Which vendors provide the best/worst application training experience?

Question

I'm currently involved in a review and refocusing of the training strategy adopted by the company for which I work (our product is primarily desktop applications sold to "time-poor" professionals. A generally non IT-technical audience).

I'm of the belief that training, alongside support and feature set, is a key factor in a products "stickiness" with the client, impacting both their likelihood to remain with us rather than moving to a competitor, and their likelihood to recommend our products to colleagues.

Also, in my opinion, the "time poor" nature of our clients is likely the key challenge to those marketing our training.

With that in mind, I am looking for examples of vendors who excel in this area, and the practices which make them top class. Similarly, examples of those whose client training practices let down an otherwise good business.

Examples of those who have moved from one end of the spectrum to the other particularly appreciated.

Answer 1

My company sells desktop applications, and my development team use a number of applications. I think we count as time-poor professionals.

My company provides training only rarely, and then usually to orgs that have made a large site-purchase. They are often universities, so maybe not quite as time-poor as many professionals. With none of the tools we have purchased have we even considered buying training. If we thought that a tool needed training for us to be able to use it that would be a serious disincentive to buying it.

At a previous company we provided training to customers. This however was a product that sold for tens of thousands of dollars, so a week's training course wasn't a big issue for those that could afford it. Even then we found demand for training declining over time.

I wonder if you have backed up your opinion that "training is a key factor in a products stickiness" by asking your potential customers if they agree? Increasingly people expect to be able to start up an application and just use it, without training and without even reading the manual. Even a single day's training can cost a professional hundreds of dollars in lost time; that's before they have to travel.

We do provide some web-based introductory video training, but I can't vouch for how effective it is.

Answer 2

Best training experience: Microsoft

We've had several Microsoft reps come in over the years to help us get up to speed on certain technologies or give us some previews of new tech coming in, and whether it's an actual MS employee or an MS partner, they have always been top notch. A little pushy on the sell sell side, but always top notch. We've also taken some MS certification courses, done virtual labs, webcasts and conference calls.

Worst ever: InfoSys

They came in to implement a system at our company and it was the worst decision ever. The training they provided was a joke and I think left people more confused than before they started. They left us with virtually no system documentation, and no resources for training once they left the building.