Saba
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Saba is a company that provides Saba Human Capital Management software and services.
Saba claim to have developed "the industry's first Learning Management System" in 1997, and now delivers a number of learning management applications bundled together under the title of Saba Learning Suite. This includes modules for learning management, content management, collaboration, training delivery, certification.
Saba is AICC and SCORM compliant, which allows content to be developed in any (AICC/SCORM compliant) application. By using open standards, Saba claims the ability to integrate with a customer's existing applications, including HR, ERP, and document management systems.
Saba's Content Management module allows organizations to capture, consolidate, organize, and reuse existing learning content (much as any decent Content Management System will). Content may be accessed across one or more learning portals, with users being able to identify and enrol on courses via an enterprise portal. Delivery of content on the portal is managed via the Saba Learning OnDemand component. This should not be confused with Global Knowledge's OnDemand product. Trainers use Saba Publisher Professional Edition to develop course presentations, simulations, tests, etc. using the material stored in the Content Management module.
Saba supports classroom delivery (which SAP LS does not really do), self-paced web-based learning, and virtial classroom training. The latter is provided through Saba Centra Live - a virtual classroom environment (previously known as Centra Virtual Classroom - until Saba acquired Centra in 2006). Conducts delivered through Saba Centra Live can be recorded for re-use later (not sure if these can be 'edited' between recording and reuse...). Attendance (and certification/compliance) can be recorded and passed to either the LMS or an HR system.
Saba's sales literature indicates that Saba Learning Suite ships with "a set of pre-integrated content and competency libraries [that] addresses any organization's learning needs", but how useful this is to any single company without the need for significant 'tailoring' should be considered.
One interesting aspect of Saba's Learning Suite is that it allows administration of learning to be delegated to different units within a corporation. Designated administrators can be granted 'ownership' of different parts of the learning framework, so that content can be managed at those points in the business at which the expertise exists. This provides a reasonable degree of local automomy - so a plant could develop and manage their own content locally, even though the overall learning framework is managed centrally.
