Technical Training - 2004

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Over the years The Quill Consultancy has delivered a variety of technical training to the Tasmanian IT market. Our major focus has been as a Microsoft CTEC (Certified Technical Education Centre) and we have delivered courses in a diverse range of Microsoft products. Over the last couple of years we have noticed a significant fragmentation in this market and a drop off in the number of people seeking technical training. This has been due to many reasons which include:

• The general slow down in the IT industry over the last three years
• Greater scrutiny by upper management of new developments hence a slowing of the need for IT Professionals to have "cutting edge" skills
• A general reduction in IT training budgets
• A reduction in interest in IT certification as employers are increasingly valuing experience over qualifications.

All of these reasons have been appropriate as the IT industry is currently going through a maturing period after the "silly" era of the late 90s.

As far as Microsoft is concerned, The Quill has responded to the changing market by significantly increasing the delivery of customised training using Microsoft Official Curriculum materials.

This has given our clients significant advantages in that training could be more focussed on the elements of Microsoft technology actually used in each organisation’s infrastructure and therefore reduce training time. Typically we have been able to deliver a 4 or 5 day training course in 2 or 3 days, providing saving in both time and money for clients. This was an area where The Quill was very much an innovator as far as Australian CTECs but we always saw it as an appropriate response to client needs.

As a result of the industry wide changes outlined above, we made a business decision late last year not to renew our CTEC status with Microsoft which has now renamed the program Certified Partner for Learning Solutions. The Quill Consultancy still remains a Microsoft Certified Partner and as such we are still able to source the Microsoft Official Curriculum and continue to deliver customised training to our clients in exactly the same way as we have been for the last 2 or 3 years.

It is our belief that, in some respects, Microsoft has lost touch with the training requirements of the sort of clients found in smaller, regional markets such as Tasmania. With the release of Windows 2000 and subsequent infrastructure products, Microsoft has focussed very strongly on the high end enterprise market and as such has developed excellent products that have many features which are simply not relevant to many businesses/organisations in our context.

The dilemma we have as a training provider in a small market, is that many of these advanced features are in use, but that each organisation is using a different mix. This make the delivery of generic Microsoft courses almost impossible via the sort of training schedule we have had in the past. The only solution has been therefore to deliver (often highly) customised training.

We remain very committed to IT certification and you may be aware that we are now the only provider of Prometic Testing in Tasmania after all other testing sites withdrew from the market during 2003.

We believe IT certification will come back on the agenda for many individual and organisations. We often hear complaints about people who have "talked" their way into a position requiring particular technical skills and are then discovered not to have the skills they supposedly claim. Increasingly organisations will not only seek experience but also independent ratification of IT skills. It is for these reasons we intend to continue as a Prometric testing centre despite the costs involved in providing this service.

The Quill Consultancy is also very committed to the delivery of Technical training from other vendors. We have delivered or provide facilities for the delivery of courses for the following vendors:

• Citrix
• Novell
• Oracle

This will continue into the future and we are currently also investigating the delivery of Linux courses in the near future.

For other vendors, and even for high-end Microsoft training, we source experienced trainers and consultants from the mainland or even overseas to ensure the highest quality of training can be delivered here in Tasmania.

We have established excellent working relationships with Total Networks here in Hobart to assist in the delivery of Novell training. We team with Aspect to source trainers and resources for the high-end Microsoft products and use Shane Broomhall who was Citrix Technical Trainer of the Year in 2002 for the delivery of Citrix training. We have also sourced trainers from Monash.Net for the delivery of Microsoft .Net training in the past.

We believe that most clients would prefer, where possible, to source training locally if at all possible and we have always appreciated this support. We also recognise that clients will not do this if it means a compromise in the quality. We continue to believe that the quality of the technical training delivered by The Quill Consultancy is of an equal quality to any training centre in Australia. Of course, by providing training locally, it sometimes means that for a five day course, two people can attend when compared to the cost involved in sending a single person to the mainland for the same training.

We have recently updated our website to reflect these changes. Please go to http://www.quill.com.au and click on the Technical Training link. From the Technical training page you will be able to view the vendor training we offer and it will allow you to express interest in the training we might be offering. When we receive an expression of interest we may contact you to clarify requirements and when sufficient interest exists in a course we will schedule it.

We maintain e-mail distribution lists for each of the major software vendor which we use to advertise upcoming training on a regular basis. We are conscious of not turning this communication into a flood as we are all currently experiencing an almost overwhelming level of e-mail to which we do not want to contribute too much but we balance this with our belief that IT professions may welcome these updates. If you are not receiving e-mails advising of our future technical training plans, and would like to, please give us a call. Conversely if you are currently receiving these updates and don’t wish to please let us know and we will remove you from the lists.

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