Computer Help for Small Companies

Virtual Training for Desktop Applications
Progent's webinars offer small businesses the cost savings, convenience, and flexibility of virtual seminars plus the effective training techniques of expert teachers who utilize advanced technology to simulate live, interactive classrooms. Progent can provide remote training for key desktop applications including components of Microsoft Office suite such as Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, Publisher, and Visio; Microsoft Dynamics business accounting and management software such as MS Dynamics GP; plus additional popular desktop applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Acrobat Writer, and Crystal Reports.

Progent's webinars can be brief, an hour or less, or can span several days. You can schedule one-on-one virtual training sessions or, to get the maximum leverage for your training investment, arrange classes for large groups of students located at multiple sites. All that is required to participate is a telephone, a full-featured web browser, and a high-speed Internet connection. Setting up the virtual training software is fast and easy, so students of any skill level can quickly join in on a powerful interactive learning environment that includes broadcast white boards, electronic hand-raising, live questions and answers, and shared desktop control for in-depth demonstration.

Advantages of Progent's Webinar Training
Progent's webinars are presented by subject-matter experts to students at remote locations of their choice. Today's fast Internet connections and sophisticated collaboration software make the virtual classroom environment more effective and affordable than previously possible.

Small businesses can be big winners because Progent's virtual seminar training model brings major advantages:

• Eliminates Travel Costs
  Virtual classrooms eliminate the time and travel expenses needed to bring teacher and students to the same location. Progent's trainers don't have to charge for travel costs and time, and your employees/students don't lose productivity or spend money getting to a central site. The benefit of location independence inherent with webinar-based training eliminates the scenario, common with the conventional model of physical classrooms, where the full cost of travel exceeds the trainer's charges for hours spent in actual teaching.
• Simplifies Scheduling
  Because students can attend a webinar training at work, at home, in a hotel room, or anywhere that has fast Internet access, it is far easier to find an acceptable time window that accommodates the schedules of teacher and students.
• Leverages Training Investments:
  Webinars allow you to leverage a single training session to benefit many employees while introducing less disruption to your company's ordinary workflow.
• Improves Relevance:
  Virtual training reduces the temptation to take a shotgun approach to class content. By eliminating travel costs and simplifying scheduling, virtual classrooms make it more affordable to segment training sessions to match the needs of students by offering beginner and advanced classes or by covering only task-relevant topics. This avoids costly and frustrating situations where students waste time going over things they already know, don't need to know, or don't understand.
• Provides Flexibility:
  Progent can tailor virtual classes to meet your specific needs. For example, you may want a large group to attend a generic class such as Excel 2007 or Excel 2010 for Beginners, whereas you may also want a smaller group to attend a customized interactive seminar on how Excel Pivot Tables can be used to give management a better understanding of your business.

• Virtual Hand Raising: At any time during a training session students can interject questions in order to request clarification or ask for more in-depth coverage of relevant topics. Virtual hand raising makes it possible to adjust the pace and content of a class to match the skills and goals of the students.
• Electronic Whiteboard: Prepared training slides are delivered via an electronic white board that allows students and teachers to annotate and emphasize course material. Students can then save and print slides for future reference.
• Shared Application Screens: Progent's instructors can demonstrate key concepts by sharing application screens with the class, making it easy to lead students through practical examples of the applications they need to master.
• After-class Consultation: As an option, Progent's instructors can be available via e-mail after a webinar to answer follow-on questions that may arise once students have had a chance to make practical use of the application they studied.

• One-hour quick-tip classes on Microsoft Office Excel
• A series of brief, focused webinars on Excel designed to cover topics of interest specifically requested by various workgroups
• Hands-on Project Development: a series of weekly sessions in which students create a business application based on Microsoft Office Access. In this multi-day webinar, students do the programming while the instructor supervises and provides assistance as needed. The teacher shows students how to plan and execute a database project from the beginning, offering concepts and techniques that can be applied to future projects. The interval between sessions allows students to work on their own, absorb what they have been taught, and prepare well-considered questions for upcoming classes.
• Examples of in-depth, all-day classes for application specialists include Advanced Word Documents, Advanced Formulas in Excel, and Using Microsoft Outlook for Time Management.

Download Progent's Webinar Datasheet
For a printable datasheet about Progent's virtual training webinars for desktop applications, click:
Datasheet for Progent's Desktop Applications Webinars