SECURITY risk specialists Osprey Asset Management (OAM) has used digital asset software to produce an interactive travel risk-training package. OAM last year commissioned Perth company Optimiser to develop software to allocate usage time for the CD-based
SECURITY risk specialists Osprey Asset Management (OAM) has used digital asset software to produce an interactive travel risk-training package.
OAM last year commissioned Perth company Optimiser to develop software to allocate usage time for the CD-based training package, which allowed the sale of the training rather than the training CD.
A year of tailoring digital asset software to OAM’s Travel Risk Management Interactive CD has provided a package that grants employees a username and password and an allotted time span in which to complete the training.
OAM senior consultant Mark Broome said clients therefore were buying access to the training instead of being required to purchase a CD per employee.
“What you buy is the training. For example, a five-hour block. We can track the usage and deny access once those five hours are used,” he said.
The CD-ROM was a cheap and versatile way to provide important information, Mr Broome said.
Businesses including ANZ, Argyle Diamonds and a number of mining and resource operations have adopted the program since it was launched in June 2002.
ANZ managing director, Pacific and personal banking, Asia, Bob Lyon, said the training package was effective for employees who were required to travel overseas.
“We make them complete it before they travel,” he said.
“It has a test at each section that they must get right before they can move on. It’s not rigorous but it is time consuming.”
Mr Lyon said a positive aspect of this type of training was that it allowed employees to logon to training when it suited them.
He said the information on the CD was beneficial as it concentrated on responses to particular situations rather than merely general information on a particular country.
“It makes you more aware of your surroundings. Things such as security threats,” Mr Lyon said.
“For instance, if you are going into a strange country and walking out of an airport and jumping into a cab, the first thing you are likely to think is where you are going, not what the risks are.”
He said that his entire staff of several thousand would, over time, complete the training package.
“You cannot provide too much information to your staff. One of our guys was on a plane that was hijacked a couple of years ago. He was held at gunpoint for two weeks and taken to Afghanistan,” Mr Lyon said.
“One of the first things he did was eat his business cards because he did not want them to know that he was a banker. He was lucky because he knew to do that. These types of things are covered in the CD.”
Mr Broome said the Bali bombings had brought home the need to be aware when travelling and foreshadowed increased demand for the CD this year.
“All we aim to do is make people aware,” he said. “We’re not going to turn people into James Bond, but this provides them with things to consider.”
Mr Broome said while the CD provided a generic overview of travel risks, further work on its technology this year aimed to provide immediate updates via the Internet.
