Conference 7.286::digital

    
    
    I can provide names of upper level managers.  Dick McCarthy and Bob
    Bianchi.  I'm not sure where they're located, but I believe their in
    PKO.
    
    *********
    
    Greg Diercks -- DLS in Chicago -- one of 5 (from 22) remaining
                                      instructors

    Gary Upchurch @ CSC just took over the EDI and FileBridge training
    formally performed by Gary Somers in Ed Services @ PKO.  He's a
    friendly sort of lad and might respond well to a mail message,
    especially if you promise him money. :^]
    
    						Tex

    	Peter Leonard @VBO used to be training manager in Valbonne.
    Currently he is manager of a small course development group and has
    customers inside and outside DEC throughout Europe. He would know the
    state of DEC training facilities in most of Europe, and in some cases
    might be able to give similar information about some of our customers.

    
    FWIW, I can tell you that here in Israel the training operation was
    totally outsourced one year ago. No Digital employees are dealing 
    any more with training. A few persons from the previous staff found 
    other jobs in Digital, some others were hired by the new business and 
    many others left.
    Digital Israel is still active as a investing partner of the new
    business, and the customers should not feel any substantive difference 
    compared to the previous way of work. 
    Even the "credit points" system is still in place.
    It's just a business restructuring which should give us back profits
    in this activity, and I believe it did it.
    

    Well... it appears "outsourcing" didn't work as well in the U.S.
    
    There are five new REQs posted for instructors for DLS.  I have not
    personally seen them in VTX (haven't looked), but I'm told they are
    there.  
    
    Seems like the layoffs in DLS were a tad too deep and now we are trying
    to recover.
    
    
    tony

    
    
    There were also some rather serious quality issues related to some of
    the outsourced instructors -- small little things like not knowing
    the material of the course and the like.  I wish I made in a week what
    those folks make in a week!!!!
    
        GJD

    Well, I can provide testimony as to the effect. Part of Digital
    Consulting, I was scheduled to attend OSF/1 training in preparation for
    a customer activity.  I was cancelled out of the training, but still
    had to show up on customer site for the delivery.  It is
    non-professional and embarrassing to bill the customer at $160/hour
    when the first time you see the products is on customer site. (It was
    also the first time I had ever seen an Alpha box.)

Note 2985.7 by SAHQ::PJOHNSON 
    
    >Well, I can provide testimony as to the effect. Part of Digital
    >Consulting, I was scheduled to attend OSF/1 training in preparation for
    >a customer activity.  I was cancelled out of the training, but still
    >had to show up on customer site for the delivery.  It is
    >non-professional and embarrassing to bill the customer at $160/hour
    >when the first time you see the products is on customer site. (It was
    >also the first time I had ever seen an Alpha box.)
    
    this has happened to me a couple of times. never again. not only is it
    embarrassing, but it casts doubt on the credibility of DEC and
    especially me. if DEC cans me i'll need that credibility to get a new
    job. i can't afford to allow DEC to jepradize that as well. tough and
    painful stand to take. but then these are tough and painful times to be
    a DEC employee.

    Oh come on you can just read the book 8-)
    
    
    NOT!
    
    

    	We are just getting back to the good old days when DEC was
    expanding at 40% per year, software and software support were free to
    any customer that bought our hardware, and training courses were only
    for customer wimps.
    
    
    	Dave, who taught a customer software course before he had ever
    attended one - the training department had nobody that knew that
    particular piece of software so I was called in at the last minute when
    they discovered they had customers booked on it.

    Am I paranoid or what?  Tell me it's coincidence that I cannot access
    VTX LEARNING.
    
    chg

    I'm happy to report that I'm paranoid - it must be our vtx feed.
    
    chg

 ------ posted with permission

   +___________________________+ TM
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              I N T E R O F F I C E   M E M O R A N D U M 



   TO:  European UNIX/RISC            DATE:  20 May 1994 
        Symposium Attendees           FROM:  Willy C. Shih
        			      DEPT:  UNIX/Windows NT Systems
		                      LOC:   MLO5-2/G1 - Pole 2A
     				      EXT:   223-1292
     				      ENET:  WRKSYS::SHIH
					

   SUBJECT:  The UNIX/RISC Symposium


   You will all know by now that the May European UNIX/RISC Symposium has
   had to be postponed in light of the Q4 cost avoidance.  I felt it important,
   however, to reinforce to you my commitment to this event and to the 
   training of Software people as a whole.

   Digital's customer research group in a 1994 survey asked our customers to
   rate the technical competence of Digital software support personnel.  
   Digital's software support personnel showed much improved ratings.
 
   The study indicated that the "overall, Digital's UNIX support has improved
   since the 1992 study, especially with respect to the areas of responsiveness
   of software support and technical competence of software support 
   personnel."  I believe we can attribute this improvement in the study to 
   the UNIX/RISC Symposium that we have been running over the course of the
   last few years.  Since much of future revenue is dependent upon our success
   in the UNIX market, we must elevate the knowledge of our people in order to
   effectively compete in the marketplace.
 
   I am committed to continuation to the UNIX/RISC Symposium and the training
   of our Software people.  There will be a future European event of which
   you will be notified in as short a time as possible.

   Thank you for your patience and commitment to the UNIX Business.

   Regards,

    It wasn't just European UNIX training that got postponed. The UNIX
    System Admin Workshop scheduled for June 6-10 at ZKO was also
    cancelled/postponed to September. 

    Can anyone else access vtx learning?  It's been disabled/unavailable
    (take your pick) since last week.  I need to make Q1 plans.....
    
    charlie

    I just tried... and am also unable to reach it from ICS::
    
    tony

    infobase is also unreachable from cthq - node outage? or cost-cutting
    measure?     8^}
    
    /dlw

I don't know about VTX but as I understand all of the internal training folks
at PKO got the invitation to participate in our current downsizing. I asked
if internal folks would attend Customer training as was told that we may be
asked to use SPI's (self paced instruction). I was told this sad tale by a
customer training person last Friday at PKO.

dave

    
    Hi Everyone,
    
    I'm a member of the Performance Management Software development
    team.  VTX Learning is currently unavailable because we are installing 
    an enhanced version (2.0) as we speak.  The system will available
    on Wednesday (at the latest).
    
    Regards,
    
    Walter Surrette
            
     

    re .18
    
    it's sad, but true.  ALL of the instructors and managers for MCS
    training at PKO were asked to participate.  
    
    In fact, one of the managers is back this week as an instructor. 
    Contracting, of course.
    
    tony
    

    Tony,
    
    Not all the instructors were released.  There is a strategy and process
    for MCS to obtain training to satisfy business needs.  If anyone needs
    information on process please drop me a note.
    
    Don

    Don...
    That's true... there were four "survivors" here... and they've told me
    that they are not going to be "on the platform" anymore.
    
    To me, that's a strong indication that MCS won't be doing any
    LECTURE/LAB training at PKO for some time... unless (as it presentlly
    seems) it's being done with contracted (read that: ex-deccie)
    instructors... a model of training which DLS has shown is NOT cost
    effective for high end courses.
    
    What I've heard is that MCS is now going to be offered Computer-Aided
    instruction, or Self-paced courses...  (Back to the old ILC model?...
    from which all the staff was TFSO's a year and a half or more ago)
    
    What do you mean by "process", Don?  What are current plans/processes
    for, say, a field service engineer to receive VAX-CLUSTER Maintenance
    training?  
    
    tony

    I received the following memo from Don Evans at MLO today.  He has
    given me permission to post it here.  
    
    Hope this clears up some issues previously raised about MCS TRAINING.
    
    Tony
    
From:	USCTR1::DEVANS        8-JUN-1994 08:17:20.96
To:	ICS::BEAN
CC:	
Subj:	MCS Training                                                           1


                  I N T E R O F F I C E   M E M O R A N D U M

                                        Date:     08-Jun-1994 08:05am EDT
                                        From:     DONALD EVANS @MRO
                                                  EVANS.DONALD
                                        Dept:     USMCS D & L
                                        Tel No:   (508) 467-9439

TO:  Remote Addressee                     ( _ICS::BEAN )


Subject: MCS Training                                                

Tony,

Any MCS employee that requires training to support an identified business 
obligation will receive that training.  How that training gets sourced is 
irrelevant to the client.  VAX Cluster maintenance included.


MCS going back to SPI/CAI......

We've never left that method of delivery.  We're leveraging internal MCS 
programs (TIMA and laptops) to provide training to the end user. We're not going 
back to the "old ILC model"

If you wish to be included on the distribution list for MCS communications about 
development and learning please let me know.  That way you'll have facts to 
support your notes file entries.

Best Regards,

Don Evans