Upside Learning has been short listed as a finalist for Red Herring’s Global 100 2009 Award, which recognises the year’s most promising private technology ventures from around the world based on their technological innovation, management strength, market size, investor record, customer acquisition, and financial health.

The 200 finalists for the 2009 edition of the Red Herring Global 100 Award have been selected from a pool of 1200 regional recipients or finalists of the Red Herring 100 Awards in 2007, 2008, or 2009, ranging from Asia, Europe, and North America. The nominees were evaluated on both quantitative and qualitative criteria such as financial performance, technology innovation, quality of management, execution of strategy, and integration into their respective industries.

This global recognition after having recently won the Red Herring 100 Asia 2008 Award is testimony to the specialist position that Upside Learning has been able to build in the areas of eLearning development and Learning Technology solutions.

Amit Garg, Director of Content Solutions at Upside Learning, says, “We are very happy to be included in the final list of 200 global companies. I would like to congratulate each and every member of Upside Learning who made this possible for us in an otherwise difficult year.”

Technology Solutions Director Amit Gautam adds, “It’s a great recognition to be one of the 200 global finalists. Everyone at Upside shares the excitement and the feeling of achievement as the year that just passed was definitely a challenging one.

This is the third recognition for Upside Learning in 2009, following its selection as a winner in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific 2009 Program and the receipt of two Apex 2009 Awards of Excellence.

Upside Learning has constantly strived to address the multifarious platforms in the technology space, mobile learning being one of the most important ones. The rise in the number of people using sophisticated mobile devices has only translated into a significant increase in demand for mobile applications based learning solutions. And catering to this demand is Upside Learning. Backed with a robust support of Innovations & New Product Development group, they have successfully designed and delivered a range of applications for the iPhone and Blackberry for some of their clients; and now have started Android development too.

What makes this special is the fact that mobile devices are becoming increasingly sophisticated by the day and developing applications for these is far different from typical eLearning as is seen on desktop computers. This is because some of the new phones come with operating systems that allow for installation and removal of applications on the device – something relatively new for mobile devices.

Upside Learning is happy to share the one such application for this popular platform which is freely available at the iTunes Store. This application, though not too fancy, and made only for free sharing is a testimony to Upside Learning’s technology acquaintance and designing capabilities.

The app – called Soccer Quiz – is a simple quiz that challenges the user’s knowledge about Soccer. Simple & entertaining, this quiz is one of the ‘easy to use’ games available on iTunes, and promises to entertain all soccer fans.

While the Soccer Quiz is a rudimentary quiz application, Upside Learning is working on more complex, richer and diverse applications.

Image Systems (ISE), the technology division of Al Bassam Corporation, has over 18 years of experience in providing knowledge solutions to its wide range of clients in Oil and Gas, Utility, Telecom, Government and Banking sectors. ISE helps its customers create cost-effective and engaging employee development programs tailored to their specific business challenges. Image System’s partnership with Upside Learning will help ISE go beyond the realms of traditional eLearning and offer its customers innovative solutions like Mobile Learning, Blended Learning and effective Custom eLearning solutions.

Image Systems and Upside Learning will work together to generate new business from the market and Upside Learning would be working on the projects from its India office. On-site placement of experienced eLearning development staff to manage the development cycle will be an option that Saudi Arabian clients can now benefit through this partnership. The ISE – Upside synergy brings the best of local business support and offshore development advantage to the clients in the region. The focus would be on industries like Oil and Gas, Refinery, Telecom, Utility, Banking, Defense, Education and the Government sector.

After great success in the US, UK, Australia & India, this marks Upside Learning’s entry into the Middle East market. The company’s entry in the region is backed by the high growth of eLearning in the Middle East, which has been projected to grow at a compound average growth rate of 33 per cent over the next five years.

“We are certain that our partnership with Image Systems will provide exhilarating new opportunities for both the companies. We are excited to enter Middle East with Image Systems and will continue to pursue our strategy of expanding our reach to key potential areas with a view to serving the global community.” says Amit Garg, Director of Content Solutions at Upside Learning.

A globally recognized leader in training outsourcing, custom eLearning development & LMS solutions, Upside Learning celebrated its 6th Anniversary on 7th April, 2010. Established 6 years ago as an outsourced eLearning solutions provider, the company has evolved from a small team operating out of a shared office to a 150-employee organization providing wide range of learning solutions to clients globally.

Over the last 6 years, Upside Learning has placed itself in a unique position where its customers can benefit from the wide range of solutions, Upside offers, including custom eLearning, mLearning, rapid authoring, game-based learning, blended learning & learning technologies. Today, admirably, Upside Learning works with a diverse client base varied in size (SMBs and global giants) and business domain across the globe.

Upside Learning has been consistently picking up awards & other recognition every year. It has won 5 Apex Awards since 2006 for excellent work in custom eLearning solutions. It is a proud recipient of the Deloitte’s Technology Fast500 Asia Pacific Program (2009 & 2008) and Deloitte Technology Fast50 India Program (2008). It has also won Red Herring 100 Asia Award (2008) and was adjudged Finalist of Red Herring Global 100 Program (2009). The 2008 Deloitte Fast50 India Program made Upside Learning the fastest growing eLearning company in India.

Many things have changed, but the one thing that has remained constant in Upside Learning’s journey is its way of looking at things, and creating innovative & effective learning solutions. With a constant endeavour to explore new technological avenues, the company has always taken steps to be at par with the ever-changing technology landscape and market, and, besides other investments, has set up a dedicated team for ‘Innovation and New Projects (INP)’.

On its 6th Anniversary, Upside Learning wishes to renew its commitment to the eLearning industry, its customers and other stakeholders, and hopes that it succeeds in its mission of providing effective eLearning solutions to the global community.

Upside Learning has put together a slideshow that summarizes the milestones it has crossed over the past six years, its achievements, and the recognition that has come its way so far.

You can view this slideshow on the Six Years of Innovative and Effective eLearning blog post, or directly on SlideShare.

Upside Learning is thrilled to launch Pune Layar – an augmented reality application for mobile phones that will let users find significant landmarks in and around Pune city. Currently available for mobile devices that run Android version 1.5 and above or the Apple iPhone 3GS, this is the first layer made specifically for any Indian city.

Layar is an augmented reality browser that helps users interact with their location using their phones and receive value added information. Upside Learning has constantly strived to address the multifarious platforms in the technology domain, mobile being one of the most important ones. It is this very commitment, backed by support of its Innovation team that has lead to the development of the Pune Layar.

The Pune Layar allows users to experience an innovative way to explore the city using their mobile phones by helping them find significant landmarks like museums, forts, monuments; buildings & landmarks; restaurants; places of worship and much more. Users can learn about the Point of Interest’s rating (popularity among users), its distance from the user’s current location, time of opening/closing (if applicable) and entry fee (if applicable). These Points of Interests (POIs) are nothing but various landmarks that hold some significance for tourists and the general public alike. Pune Layar connects the various POIs to their respective Wikipedia pages and websites (if available), allowing users to access more information. It also provides users directions to the POI from their current location using Google Maps, just at the click of a button.

Besides this, to help this application evolve and include more POIs over a period of time, Upside Learning has also created a facility for users to add their favorite landmark through a webpage
(http://www.upsidelayar.com/process/addpoi.php), using a smart-phone or a desktop computer. Users can also give their feedback through a Feedback page (http://www.upsidelayar.com/process/feedback.php). This will help the company to further enhance the performance of the application as per users’ suggestions.

One of the important aspects of this application is that it is free .*using the Layar application may incur data charges, please check with your provider*. By no means will the company charge users for searching and locating places, reading information, adding POIs etc. The use of Layar or other Augmented Reality application in the field of eLearning could be profound. Upside Learning’s focus is to use Layar in learning solutions and fully explore its application in performance support solutions.

“We are quite excited to share this application with the world. Developed first time for an Indian city it provides an opportunity to experience Pune city just like a local.”, said Amit Garg, Director of Content Solutions at Upside Learning.

Upside Learning has entered into a strategic partnership with KESDEE Inc., the largest eLearning content provider for financial topics. As a part of this agreement, Upside Learning will now provide its customers with comprehensive financial eLearning solutions by distributing KESDEE’s content through its award winning learning platform – UpsideLMS.

With KESDEE’s library including courses on Banking, Finances, Accounting, Insurance and Risk Management, Upside Learning’s clients can now avail over 750 accredited eLearning courses organised into 69 course libraries spanning over 2250 hours of eLearning in both English and Spanish.

This new strategic alliance is expected to immensely benefit banks and financial service providers and beneficiaries, regulators, consultants and trainers in financial services.

“We are delighted to partner with KESDEE, an internationally recognised eLearning company with a focus on global finance, banking and risk management,” said Amit Gautam, Director of Technology Solutions. He added, “We believe that the robust, engaging learning experience provided by Upside Learning, when combined with the best of class content from KESDEE is a winning combination for learners and organisation alike.”

With this partnership, Upside Learning will now be able to augment its library of off-the-shelf content courses with offerings from KSEDEE’s eLearning courses on financial topics.

About KESDEE

KESDEE is the world’s largest financial e-Learning company. KESDEE’s off-the-shelf catalog consists over 750 accredited e-Learning courses on various topics in Banking, Finance, Accounting, Insurance and Risk Management. In addition, KESDEE offers eCoaches, the web-based tutorials for Certification Exams in Risk Management and Financial analysis (ePRM, eFRM, eCoach for the CFA® Program, Associate ePRM etc).

It serves clients from different verticals like Banking and Financial Services Industry, Regulators of Financial Services, Large Corporations, Small and Medium Enterprises, Consultancy Firms, Technology Companies, Educational Institutions, and Professional Associations.

For more details, please visit: www.kesdee.com

With a view to reaching out to its global customer base, BMGI, a global performance excellence firm, had selected Upside Learning for localizing its eLearning courses.

BMGI’s eLearning programmes feature its industry-respected eBlack Belt, eGreen Belt, Lean Six Sigma eBlack Belt and Lean Six Sigma eGreen Belt certification programs, and a variety of eCourses, which are available individually or as a series.

Upside Learning assisted BMGI to convert its courseware content into various local languages so as to address the specific needs of its clients. Starting from identification of right resources for translation to the final delivery, the entire project process was managed efficiently by the company.

In the first stage, Upside Learning successfully converted courses from English into five languages – Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Turkish. The company ensured that the project was tested and analyzed accurately from time-to-time to convert courses so as to retain their meaning and intent.

“Our approach hinges on deep understanding of the content and the target audience so as to produce translations that are accurate and quick.” said Amit Garg, Director of Content Solutions.

Upside learning will also work on other languages in the future depending on BMGI’s requirements.

About BMGI

Founded in 1999 as a niche consultancy specializing in the implementation of Six Sigma, BMGI has since grown to be among the largest independent service providers within the broader organizational excellence space.

BMGI enables companies throughout the world to identify and solve their most important business problems, with a strong emphasis on sustainable results. BMGI’s services are grounded in one fundamental principle: structured problem solving. The company has developed solutions for a broad spectrum of businesses across many industries.

Few of BMGI’s clients are General Dynamics, TNT Express, Avis Budget Group, China Chemical, Graphic Packaging, Siemens, Hitachi and Philips Electronics.