. Most people are so involved in their special expertise area that they don't acquire the general knowledge and skills everybody needs at their workplace - no matter in which position the person may be. Innovative companies need efficient and updated staff.


Such as?


Daniel Purlich: For example, we offer training in self-organization, e-mail management, PC organization, phone techniques, time management and how to become more efficient in web research. We also train communication skills, better listening, emotional mastery, public speaking and a lot more. For managers we offer content on leadership skills, managing change, motivating staff, project management and intercultural skills. All in all, we have more than a hundred knowledge pills in 14 categories.


But these are all soft skills. Isn't it difficult to train these qualifications online?


Daniel Purlich: Not really. Of course, you will never replace 10 hours of presentation training by an online session of 15 minutes. But knowledge pills are a good way to explain basic principles of soft skills and to get a better organized and more productive staff members. We see our content as a just-in-time survival kit for all those topics in which the co-workers would normally receive no training at all.


But why can't the users acquire that know-how in regular seminars?


Daniel Purlich: They could, but they need all their time in the job. If they attend regular seminars, they can only afford three or four sessions per year. That is not enough, and when they finish a course the needs at their workplace might have changed. Our knowledge pills are designed to take 15 minutes, sometimes up to 20 depending on the speed of the learner. But it is much more efficient than not being able to participate in traditional seminars.


There are so many different learning types - some prefer text, others animation - which didactic concept do you follow?


Daniel Purlich: We use bullet points and text, visual elements like photographs, diagrams, cartoons, illustrations and animation, but you won't find flash animated pictures in our courses. On the one hand many of the abstract topics cannot easily be illustrated; on the other hand Flash interactive sequences would consume too much time out of the 15 minutes.


What about interaction? Studies have shown that interactive learning content works best for training success.


Daniel Purlich: That is not the case for all target groups. This may hold true for the younger people who have grown up with internet, but the older generation does not necessary like that. Therefore the main but not only interactive element is the quiz at the end of each module.


How do you assure content quality?


Daniel Purlich: By expert quality and the iterative and interactive development process. Highly qualified specialists are able to structure their content precisely and express their knowledge in 3500 to 4500 words - that's the limit for 15 minutes.

In first discussions with authors they often say that this is not enough to explain the matter and some practitioners send us drafts with 5000 to 6000 words. If they cannot reduce it further, they are no real experts. But this never happened so far. Those who take the challenge are glad to have such a condensed material that they can also use for their students and clients, because most of them have published books but no internet articles.


Do you only offer standard or also individual courses?


Daniel Purlich: Mainly off-the-shelf courses, but if companies need content in a specific topic, we can produce it for them. But the format will always be the same, for the content creation we use the tool from Ready-Go that supports all standards like AICC and SCORM. But we do not offer tailor-made multimedia productions.


Who produces your content?


Daniel Purlich: We work with approximately 50 authors from universities and companies. They are experts in their domain, for examples professors, business practitioners and consultants. They don't need to know the authoring tool; they use a word template - like chapter titles, summaries and fill-in-the-blanks tests - and we transform it into learning software. If our clients wish to produce their own content and have the corresponding experts inhouse, we can show them the procedure.


But authoring tools are so easy to use nowadays?


Daniel Purlich: Maybe content creation has become easier in the last few years, but it still takes a day to learn the functions. Many authors do not want to spend that much time, especially when they only produce one or two knowledge pills. Only experts who are involved in longer projects are willing to deal with any authoring tool.


Do the companies need a learning platform in order to use your content?


Daniel Purlich: No, it is a stand-alone product. But those who have a learning system and want to track the time and answers of their staff, they can do so via the AICC and SCORM interface. Some companies install the pills in their intranet and make it part of a personal development program.


How much do your knowledge pills cost?


Daniel Purlich: We charge 10 Euro per pill and user. For example, if a company buys 6 modules for 80 users, they have to pay 4800 Euro. The maximum price for an individual module is 1500 Euro. That means that the company only has to pay for 150 users per knowledge pill. Some companies plan to provide more than 150 staff members and don't want to check who is using it - they choose this license model from the beginning.


How do you look for clients?


Daniel Purlich: We work with exclusive distributors - for example in Germany we cooperate with Balog & Co. GmbH. We also have partners in USA, Canada, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands. We are planning to enhance this network of partners in other countries.