Pulling Back the Curtain on Microsoft Training

How Much is Too Much to Pay for Private Microsoft Training?

Whatever the number is, right now you’re probably paying too much. Microsoft training is a commodity. There are, as of this writing, 356 Microsoft Certified Partners for Learning Solutions (CPLS) in the U.S. alone, and the vast majority of them operate in the exact same way, from single location shops, to nationwide chains.

You should be paying no more than about $12,000 - $14,000 for a week of private Microsoft training, onsite at your own company location. The high end of that range INCLUDES extensive customization, by the way.

Here’s the thing to keep in mind if your training provider wants to charge more than this total: Most training companies run a facility with 8-12 classrooms, network, electricity, phones, staff, etc, that they need to cover whether you use their facility of not. However, if you’re conducting the training at your office, these costs are truly irrelevant to you, and you should not pay for them. EVER.

If you require the use of their facility, then by all means, you should expect to pay for it.

Please feel free to comment or respond to this post with questions about your own training need, and I’ll be happy to assist you with a reasonable cost assessment and breakdown for your training need.

JD Edwards Training - Enterprise One!

Training Intelligence kicked off a four-day training course at a major manufacturer in Connecticut this week. The course consists of three days of administration training on JD Edwards Enterprise One (E1), plus one day of Showcase STRATEGY! The client formerly shared ERP systems with their sister company, but recently split off to their own stand-alone system.

STRATEGY! is a stand-alone software solution for business intelligence reporting, recently certified as the preferred BI interface to JD Edwards E1.

The client will be holding future courses, particularly on STRATEGY!, as a large portion of their population will benefit.

C#.NET for Visual Studio 2008

Training Intelligence just completed a course in Stamford, CT on C#.NET for Visual Studio 2008. The trainer received exceptional marks (9.88 out of 10)!

This course was based on a Microsoft official course for earlier versions of Visual Studio, but was fully updated and customized for Visual Studio 2008. Students brought many of their real-world problems to the course, and the instructor was able to weave them into the course content and enhance the students' experience by making the information immediately relevant.

The lesson - even in a public training course, you should get what you paid for. The training you attend should help you solve the problem you came there to solve; don't be a silent participant - ask your questions, and make sure your issues are addressed!