Back in November 2008 I wrote about the French bank Crédit Agricole on the English Weblog of the French company Stonfield InWorld. The article was about how Crédit Agricole was going to use the virtual world of Second Life for communication in their organisation. Being a bank with many agencies across France, it is important for them to train, meet and inform their 1800 employees and keep them up-to-date with the latest developments. At the same time, the organisation wants to save on business travels and expenses, and at the same time reduce their carbon footprint and participate in a more sustainable economy and life.

So, together with the team of Stonfield Inworld, the bank has designed a learning program that teaches employees some basics about Web 2.0, like Facebook, Twitter and blogging on one hand and, the main part: the basics of using Second Life. When employees have finished their training, they receive their “Internet Passport” as a certificate.

For the training in Second Life, Crédit Agricol has set up a region that is only accessible for their own employees. This region is only meant to train the employees of Crédit Agricole to use Second Life and where they can practise their basics. Considering that many people, including the employees of Crédit Agricole, still think of Second Life as a game and have only negative thoughts to the virtual world, this way of training, in a somewhat closed environment is very convenient and pleasant. And while learning the basics, they find out that Second Life is not such an evil place after all, but that it is very usefull for their professional contacts.

Right now, as also France is in the mood for summer holidays, no trainings are running at the moment. But as soon as the vacation season is over, the training of employees will start again and with full motivation to learn about the 3D-Internet. By the end of autumn, the first organisation meetings might be held in Second Life, in stead of real life and by the end of this year or early 2010 all Crédit Agricole employees might have gained their “Internet Passport”. Of course, as meeting people in reality has its advantages as well, it is not the aim to eliminate all business travels, but a great deal less can be achieved in any case.