How do I get 1200 people in three different countries upgraded from dumb terminals to PCs and MS Office?

October 8, 2004 8:05 AM

Here's a question from 1992: How do I get 1200 people in the US, Canada, and Mexico up and running with PCs and MS Office from a previous dumb terminal environment? (More inside of course)

You can't send them to web-based training until they understand point-and-click. In my mind there's a national organization I can buy classroom passes from, and include the classes as part of the rollout at the 36 sites. Then there would be an element of customized, hands-on follow up training back in the workplace. Once they get comfortable with the basic concepts of Word, Outlook, and the like, I'd send them to web training.
The key for me is that this organization is so ubiquitous that they'd have something near most of our sites, and that I don't have to deal with 10 different vendors.
I'm sure these businesses existed everywhere ten years ago, but I need it now. Please help me help my company join the 21st century.

posted by pomegranate to computers & internet (4 comments total)

Step 1: Hire 1200 people who know Windows to train them...

Seriously, what you probably want is these guys. A friend of mine used to work for them, and their instructors are generally pretty competent. I took a basic Illustrator course from them (a freebie through my friend) and it was a little below my level, but was generally decent, and I learned several things, which surprised me. For basic Windows app training they'd be fine.
posted by kindall at 9:37 AM on October 8, 2004

Hey, pomegranate, I know you won't want to hear this, but since you have a great opportunity here, you might want to consider *NOT* buying into the Microsoft Office monster. You're looking at costs of (my guess based on my expereience supporting the product) about $200 - $600 a seat per year (remember, it's a HORRIBLE product to support, and it costs about $600 a seat every 3 - 4 years licensing alone).

There's other alternatives, even WordPerfect if you're looking for a "professional" suite (or openoffice if you like free). Hell, if you have to leave the users on windows, that won't cost the same arm and a leg Microsoft Office will to keep up and running.

Yeah, you probably have no say in this. For that, I feel terrible for you. Microsoft Office, though, will make supporting a mainframe look like baking a cake.
posted by shepd at 5:31 PM on October 8, 2004

I know, I know. I'm just the trainer/HR chick on staff, though, so the IT part is Not My Thing. They've already bought the licenses and the terrible desktops, so now I just have to figure out how to get these luddites into today.
posted by pomegranate at 7:35 PM on October 8, 2004

The company I work for has done this quite a few times for clients (we specialise in graphic and instructional design) - sometimes we're suggested paper based training for this type of situation, other times we have created a blended approach using paper and interactive stuff.
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posted by X-00 at 11:57 PM on October 8, 2004