From crisis to creativity – a reflection on Capita’s business simulation excellence

Sometimes you need to engineer a crisis to be able to solve a problem.

In 2020 we haven’t needed to – the current Covid-19 crisis is showing us our world through a different lens, forcing us to re-evaluate ways of working that we’ve come to take for granted.

At Capita, we have many years’ experience of creating market-leading face-to-face business simulations, backed up with virtual simulations and digital products to tackle the challenge of delivering immersive, collaborative business simulations online. The biggest lesson we’ve learned is that, to be successful, an online simulation must mirror the powerful engagement, active presence and real-time quality that interactions between real people have.

The pandemic has refocused our thinking. Here at Capita Learning, we’re looking for a way to retain those vital ingredients that make a learning experience exceptional – in an online and socially-distanced environment. Our business depends on it.

Capitalising on our strengths, we’re getting as much value out of our existing simulation tools as possible, without losing sight of the design challenges the move to an online space brings. We aim to:

• use our core simulation engine, the “e-board”, to measure performance in real time
• provide the highest quality video conferencing
• create a rich space for collaborating and sharing ideas
• make it easy for learners to navigate the new environment
• focus on creating simple, intuitive learning experiences – making sure technology helps, not hinders
• top it all off with a sense of fun, using a virtual game-style environment.

We settled on Remo Conference as the tool that offered us design freedom while being easy to use. We delivered our IT service management (ITSM) simulation first, since we know it’s likely to need refinements. We’re planning to deliver Train the Trainer services and launch an online DevOps simulation in 2021.

We’re proud of our attention to detail and want to bring a sense of both purpose and fun to our learning environment design – it launches on 26th October 2020, so we encourage you to experience it for yourself.

Our e-board is the only one of its kind. Because it can be used within a single environment, there’s a sense of pace and immediacy for those using it, while in the background a solid foundation of data informs decisions and measures outcomes.

We cherish feedback from the partners and clients in our community – working with them gives us access to insight and experience that adds enormous value to the thousands of hours of online and face-to-face training that we’ve conducted. The encouragement and positive responses to early versions of the virtual ITSM simulation has given our morale a real boost over 2020.

One partner said:

"I've been running the in-room sims since about 2008 or so, and those events are always a sure-fire crowd pleaser. To be honest, I wasn't sure how the simulation would transfer to the virtual / remote environment (I've seen a few stinkers in the last 12 months), but I’m blown away by how you've managed to retain the vibe and the essence of the sim even though people are not in the same room.

The level of thought and care that has gone into the design of the VSim is clear (and synonymous with what I've come to expect from you guys over the last decade and a bit). The attention to detail really stands out, whether it be ensuring good information flow between the tables, maintaining the tension and level of difficulty, or the absolutely brilliant idea of the Do Not Disturb tables (showing a deep understanding of the difficulties faced by participants in online learning).

I'm really looking forward to the launch and being able to share this sim (and hopefully many more) with my clients in the future."

We’re looking forward to launching our virtual ITSM simulation on 26th October, with more exciting developments coming in early 2021. We’re committed to keeping in touch after delivery, and we’ll incorporate follow-up and feedback to enable our clients to show value and results – which is, ultimately, our main goal.

If you’d like to learn more, or to schedule a simulation demo for your organisation, contact Jaro Tomik or Mark Wetton.