ON24 Becomes First Company to Offer Mobile CPE

Just as in accounting, professionals in many other fields are also required to complete educational courses to keep their knowledge of standards and new trends fresh. These professionals gain this education credit (known as Continuing Professional Education or Continuing Education) at industry events, training seminars and, increasingly, via interactive webcasts.

Those who read and follow CPA Practice Advisor are likely familiar with the free CPE-eligible webcasts we offer to accounting and tax professionals. In fact, there’s one coming up un Thursday, March 28, 2013, at 1pm CDT, on the subject of “Streamlining Accounting Research.”

With professionals being increasingly mobile, ON24, Inc., a developer of webcasting and virtual environment solutions, has introduced the first first company to offer National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA)-compliant virtual CPE training system that supports mobile devices. The company’s Continuing Education solutions are designed for tablet computers and smartphones. CPA Practice Advisor uses ON24’s system to present our educational webcasts.

The system was developed primarily for key customers in the financial services and accounting industries, but ON24’s new mobile offering also meets evolving CE access requirements in the legal and medical professions.

“By extending continuing professional education to mobile devices, industry professionals can complete their accreditation requirements anytime, anywhere,” said ON24 Vice President of Product Management Tom Masotto. “This is another example of how ON24 continues to stay ahead of the curve. It also showcases our scalable global platform and our ability to deliver engaging content to devices ranging from the desktop to the smartphone.”

The updated functionality of ON24’s CE/CPE offering makes it easy for education and training professionals to launch virtual training webcasts, check attendance and automatically score exams, as well as to deliver certificates of completion – seamlessly serving the rapidly growing number of mobile end users in the corporate world. “The flexibility that tablets and smartphones offer is leaving its mark on every industry and market. As a result, ON24 continues to focus on the needs of mobile business users as we expand our product portfolio,” Masotto explained.

Demand for the ability to access CE/CPE content on mobile devices is actually the result of two enterprise trends – increased use of mobile devices and the growing popularity of virtual learning. “As more and more employees bring their own devices into the workplace, companies need more flexible solutions than ever for distributing useful rich media content,” said Steve Vonder Haar, a Wainhouse Research senior analyst tracking the enterprise webcasting and streaming markets. “The time is right for a CE/CPE solution that empowers business users to meet their training requirements where they want to, on any device.”

ON24 estimates that mobile content consumption on the ON24 platform increased 300 percent in 2012 and will grow another 100 percent in 2013. In addition, a recent ON24 Virtual Learning Edge survey revealed that some 91 percent (9 of 10) of HR and training professionals plan to increase the use of virtual training at their companies in 2013.

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