American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE): TopClass LMS Case Study

WBT Systems provides exceptional service to deliver a complete TopClass LMS implementation and integration with Personify, to meet a tight deadline for AIChE.

eLearning Challenge

American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is a leading organization for chemical engineering professionals, with over 49,000 members from over 100 countries.

Having recently upgraded their AMS to Personify360, AIChE was looking to take the next step in the evolution of their educational programs. With 36 eLearning courses to migrate and a desire to expand their educational offering, they needed a system that could allow them to offer a more robust and scalable service and a vendor that could deliver a complete implementation with integration in a few short months.

“After the comprehensive RFP process, we found that WBT Systems offered a flexible product that could be implemented within our timeline and had the best combination of what we were looking for. We were shown an impressive demo of TopClass working in sync with Personify and it had a professional look and feel that blew the competition away.” - Amit Gupta, Chief Information Officer

LMS Requirements

The process to look for a new Learning Management System started with 40 potential candidates. AIChE had three main requirements:

• It was important to AIChE to select a vendor that “cared about the needs of an association”, which are very different to those of other organizations. Their previous learning management system had not focused on the association market as a distinct segment and, as a result, did not provide sufficient support for the association’s needs.
• Their new Association LMS had to include a proven and complete integration with Personify360 association management system. This requirement was critical as the AMS is at the center of all of the association’s activities. AIChE wanted the new vendor to offer this integration off-the-shelf and maintain it as a standard product component.
• Their new vendor had to have a proven track-record at meeting very tight deadlines for completion of new implementations that include a complete migration of historical data from a legacy LMS.

The Solution

AIChE selected TopClass LMS from WBT Systems because of their strong experience and reputation for providing comprehensive learning solutions for associations. The ability of TopClass LMS to handle the complex educational requirements of an international association and its proven two-way integration bridge with Personify360 met all the technical requirements. However, it was the flexibility and capability of the WBT Systems services and support teams which were the deciding factors in AIChE’s selection. WBT Systems were able to provide flexible pricing that worked for the association’s needs, and commit to a two-and-a-half month timeline for implementation of the new TopClass LMS and a complete migration from the legacy LMS, to meet AIChE’s timeframe requirements.

TopClass Results

WBT Systems provided a “service win” with how quickly they were able to move 36 eLearning courses and 30 million rows of SCORM interaction data from the legacy LMS to TopClass. The migration was completed in less than three months and switchover was seamless to users. The ability to reflect user engagement with eLearning in Personify360, AIChE’s Association Management System was a strategic value-add, and new reports filled gaps in business intelligence versus the previous LMS.

“The success of TopClass LMS is most evident in the significantly reduced number of customer issues. With over 500 AIChE professional and student members actively interacting in the LMS every day, there is less than one user issue per day. TopClass has made our lives and our users lives much easier.” - Anne A. Schaeffer, Director, AIChE Academy

Looking to the Future

Three months after the completion of the TopClass LMS implementation, AIChE embarked on a new educational initiative requiring complex workflows and custom development . After careful consideration of a major platform for automating workflows and the option to perform custom development in-house, AIChE elected to use WBT Systems to extend TopClass to meet the needs instead.

American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is a leading organization for chemical engineering professionals, with over 49,000 members from over 100 countries. As a part of their educational offerings, AIChE offers Chemical Engineering Professionals and students eLearning training courses, developed by renowned Chemical Engineers as well as other experts from the industry and academia.