MSN - About QA – the UK’s leading training company

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MSN

How QA delivered a managed training programme to MSN, including a training needs analysis to identify skills requirements – followed by training and certification services.

The Challenge

Supporting the technical infrastructure of MSN, one of the world’s most successful on-line portals, is no mean feat. It takes a massive collection of hardware and software to deliver MSN’s 24x7 services – including Web content to 11.6 million users, instant messaging to 6.3 million users and e-mail to 7.7 million users.

When MSN wanted to provide technical skills to its front-line infrastructure support team, the company chose QA. Although staff from MSN had previously attended technical training courses from various IT training companies, the company they had been most impressed by was QA.

The Solution

It was decided that, prior to any training being provided, it was essential to identify which skills were actually needed. This was achieved through a training needs analysis (TNA) – an interview and questionnaire process, which assessed the technical skills needed by the MSN team members to perform their roles. The training would have to fit in with each MSN employee’s personal development plan, and, where appropriate, lead to a certification as a measure of achievement.

The TNA identified a need for training in Microsoft Windows Server 2003, SQL Server and IIS Server. In addition, QAidentified the need for soft skills which would help the team better perform its role and some non-Microsoft technical skills such as Cisco networking. QA provided an individual learning path for each employee, focused on reskilling them in the tasks required to better perform their roles – and splitting the training into ‘essential’ and ‘desirable’ skills for each person, depending on his or her role.

The training was delivered via a ‘managed programme’ – QA took responsibility for administration and managing each delegate through the training process, freeing MSN managers to concentrate on their own roles.

All of the team were successfully managed through the training programme – which again was provided by QA, through a series of standard public and bespoke closed courses (as, at that time, many of the Microsoft Windows 2003 Server courses did not yet exist). The end result was a success – increasing the technical skills of MSN’s support team, and contributing to the smooth running of one of the UK’s top Web sites.

QA - around 1500 training courses right across the UK, England, Scotland and Ireland

QA provides ITIL and service management training; PRINCE2, PMI, APM and ISEB project management training; technical IT training including Microsoft, Oracle training, IBM training, Cisco training, Citrix training, Red Hat training and VMware training; Microsoft Office and other business applications training, management training, managed training services, eLearning and more - around 1500 courses from 39 UK, England, Scotland and Ireland locations: in Banbury Franklin Covey, Birmingham West Midlands, Bournemouth Dorset, Bristol South West, Camberley Surrey Sun, Cheltenham Gloucestershire, Chesterfield Derbyshire, Dublin Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin Glandore Business Centre, Exeter South West, Farnborough Red Hat, Guildford Red Hat, Hinckley East Midlands, Leeds Yorkshire, Leeds Yorkshire (Ring Road), Leeds Yorkshire City Centre, London In Tuition , London King William Street, London Middlesex Street, London Old Broad Street Fast Lane, London Red Hat, London Rosebery Avenue, London Tabernacle Street, London Victoria Microsoft, Manchester Altrincham, Manchester City Centre , Manchester Stockport, Milton Keynes Buckinghamshire, QA On-Line Virtual Centre, Reading Berkshire, Reading Oracle, Scotland Aberdeen, Scotland Edinburgh, Scotland Glasgow, Scotland Glasgow Marriott Hotel, Slough Berkshire, Swindon Wiltshire, Washington Tyne and Wear and Windsor Berkshire Fast Lane.