Classroom versus On-site Training: Which Will Work for You?

by Christiane Machlinski, Senior Trainer / BI Product Consultant, Frankfurt, Germany

When planning your training requirements there are many things to consider:

• Should training be attended in Cognos classes?
• Is there an advantage to holding your training courses in-house?
• Which data should be used, standard or your own?
• How can you effectively explain the functionality of the software and make it meaningful to users?

The following two examples look at the different approaches companies took to successfully deliver Cognos Training for Cognos solutions.

In a Cognos Classroom - Training with your own data

Feeling that training attendees may not concentrate sufficiently on the material if they were in their regular working environment and subject to the everyday demands of their job, one customer – an international company specializing in gas, plant construction and conveyor technology – decided to train their employees at a Cognos classroom in Frankfurt/Main. They relied on Cognos’ experienced trainers to deliver the course however they customized the material with data from in-house cubes to ensure that the training addressed their real needs and data.

In preparation for training, Cognos visited the customer and worked with them to understand their internal data and reporting approach. The customer’s project supervisor demonstrated the current consolidation tool and outlined the approach used for internal reporting. Then, the cube data to be used (profit-and-loss, human resources, and balance-sheet data) was discussed. The customer also provided standard reports to help define the ground to be covered by training.

Analyzing the cubes used in structural definition and design made it clear which functionalities should be taught. Cognos then used the sample reports provided to help map out an agenda and prepare demos and workshops for attendees. Training handouts for attendees consisted of a mix of standard Cognos documents and specially adapted training labs.

Besides preparing the content, it was important to provide the right technical environment in the classroom for attendees. The customer decided to set up a separate environment on every PC versus using an Enterprise Server with all the cubes so users would be able to work without interfering network factors.

Thanks to the intensive preparations, the training day clearly achieved its objectives. As the product knowledge taught was closely aligned with real-life requirements, users were able to better understand the material and felt they could begin using the product immediately, which led to a high level of user acceptance of the product.

At the Customer’s Site – Training the Trainer

When a large chemical company decided to deploy a new reporting system, the success of the rollout depended on thorough and highly organized project planning. Besides implementation and customization, the project also involved analyzing training needs.

The customer was planning to build up and extend in-house training competency over the long term and had looked well beyond their immediate training needs. The plan was to pursue a blended learning strategy that combined a web-based training platform with classroom training conducted at company locations around the world.

The approach was classic and began with training of the entire project team in a program that covered preparation and modeling, as well as the user’s view. Again, the customer’s own data was used and presented in training documents.

Once trained, the project team then prepared user training courses and designed a web-based training platform. Then team published documentation, workshops and solutions, as well as the current project status, on this platform to provide more extensive and detailed information and provide an avenue for information sharing between users.

Two project team members then traveled to regional offices to train users. The key benefit of this approach was that the content delivered – from software functionalities to the company-specific aspects covered – was unified and from a single source. This promoted acceptance, as did the fact that the trainers had a detailed knowledge of the project background and could provide information on the origins of the data, as well as the data’s currency and presentation. This inspired confidence in the new reporting system.

The web-based training platform provided users with further assistance for creating reports once they had completed the training program. The information available on the platform included details of the content and the structure of the metadata used to access company data in the Cognos solution. The platform was extended to include tips and tricks and served as a help desk through which users could quickly familiarize themselves with the product.