Corporate Training Weathers the Downturn

TechLINKS: November/December 2001

You can hardly swing a computer mouse around the metro Atlanta without hitting a technology-training outfit. From private companies to technical colleges to continuing education programs at universities - oppurtunities to learn tech skills abound.

Kris Turnbull, director of corporate and technology training at Kennesaw State University, says in adding up the purveyors of IT naming in the metro area, he stopped counting at 120. That number is likely to dwindle in the difficult economy, Turnbull figures. But there remain numerous places in Georgia to learn everything from how to work Microsoft Office programs to Cisco network training and sophisticated Java programming.

Some big training outfits, like Kennesaw State and KDC-Atlanta, offer a broad menu of courses and facilities. But more numerous are smaller firms that focus on particular technologies or aspects of technical training. DigitalHatch in Fayetteville, for example, focuses on technology sales and business development training.

Specifically, the year-old company developed online training programs called Smart Selling and Smart Service. These courses can be delivered 250 days a year to the desktops of sales and service people, says Paul DiModica, DigitalHatch's president and founder. Users can access the courses, which take about 20 minutes a day; at their convenience.

"Instead of making training a one-shot sort of adventure, it makes it repetitive," DiModica says. "Most selling today is a seminar-based environment, a one-shot opportunity. So people lose the retention of that knowledge."
In addition, DigitalHatch sells an online course called "How To Sell Technology" that's designed to instruct users in selling to top-level executives.

ICON One Source & Salesforcetools in Atlanta specializes in training people to use GoldMine, a sales, marketing and customer support software package. A GoldMine reseller, ICON offers classes to the public, but the bulk of its business is custom training for companies, says Donald Farrey, ICON'S president. ICON tailors training programs to fit how companies plan to use GoldMine and offers courses at its own facilities and at customer sites.

GoldMine training accounts for half of ICON'S revenue, Farrey says, and Internet-related training makes up the rest. Business had been picking up in September following a typical summer lull, Farrey adds. But demand slackened immediately after the Sept.11 terrorist attacks before beginning to stir again a couple weeks later.

In addition to straight training services, an array of Georgia firms provide related services, such as manuals and other documentation that accompanies software applications. HelpWrite of Lawrenceville, for example, produces schematics, training manuals and parts manuals for various technical products and in multiple languages. In fact, the company has several customers that are heavy exporters, says Georgia Grornov, HelpWrite's director of development.

One customer is Exide Corp., which merged with GNB Batteries, the worlds
biggest battery manufacturer. After the merger, the combined companies are standardizing on J.D. Edwards' customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning software. Before the merger, one had used J.D. Edwards; the other had not.

HelpWrite is developing customized J.D. Edwards' training manuals to be used nationally by Exide. HelpWrite also writes training manuals for Firearms Training Systems of Suwanee, which sells firearms training simulators to police departments and military units. Grornov says HelpWrite has prospered despite the sluggish economy, growing to 19 employees and nine accounts in September from three employees and a single account a year ago.

Effigy Inc, in Atlanta is another firm that produces training manuals for software makers. Founded in 1999, Effigy at first courted startups as clients, but as many of those have faded, the firm has diversified its client base,
says Eric Brenner, Effigy's co-founder along with Damon Fogel.
Effigy has also employed a "print on demand" approach, meaning it prints only the materials clients need, when they need them.

"If you don't need 5,000 manuals immediately because you're training 20 people a week, we print 20 at a time," Brenner explains. That means companies aren't stuck with obsolete manuals, as software packages are updated, and companies don't have money tied up in excess manuals they might never use. Effigy has worked with about 200 customers this year, and roughly half of that volume involves training materials, Brenner says.

On the other end of the spectrum, KDC-Atlanta is the local franchise, one of 19 locations, of die national training company, Knowledge Development Center. KDC's bread and butter is in providing training facilities for big software markets, including SAP and Oracle, and large consulting firms, Acceniure and PricewaterhouseCoopers, in addition to big companies with lots of computer users. KDC-Atlanta has 45,000 square feet of training suites at its Perimeter Center- area offices.

"Our main focus is this: You bring your instructor and courseware, and we'll lake care of everything else," says Mike Hammer, president of KDC-Atlanta. With company navel budgets tightening, KDC aims to take advantage of its geographic dispersion. All of KDC's locations, Hammer says, are linked via secure, high-bandwidth connections. So a customer company can attach its SAP server to KDC's backbone and have employees go to any of KDC's locations to train on the SAP software.

KDC-Atlanta has seen business decline because companies have been cutting travel budgets, even before Sept. II. Before the terrorist attacks, however, business had been improving. In late September, according to Hammer, cancellations of sessions were running at about 10 percent to 12 percent, or roughly normal rates.
" Now, big companies are in a wait-and-see mode," he says. Turnbull at Kennesaw State sees a similar trend. Training, like most businesses, is battling a downturn, he says.

"I see big boys in town that typically have never had problems filling seats offering classes at half price," Turnbull says. "That tells me they're hurting big time." At KSU, Turnbulls program provided training to about 7,000 people in the fiscal year that ended in June. Kennesaw State offers basic programs in computer and software for kids and senior citizens, while offering high-level certification courses for network administrators and programmers. The school offers classes for the general public as well as courses tailored to the needs of companies.

Turnbull notes that the days are past when a Cisco or Microsoft certification served as a ticket to guaranteed high pay and job stability. Now, companies want generalists skilled in a variety of technologies. "Companies are scaling back IT purchasing and IT staffs. If you don't have the exact skills they need, you're
given your walking papers."