“Fast and flexible access to identity expertise – TrainingPlus is a no brainer” says Neil

Our flexible and cost-effective TrainingPlus packages enable organizations to get MIM, Microsoft Entra ID, and Microsoft Entra Connect training, plus ad hoc advice, help, and guidance at discounted rates from our identity experts at discounted rates.

Fast access to identity expertise

Having identity experts on hand to discuss things with and help us devise practical, workable solutions to problems as they arise is so great. It saves us so much time and money knowing we’re doing the right thing the first time.

Our customer Neil, Infrastructure Systems Administrator at a UK university, explains why he thinks TrainingPlus is a “no brainer”. 

“I have attended several of Oxford Computer Training’s courses over the last few years, so I know they know what they are talking about! And when I mentioned to Mark (Oxford Computer Training’s Business Development Manager) that we could do with some post-training support on an ongoing basis, I was delighted to hear about TrainingPlus. Signing up was a no-brainer. I wish we’d done it four years ago!

Informal and flexible expert help

One of the things we like so much about TrainingPlus is the informal and flexible way it works. You get a pot of TrainingPlus money ‘banked’ – and we can use it whenever we need it without having to ask for the money from our internal budget holders every time. We’ve used it for consulting, guidance, advice, and training. And because the money is already ‘banked’ in TrainingPlus, we can react swiftly. 

When a member of staff left, I was on my own doing the identity piece. Internally they said ‘Ooh, you’ll need a hand’ and that we could get a consultant in. But we preferred to opt for TrainingPlus so that we can get ad-hoc help when we need it, and which we can use for smaller (but no less important) bits of work when required. Having this kind of flexibility is so convenient for us. 

Extra team member at busy and critical times

We effectively drafted Paul Captainino (Oxford Computer Training consultant and trainer) as an extra team member during our student intake. This was invaluable. It’s always the busiest time of year and having Paul on hand gave us a lot of confidence with MIM. In three days we created 6,500 new identities using a new procedure which Paul helped us with. He also helped us identify, diagnose, and troubleshoot issues as we went along. Normally it is an absolute nightmare, but this year it’s been the best by far. Everything went smoothly and we learned a lot from it as well.

Confidence to make changes

When my predecessors installed MIM, they built it live in production with no way to test what was happening. This meant that our installation was about five years behind on our version of MIM – and we hadn’t dared to update it because, if we broke the provisioning, we would have an immediate backlog of staff and students who couldn’t work!

To address this, Paul has also been helping us to build a parallel test environment. This has been extremely useful in diagnosing several issues.  He knows which rocks to look under for nasties and to figure out why something’s doing what! We need to be able to say ‘We’re confident this is going to work’, and now we’re able to update everything.

Fast responses and support via Teams 

Throughout the pandemic, all our work with Paul has been done remotely, on Microsoft Teams. It’s been absolutely perfect working this way. I’m very happy with the speed of response, too. When we had an urgent problem, we got help the very next day to get everything back up and running. That was great. But for most of the work, we planned well ahead and were able to schedule it.

“I’d definitely recommend TrainingPlus to other organizations”

I’d definitely recommend TrainingPlus to other organizations. It’s an extremely flexible way of getting support and help with a MIM environment. You can also use TrainingPlus funds for training courses to increase your skillset when you need to.

I’d say I know a lot about MIM now, but not to the same extent as the team at Oxford Computer Training! I’m running a ton of systems, email, Office 365 etc, so being able to call on people who know MIM inside-out is absolutely invaluable.”

Would you like fast access to our identity expertise, mentoring, and training as and when you need it – and at discounted rates, too?

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Any questions? Contact me!

I will be delighted to answer any questions you may have about TrainingPlus. Contact me at +44 (0)1865 521200 or +1 425-577-6542, or by email.