Informatica reaffirms ReadyTech as key online training software provider for Global University
ReadyTech’s infrastructure and 24/7 Live Support lead to selection decisions
Informatica’s global, customer onboarding training program
Founded in 1993, Informatica is a software development company with over 5,000 customers and $1.05 billion in annual sales. In 2015, Informatica was acquired for $5.3 billion by investors that included Microsoft and Salesforce Ventures.
Informatica provides software products and services focused on data integration, information lifecycle management, cloud data integration, data processing, and data management. As part of its software product sales, Informatica provides training to help its customers onboard their products faster. Informatica has been using ReadyTech’s online training software for nearly a decade, which has involved two comprehensive reviews – initially in 2006 and again in 2014, reaffirming that ReadyTech is the winning solution. Since working with ReadyTech, online training has become one of the biggest revenue
contributors to the Informatica Global University. Detailed below is a review of why Informatica chooses to partner with ReadyTech and why Informatica’s Global University Department continues to see ReadyTech as the virtual training software partner of choice.
Network instability and unresponsive support
In 2005, Informatica was running its Global University department with another training vendor. But after years of trying to fix mission-critical problems like network instability, unreliable connectivity, broken class images, unresponsive support, and 3-4 second latency delays – the previous vendor was simply unable to service Informatica’s growing Global University. As Dave Palmer, Informatica’s Global University Training Delivery Manager, remembers, “Informatica was not stable on the previous vendor’s environment and maintaining connectivity was sporadic. No one could figure out the problem and customer satisfaction was becoming an issue.”
The initial 2006 vendor evaluation was also driven by Informatica’s instructors and students, who reported low satisfaction levels due to the poor training environments they were experiencing. As Bert Peters, an Informatica Customer Success Consultant recalls, “Our previous vendor had a fatal flaw in that you could not reboot a single student’s machine without rebooting all of the machines. That was a huge problem. … We went to another vendor that didn’t have that rebooting problem, but then we ran into performance and scaling issues.”
So in 2006, Informatica went into the market to evaluate other virtual training software for their Global University. Critical to their evaluation process was a training delivery platform that was stable, had better graphical performance, no latency, and offered scalability.
Informatica’s vendor reviews choose ReadyTech twice
After performing a thorough, multi-vendor review, Informatica selected ReadyTech’s Instructor-Led (ILT) and Self-Paced Training Solutions to power their Global University. Training Delivery Manager Dave Palmer recalls Informatica’s rationale:
Bert Peters, an Informatica Instructor at the time, also recalls comparing ReadyTech’s solution against the other training vendors. He found that:
So in 2006, Informatica and ReadyTech partnered together to deliver virtual instructor-led training (VILT) classes. And for nearly 10 years the partnership thrived, succeeding to triple Informatica’s virtual training business. When the partnership started in 2006, Informatica was delivering 4-6 classes per month. By 2014, Informatica was delivering over 20 classes per month (a 230% increase vs. 2006) and VILT was one of the biggest revenue contributors to Informatica’s Global University.
In 2014, Informatica performed another vendor evaluation, prompted by an internal initiative to learn what the market offered, how each virtual training software provider had progressed since 2006, and see if ReadyTech’s Training Delivery Solutions were still the appropriate solutions to use. After evaluating four (4) vendors, Informatica chose to stay with ReadyTech, highlighting ReadyTech’s support and technical services as a key driver:
Since Informatica decided to continue the ReadyTech relationship, they’ve become a close partner in helping ReadyTech identify new products and features to develop, and ensure that both companies navigate the rapid changes occurring in the virtual training industry. Most recently, Informatica contributed to ReadyTech’s efforts to develop its Self-Paced Training Solution, a training product that lets companies offer standardized training curriculum in an instructor-less environment.
230% growth in Informatica’s online classes
With ReadyTech’s Instructor-Led and Self-Paced Training Solutions, Informatica continues to give its Global University Department a training advantage. With ReadyTech, Informatica’s Global University enjoys:
- Access to Dozens of Instructor Features: Informatica’s instructors now use online training software designed specifically for training, including virtual training tools like the ability to remotely draw, share and monitor student desktops; track student and classroom activity; track engagement levels; and teach the classroom with full audio.
- Resource Scalability and Flexibility: Informatica’s Training Delivery Team has the scalability to request as many resources as they need and the flexibility to request resources with just 1GB of RAM and 1 Core or resources with up to 96GB of RAM and 24 Cores. This unique advantage has been key to Informatica successfully growing their online training business by 230% in the last 9 years.
- 24/7 Live Support: Informatica’s instructors and students have access to ReadyTech’s Live Support Team 24/7 for technical and non-technical answers and recommendations. Whether Informatica needs student support, instructor inclass support, optimizing class images., or urgent resource needs, ReadyTech’s Support Team is available.
The system was not efficient. What Documentum needed was to take a step back, look at the complete training program and automate the most complex and time consuming tasks. What they discovered was virtual training software from ReadyTech.
Automated delivery, configuration and tear down
Documentum chose ReadyTech’s Instructor-Led Training (ILT) Solution. ReadyTech ILT automates the entire hands-on training process: delivery, configuration, and tear down of the virtual training labs. So with just a browser and an Internet connection, Documentum’s students gain access to the virtual training labs where they can start learning the skills they need from anywhere in the world at anytime. On first evaluation, ReadyTech ILT met all of Documentum’s requirements – scalability, reliability, ease of use and performance. The ReadyTech approach includes:
- Hosted Training Environment: Software instructors can provide students with a complete, fully-functional software environment, without worrying about the complicated hardware and software setup. No more shipping of preconfigured laptops, dealing with technical breakdowns, and canceling classes.
- High Performance Accessibility: Remote Systems allowed students to access virtual training labs online from anywhere in the world, during class but also after class to finish the lab exercises if needed. The performance is as good as or better than physical classroom labs.
- Functionality and Scalability: When needed, students can access their virtual training labs and the instructor can shadow. Each remote session is running on a physical server and is rebootable and restorable at anytime without affecting other students. The scalability is unlimited whether you have five students or hundreds of students that need to be trained simultaneously. With the volume of Documentum courses, this was a huge benefit.
- Services and Support: ReadyTech provides 24/7 Live Support that responds quickly to support requests, ensuring that the virtual training environment is ready to go whenever required.
Operational and training benefits for all stakeholders
Since July 2005, Documentum has been using ReadyTech ILT to deliver virtual instructor-led training (VILT) to more than 8,000 students worldwide, experiencing dramatic results that not only benefit the company and its customers, but training instructors and students around the world. With ReadyTech ILT, the benefits have added up:
- Documentum stays focused on its core business.
- Software instructors can focus on what they do best – train.
- Internal resources are freed for other purposes.
- Software proficiency goes up; operating expenses are reduced and controlled.
- Investment in IT assets is lowered and risk is reduced.
- Students learn faster and customers gain value from Documentum sooner.
- Reduces the time, effort and expense it takes to operate a training program.
Discuss this Project
Website
Industry
Software
Data Integration and Management
Company Size
Enterprise (Formerly NASDAQ: INFA)
3,900 Employees and 5,000 Clients
Headquarters
Redwood City, California, USA
Challenges
- Performance and scaling issues
- Unstable training environment with sporadic connectivity
- Unresponsive and under-trained technical support
- One-off technical constraints like machine rebooting
- Need for a provider with software for both instructor-led and self-paced training scenarios
Solution
Informatica selected ReadyTech’s Instructor-Led and Self-Paced Training Solutions to enable their Global University to deliver technical training to their ecosystem of 5,000 customers. ReadyTech’s technology was meticulously evaluated twice (2006 and 2014), with both evaluations resulting in Informatica to select ReadyTech as their online training software provider of choice. With ReadyTech, Informatica gained a stable, flexible and scalable training infrastructure filled with dozens of training – specific features, and access to complimentary 24/7 Live Support for their instructors and students.
Benefits
- Increased stability, connectivity, graphics performance and student satisfaction
- Reduced latency and removed technical constraints
- Multi-level, 24/7 live support for instructors and students
About ReadyTech
ReadyTech is the easiest and most cost-effective way to deliver worldwide IT training. Our proprietary technology eliminates the most cumbersome, technical and administrative functions of running an IT training program. Students can connect through a browser from anywhere in the world to a high performance lab-environment suited for their needs. Our online training software gives instructors complete oversight and control of the lab environment and virtual classroom.
