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Case study

Industry

Technology

Company HQ

Bucharest, Romania

Number of Employees

340

Office Locations

4 countries

FintechOS Gains Complete L&D Standardization Across its Global Teams

Udemy driving business outcomes

$$$
Significant cost reduction by eliminating expensive and timeconsuming ad-hoc training courses
94.1%
Of learners find Udemy useful
4.63
Average course satisfaction rating (0-5)

Case study details

Through its low- and no-code development software, FintechOS offers its customers a fast and simple way to build and deploy innovative financial products — helping create competitive differentiation and deeper client relationships.

To deliver software with this scale and convenience, FintechOS relies heavily on its workforce of skilled professionals. But with no formal Learning and Development (L&D) strategy, the company found it difficult to develop its employees’ careers and respond to customer demands for new products and services.

With Udemy Business, the company has found a strategic L&D partner and platform that offers wide-ranging content coupled with more nuanced learning paths, giving its people greater control over their careers and helping FintechOS better plan for the future.

Upskilling a hybrid global workforce to benefit careers and customers

FintechOS’s “drag and drop” front-end financial services software for banks and insurers is designed to reduce the need to employ skilled developers, allowing its customers to create innovative products and services cost-effectively and at speed.

The software’s front-end simplicity lies in its back-end sophistication, requiring a large team of skilled developers to be on top of their game in terms of programming languages and techniques.

But as Jonathan Smith, Head of Performance, Enablement and Culture at FintechOS, explains, L&D was lacking: “As a fast-growing company moving from startup to scale up, little attention had been given to L&D, with expensive and time-consuming ad-hoc training courses being the only avenue for skills development. Nobody was really talking about career progression at that point.”

It was also around this time that FintechOS’s customers were increasingly asking for new software features that the company lacked the in-house skills to deliver. Moreover, many employees were requesting greater, more convenient opportunities to upskill.

At this point, the company identified an opportunity to improve customer and employee satisfaction while reducing costs. “I believe that L&D has to help people perform better,” says Jonathan. “But as a company, you also need to identify the performance gaps and have the insights to move people into roles where they’ll be most effective. Coupled with the fact we’ve been a hybrid company from day one, we decided to choose an online L&D solution.”

As a fast-growing company moving from startup to scale up, little attention had been given to L&D, with expensive and time-consuming ad-hoc training courses being the only avenue for skills development.
Jonathan Smith
Head of Performance, Enablement, and Culture

Standardized training through anytime, anywhere training courses

With an immediate need for greater programming language upskilling opportunities, FintechOS’s L&D team trialed several solutions with employees from across the business. “We initially looked at three solutions — Udemy Business, LinkedIn Learning, and Pluralsight,” says Jonathan. “We then conducted an employee poll. Udemy Business was by far the most popular due to its breadth of courses, including soft skills, such as management techniques.”

The Udemy Business platform now gives FintechOS’s technical developers access to a wide range of certification training sessions, which help the company offer additional capabilities.

For example, while many of its developers were already competent in Azure, some lacked the necessary formal certifications. By having easier, anytime access to certification courses, FintechOS’s developers can prepare for certifications on their terms, ensuring they’re best placed to pass the relevant exams.

And it’s not just technical skills that the company’s employees now benefit from. The countless number of soft skills courses now available to employees allows them to develop their business skills, benefiting their careers and supporting FintechOS’s growth.

“We had to manage rapid growth as the company outgrew its startup roots, which meant putting a greater emphasis on management,” explains Jonathan. “But as people were promoted based on company expertise, some lacked the necessary people management skills. With Udemy Business, everyone can upskill in key competencies — even anonymously if desired.”

Data-driven learning paths for more nuanced learning

With access to the Udemy Business metrics dashboard, Jonathan now has access to a host of usage and performance data that allows his team to monitor how the platform is used across the company. In addition, he can create bespoke reports for senior leadership in a matter of seconds, helping decision-makers track return on investment.

Insights into user engagement also enable Jonathan to hand out monthly rewards to the highest-performing employees, supplemented by a company-wide newsletter that helps promote self-driven L&D.

But it’s the platform’s learning path capability where FintechOS extracts the most value from its data. “Our technical team leaders have created several learning paths for a wide range of competencies to help keep everyone up-to-date with the latest domain knowledge,” says Jonathan. “learning paths in Udemy Business allow us to meet customer demands and give employees greater clarity over what’s expected from them in their roles.”

L&D standardization for hybrid workers worldwide

As a global company that’s operated a hybrid working model since its inception, FintechOS needs any solution it chooses to be easily accessible and offer the same content regardless of a user’s location.

Using Udemy Business, all employees now have access to every course anytime, anywhere. This is particularly useful for the company’s teams who span multiple time zones, from New York to Singapore. Jonathan explains: “Without online learning, time zones can prove a significant challenge. For example, we would have to arrange trainers in each territory, creating inconsistencies across the company and affecting fairness.”

“With Udemy Business, our people can learn whenever and wherever they want, at their own pace, and in a standardized way across the company,” adds Jonathan. “As a result, the platform has also eliminated costly and time-consuming classroom-based courses.”

L&D innovation that’s integral to company culture

Having forged its five cultural pillars during the time FintechOS embedded Udemy Business into its L&D strategy has helped Jonathan and his team create a truly bespoke and flexible learning culture. “Udemy Business is embedded in our company to the point where it’s no longer nice to have — it’s an employee expectation,” says Jonathan. “What’s more, all our senior leaders are completely bought in. We couldn’t take the platform away even if we tried.”

FintechOS has also realized substantial operational benefits that have allowed it to respond to customer demands through upskilling, and that appeal to the next-generation workforce demands for self-driven, on-demand learning.

“We find learning paths are the most valuable part of the platform because they help us create the right roles for the right purposes,” says Jonathan. “The highly flexible nature of Udemy Business also means we can offer future-focused L&D, helping us appeal to today’s workforce.

With Udemy Business, our people can learn whenever and wherever they want, at their own pace, and in a standardized way across the company.
Jonathan Smith
Head of Performance, Enablement, and Culture

Driving leadership development using online L&D

As FintechOS looks forward to continued rapid growth, it’s prioritizing leadership development through a two-part approach blending company operational and culture-specific courses with key content in Udemy Business.

And as Jonathan explains, his mission for the foreseeable future is to curate a focused learning program using Udemy Business: “I want to curate the right courses on Udemy Business to supplement our FintechOS training. I predict there will be a lot of appetite for this focused learning — and I’m safe in the knowledge the platform will help us achieve it.”

Udemy Business is embedded in our company to the point where it’s no longer nice to have — it’s an employee expectation.
Jonathan Smith
Head of Performance, Enablement, and Culture

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