Strategies for Effective Training

1. Strategies for Effective Training Presented by David Bercovitch ThoughtCorp Davidb@thoughtcorp.com 416-591-4004 ext 300 www.thoughtcorp.com

2. Agenda • A little on ThoughtCorp and myself • What is Effective Training • What can you do to improve the training classes in your organization • Questions

3. Premier Partner Member ThoughtCorp Details • Specialists in Information Lifecycle Services • Company specifics • 14 employees • 100+ projects, including at least 60 BI implementations • Established in 1995 • Multi-million dollars of revenues • A wealth of experience in dealing with major Canadian corporations • Microsoft Certified Solution Provider • Cognos Premier Business Partner • Data Warehousing Institute Member

4. Information Lifecycle Services

5. Cognos Specific Services • Full BI implementation services • PowerPlay • Impromptu • Web Products • Training • Introduction level • Advanced level • Administration • Support • Tune-up services • BI implementation strategy • Data analysis services

6. Cognos Qualifications • Over 60 implementations • In a large number of industries • In a large number of departments • With a large number of data sets • Numerous certified consultants • 24 person-years of combined experience • Premier Partner designation • A proud member of the Cognos community here in Toronto

7. Sun Life • CIBC Mellon Trust • Manulife Financial • The Citadel • Playtex • Molson Breweries • J.M. Schneider • CIM • Thomas Cook • TD Bank • Scotiabank • Zimmer • Eli Lilly • Peel Board of Education • Imperial Oil • McNeil Consumer Products • HJ Heinz ThoughtCorp’s Training Qualifications • Have run hundreds of BI training classes • Over the past 7 years • With dozens of clients including: • And lots of teaching experience in general • Cognos • Microsoft • McGill University • Have developed a host of courseware for Cognos training

8. Effective Training

9. What is Effective Training? • Teaching people how to use the Cognos technology • Taking a complex series of instructions and turning it into a memorable set of experiences • Ingraining not only how to use the tools, but why you would use the tools • Benefits: • Improved utilization • Improved effectiveness in analysis • Reduced support costs • Effective training boils down to 7 key principles • Use your own data • Concentrate on key features • Study your students • Keep it fun • Summarize, summarize and summarize again • Never stop teaching • Deal with remote users

10. 1. Use Your Own Data • Users can relate to a training class better if they are using their • Own data • With their own examples • In their own environment • Great Outdoors training is OK, but not as good as using your own data • If its familiar, then its easier to learn • No leap of faith required • Reason Why: it removes one distraction – that of understanding a whole new data structure • All hierarchies are already known • Examples are specific to solving one of their business problems

11. 2. Concentrate on Key Features • Software today is extremely complex, and contains a tremendous amount of features • Normally, only a small subset of these features are geared at the average user • Effective software training strongly emphasizes these critical features, and de-emphasizes the less relevant features • Communication of content must be business first, technology second • Reason Why: Removes clutter and allows the trainee to concentrate on what’s important • Examples of key PowerPlay topics • Drill-down and slicing-and-dicing (cube navigation) • Building simple and nested reports • Calculations • Rankings • Housekeeping (saving, exporting, printing, etc.)

12. 3. Study Your Students • User training must target the needs of the participants in a given class • Each class must therefore be different in terms of content • The best way to accomplish this is to know your audience • Send out a pre-class questionnaire • Ask them at the beginning of the class • What should you know? • Skill sets • Length of time with the company • Level of expertise with the technology • Expectations • Keep classes homogeneous in terms of demographics • Reason Why: Training classes are forced to target the average user in the class. Better the variance in user skills be low so as not to • Bore the advanced people • Lose the less advanced people

13. 4. Keep it Fun • Software training can be dull unless classes are informal, fun, and example oriented • The trainer should tell the people something about themselves • Give the participants some insight of your background • Tell the participants something about your personal life • Tell jokes and poke fun of yourself • Make them believe that you are more than a trainer • Walk around the class – don’t be the talking head • Students take risks when teachers create a comfortable environment • Great teachers exude passion as well as purpose • Turn your classes into as much of a multi-media experience as possible • Slide shows • Demonstrations as well as trials • Discussions • Have only 1 person per machine, in order to minimize the boring “watching” time • Reason Why: Software classes are generally boring, so keeping it interesting keeps it memorable, and keeps people from zoning out

14. Grouping Dayna Product A 400 Sari 300 David 100 Calex Product B 500 Ryan 400 David 200

15. 5. Summarize, Summarize, and Summarize Again • Keep it simple – there are 5 things you need to know • Tell them what you want to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you’ve told them • Keep it clear even if you can't keep it simple • Repeat the important points • The first time you say something, it's heard • The second time, it's recognized • The third time, it's learned • Good teachers ask good questions • Training should be complemented with summary exercises • After topics • After the entire class

16. For $100: What was Backpacks revenue in Q1 1996?~*1883~4950~29079~880452~a~b~d For $200: What was Sports Chains' revenue in 1996 in North America?~12345~64455~*34924~1~c~a~d For $300: How many Tents were sold to Mountain Madness (Mass Marketer) in all of 1996?~4144~22~13~*8~d~c~b For $500: From which Channel did the most revenue come from in 1997?~*Camping Chains~ Sports Chains~ Independents~ Jewelry Shops~a~c~d For $1000: What share of revenue came from Outdoor products YTD?~12.54%~*33.58%~98.54%~45.45%~b~a~d For $2000: What was the average price of tents sold to Mass Marketers in all of 1996?~*450~199~299~499~a~c~d For $4000: Which Tent is most "over developed" in the far east in 1996 for revenue?~ Star Gazer-2~ Star Gazer-3~ *Star Dome~Star Lite~d~a~b For $8000: Which channel is the most "under-developed" in North Amer in 1996 for revs?~ Sports Chains~Idependent~*Camping Chains~ Mass Marketers~c~b~d For $16000: Which store declined the most between YTD and Prior YTD in terms of revenue?~ Stop Outlet~ Ten City~ Wally Mart~*Ultra Sports~d~a~b For $32000: How fast did the Independant channel grow between YTD and Prior YTD for revenue?~*41.34%~-56.44%~32.99%~156.55%~a~b~c For $64000: Which Country sold the most Outdoor products at low margin (under 20%) YTD?~ *United States~ Canada~ Mexico~ Sweden~a~c~d For $125000: Who is the best customer (revenue wise) YTD?~Vacation Central~ Wally MArt~ Ultra Sports~*Go Outlet~d~a~b For $250000: Who is the best sales person (revenue wise) YTD?~Dave Mustaine~*Kurt Gruber~ Greg Torson~ Jane Litrand~b~c~d For $500000: Who is the sales person with the largest % growth (revenue wise) YTD vs Prior YTD?~Kurt Gruber~Dave Mustaine~ Greg Torson~*Matt Casgot~d~a~b For $1000000: Where is David's Dad's Cottage?~Montreal~ *St. Agathe~ Muskoka~Tremlant~b~c~d

17. 6. Never Stop Teaching • Effective training involves effective follow-up – marketing • Marketing initiatives • Newsletters • Web pages of tricks and traps • Shared analyses • Contests • Give homework • Regular scheduled courses • Schedule classes for sign up • People could attend as they wish • There should be no negative consequences even if a person takes the same class several times • Hold advanced level courses (1.5 times principle) • Hold Effective Analyses courses

18. 7. Strategies for Remote Users • Conference call training • Video Taped classes • Effective training guides • Web based presentations

19. Miscellaneous Tips • Defer the unknown • Limit long sidebars or discussions • Never touch the student's mouse or keyboard, no matter how badly they are struggling • Make yourself available during breaks, and before/after class (including email contact information) • Use analogies wherever possible – using a cube is like eating an orange • Keep a running list of • Questions that you haven't answered • Topics that students want to cover right now, but appear later in the agenda • Topics that students want to cover, but only can be addressed if there is spare time at the end of the course • Take feedback at the end of each course

20. Summary • Using the 7 key training principles will improve your training classes • Use your own data • Concentrate on key features • Study your students • Keep it fun • Summarize, summarize and summarize again • Never stop teaching • Deal with remote users • Effective training has many benefits • Improved utilization • Improved effectiveness in analysis • Reduced support costs • With practice and by trying new things, you could develop effective training courses within your organization

21. Strategies for Effective Training Presented by David Bercovitch ThoughtCorp Davidb@thoughtcorp.com 416-591-4004 ext 300 www.thoughtcorp.com