Online training firm strikes deal with US company

Intuition (www.intuition web.com), the Dublin-based specialist in online training for financial markets has concluded a deal with US company, HorizonLive.com, to integrate live learning into Intuition's products.

The added feature will allow students take part in live or archived virtual classroom sessions using an audio-equipped computer with access to the Internet. Intuition is 90 per cent owned by entrepreneur, Mr Dermot Desmond.

According to Mr David Harrison, chief executive officer of Intuition, the technology alliance offers a breakthrough in the area of Web-based training, particularly in Europe.

"Internet training has purported to improve on traditional training methods, but this is the first time users can really get a virtual classroom feel," he said.

Using the distance learning product, remotely-based students can join in a class with a live tutor. Through Intuition's online campus website they can prepare for exams by interacting once a week with subject experts provided by Intuition.

The live learning feature will be made available to all Intuition clients, which include Deutsche Bank, Chase Manhattan, NatWest, Barclays and Reuters' entire internal certification programme network.

An instructor or host leading a classroom discussion can speak naturally to participants by using live audio and video, while displaying content materials on each participant's computer screen. HorizonLive's software runs entirely within any standard Web browser over a basic Internet connection.

HorizonLive's product allows organisations deliver classes through most corporate firewalls using their existing intranet.

Last year Intuition recorded revenues of $4 million (€3.99 million), but has not yet reported a profit. About $5 million dollars have been reinvested in the business in the last three years, and there are currently 100 people employed between its Dublin, New York, London and Hong Kong offices. To date all its expansions have been privately funded, and Mr Harrison expects this to remain the case in the short term.

"If the scale of the business opportunity for Intuition is such [that] we would need public money then we will do it, but that is not the case at the moment," he said.