Manage Computer Support Costs through Effective User Training


Copyright 1991 CAUSE From _CAUSE/EFFECT_ Volume 14, Number 2, Summer 
1991. Permission to copy or disseminate all or part of this material is 
granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for 
commercial advantage, the CAUSE copyright and its dateappear, and notice 
is given that copying is by permission of CAUSE, the association for 
managing and using information resources in higher education. To 
disseminate otherwise, or to republish, requires written permission. For 
further information, contact CAUSE, 4840 Pearl East Circle, Suite 302E, 
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                  MANAGE COMPUTER SUPPORT COSTS THROUGH
                         EFFECTIVE USER TRAINING
                 by Betty Le Compagnon and John F. Leydon

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Betty Le Compagnon is currently Executive Director for Computing and
Information Services at the University of New Hampshire, responsible for
academic and research computing, telecommunications and network support,
and media services. Previously she served as Director of DISCovery, a
program that makes microcomputers and software available to faculty and
students at UNH for computer-aided instruction. Before joining the
University of New Hampshire, she served as Manager of Software
Development for D.C. Heath and Company. She has also worked for IBM as a
computer programmer and systems engineer.

John F. Leydon is currently a principal with George Kaludis Associates,
a management consulting firm specializing in higher education. As a
consultant, he served as Executive Director of Computer Services for the
University System of New Hampshire. Previously, he was Director of the
Regents' Computer Network for the Board of Regents of Higher Education
for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and also held the position of
Assistant Vice President for Management and Director of Data Processing
for the University of Massachusetts.

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ABSTRACT: Given rising costs of technology, information technology 
managers must look for cost-effective and efficient means of providing 
support to users. Even if a campus has established hardware and software 
standards, changes in personnel, upgrades to hardware and software, and 
the availability of new technology necessitate a long-term approach to
providing user support. This article presents the approach of the
University of New Hampshire to user training and argues that, among the
investments a computer services department can make, training can
actually have one of the biggest payoffs.


As the discrepancy grows between computing budgets and other ways to
spend limited campus dollars, computer center directors are having an
increasingly difficult time justifying the high costs of computing. For
colleges and universities that have undertaken a significant campus-wide
networking effort, those costs can be as high as 10 percent of the
institution's budget.

Along with rising costs of computing, the number of computer users
on campus continues to increase, and the profile of the computer user is
changing. Many users have a growing comfort level with technology, a
greater awareness of the possibilities offered by computers, and a
growing demand for increased computerization. Still others feel
pressured to begin using computers in spite of their continued fear of
technology. The central computer services organization must be
responsive to these changes, yet the number of central staff is not
growing. How can the computer services department support an increasing
number of users and changing institutional needs in a rapidly changing
computer environment?

One answer that is often overlooked is to provide effective
training. Many computer center directors consider training an investment
with less payoff than adding additional hardware, software, or support
staff. At the University of New Hampshire, however, we believe that
among the investments a computer services department can make, effective
training can actually have one of the biggest payoffs.

The Importance of Training to the Institution

New technology continues to alter not only the teaching and
learning aspects of an institution, but also its administrative
capabilities. Adequate training is absolutely necessary if institutions
are to take advantage of this rapidly changing technology. People must
have the skills necessary to work with new technology and its associated
software systems. Training is therefore beginning to emerge as one of
the most important functions of campus computing. However, training
individuals to use computers is difficult because of rapid changes in
the field and because of the variety of uses to which computers are put
in institutions of higher education. The institution must therefore be
committed to significant training for all users--faculty, staff, and
students. At the University of New Hampshire, it is our view that
training for computing is a key factor in providing the support needed
to keep users ahead of technology.

If we were to look at a cross section of postsecondary institutions
today, we would find they tend to approach training differently based on
how important they view the training function. They may simply "muddle
through" with little or no training, they may do "reactive" training in
response to problems or as specific needs arise, or they may actually
have a planning process for training just as they plan for the
acquisition and use of technology.

Much of the training for computing in higher education has not been
particularly effective, partly because technology has developed so fast.
Existing training models have not coped well with that changing
technology. Moreover, as the computer experience of faculty, staff, and
students increases, so do their training needs. Training must shift from
basic literacy to more selective training for particular skills. What
then are the elements necessary to provide effective training?

Factors Affecting the Success of Training

Some of the elements of good training are fairly obvious, while
others are not. One of the first things to assess in an effort to design
a training program that will provide adequate support to users is the
goals of that training program. For training to be a part of the overall
support infrastructure of the computing department, it must go beyond
merely teaching skills for using a particular software package or
solving operational problems. Although these are important and necessary
goals, training must also include the goals of increasing the
productivity and quality of work and of creating an environment of
teamwork where users work together more effectively.

If the goals of training are viewed in this larger perspective,
some cost savings can result:

  *  Making it easier to introduce changes and use new technology

  *  Reducing costs associated with errors, rework, or down time

  *  Reducing learning time for new employees

  *  Doing more with the same number of people

On the other hand, inadequate training can lead to costly delays,
problems, and dissatisfaction on the part of users. One way to cost-
justify training might be to consider the cost of not training.
According to an article in the November 1989 issue of Information
Center, corporations can waste as much as $740,000 per 1,000 installed
PCs if they don't teach people how to use them.

Timing is crucial for training to be effective. It's important not
to wait for problems to arise, but to schedule adequate training before
implementing changes. At the same time, training must satisfy a need or
it will not be retained. For example, administrative users trained in
how to use a new online administrative system months before the system
will actually be in full operation will have forgotten most, if not all,
of what they have learned by the time the system is fully functioning.

Good training takes into account what delivery method will work the
best. Not all users learn in the same way. For some, one-on-one training
is most effective; for others, self-study packages will work best.
Generally, less experienced users learn best with one-on-one training
sessions or small hands-on workshops. More experienced users can learn
effectively with self-study packages which might include documentation,
video tapes, or computer-based-training (CBT) exercises. These forms of
training allow the more advanced learner to skip areas they are already
familiar with or go faster than a classroom presentation might allow
them to. In general, training should include a balance between skills-
based training and knowledge-based training. However, the skills, or the
"how to" aspects of training, should probably be emphasized early on so
that the user may see results before becoming discouraged. Understanding
the concepts will be easier after at least a short period of "doing."

Training should also be geared to specific work groups, that is, to
groups where people share similar job functions and, therefore, similar
problems. An example of a training model that did not work well at the
University of New Hampshire was an attempt to teach a word processing
course to a class open to both faculty and staff. These two groups, in
fact, use word processors in very different ways. The faculty were more
interested in learning how to do such things as footnotes and
bibliography entries, while the administrative users wanted to learn how
to produce mailing labels or use the word processor's mail-merge
function.

It is also important, although not always possible, to try not to
mix skill levels. If class sizes do not permit having a beginning,
intermediate, and advanced section of a particular course, it is helpful
to have plenty of examples and exercises for more advanced users to work
on while you are helping less experienced users.

Encouraging Users to Take Advantage
of Training

For training to serve as effective support, thus reducing support
needs in other areas, users must take advantage of the training
available to them. One method of ensuring this is to make training
required. This is not necessarily the most effective way to ensure that
users will benefit from training, however, since training will not be
effective if it does not satisfy an immediate need. Training courses
must often be scheduled far in advance due to limited classroom
facilities and the availability of instructors. For this reason, courses
may not be offered at the most appropriate time for users. Requiring
someone to take a training course for a product they will not be using
immediately will not eliminate their need for support later on.

Another, better way to encourage users to attend training sessions
is to make them as easily-accessible as possible. One way to accomplish
this is to provide in-class, or in-office, training for users at the
request of faculty members or administrators. Another is to provide
regularly scheduled "walk-in" training sessions so that when users
develop a particular need, they can get immediate, and therefore more
effective, training support. Video tapes of training sessions, whether
"home-grown" or commercial, are another way to make training more
immediate since users may view them when, and as often as, they like.

In all cases, training must be marketed to the user if the user is
to take advantage of it. Marketing efforts for training can take the
form of published schedules announcing monthly course offerings,
newsletters or flyers announcing special training sessions of particular
interest, or announcements in the institution's newspaper under a
"notices" or "calendar of events" column.

Another way to make training attractive to users is to make the
registration process as easy as possible. At the University of New
Hampshire, users can call one central phone number to register or, if
they prefer, can register for courses online. If online registration is
used it must be well thought out so that it is both easy to use and up
to date. Nothing will discourage a user from future training more than
showing up for a class which was canceled but for which no information
to that effect appeared in the online registration schedule. Thus, if
online registration is used, it must be easy for the user to register,
cancel, or reschedule, and equally easy for those maintaining the online
registration program to notify those registered of changes or
cancellations.

Evaluating Training

An important, and often overlooked, factor affecting the success of
training in providing effective support to users is that of assessment.
For training to be effective, it must be seen as an ongoing process
which begins with a determination of institutional and individual needs,
involves both users and trainers in the planning process, and includes
procedures for evaluating the effectiveness of the training and making
changes and adjustments as needed.

One way of evaluating the success of a particular training effort
is to have users fill out a course evaluation form following the
training session. This is an effective means of fine-tuning individual
training programs. It is also a means of determining specific areas for
which adequate training is not being provided. It will not provide much
information, however, on some of the questions which those responsible
for training need to consider if training is truly to be a part of the
computer services department's support function. Some of these questions
might be: Does the training make the user more self-sufficient? Does it
make the user more efficient at his or her job? Does it provide a more
cost-effective means of support to users than other types of support?

To address some of these larger training issues, the University of
New Hampshire conducted a survey of both academic and administrative
users of personal computers in the spring of 1989. The goal of this
surveying effort, called Project PC Literacy, was to determine what
hardware and software were being used by users, how much users knew
about support available to them on campus for hardware and software
products, what hardware and software purchases were planned by users for
the upcoming year, how important computing was to the user in performing
his or her job, and what support, in what form, users felt they would
like to have.

A total of 104 academic and administrative departments were
surveyed, as were full- and part-time faculty. The department survey
took the form of a half-hour meeting with a designated department
spokesperson to discuss computer services the department had used, an
evaluation of those services, and discussion of services the department
had not used or was not aware of. Departments were also asked about
their future computing needs. After the meeting, an inventory of the
department's microcomputing hardware and software was taken. At the same
time, a two-page survey was sent to all full- and part-time faculty. The
survey asked faculty what microcomputer hardware and software they used,
what computing services they used, didn't use, or didn't know about, and
how they evaluated training and support services available to them. To
encourage faculty to return surveys, all those who completed and
returned their surveys were entered in a drawing for a gift certificate
at the campus computer store.

The results of this survey were very revealing and prompted a
number of changes in microcomputer training and support offered at the
University. Some examples include: the offering of evening courses for
faculty; the publicizing of our online "questions" mailbox, which many
users asked for but were unaware of the existence of; and the expanded
use of regularly scheduled "walk-in" training sessions for users. In
addition, we learned that some of the most successful forms of training
we provided might not be considered "training" in the traditional sense
of the word. These were things such as our one-page "how to" documents
and our Faculty Resource Library, both of which allow users to "help
themselves" to training as they see fit.

The success of the Project PC Literacy survey was due, in large
part, to the extensive thought that went into designing it, the time
taken to visit each department individually, and the thorough analysis
and reporting of the results. The responses to the survey not only
provided specific suggestions for improving computer support, but, in a
more general way, pointed out the growing importance of computing at the
University and the increasing need for computer support services.

In spite of the tremendous value of the survey, the extensive
amount of time required for such an effort prohibits conducting a survey
of this type annually. Nonetheless, smaller surveys are now used at the
University regularly to gather information on specific support needs of
users.

Computer Support Organization at UNH

The University System of New Hampshire (USNH) comprises four
campuses: Keene State College, Plymouth State College, and the Durham
and Manchester campuses of the University of New Hampshire.
Administrative computing support is provided centrally by USNH Computer
Services (USNHCS), located on the Durham campus and connected to the
System's other locations via a combination of leased and dial-up
telephone lines. Support for academic computing is decentralized, with
each of the campuses having its own academic support group.

Training for administrative computer users is provided by USNHCS
and takes place primarily on the Durham campus. Training for academic
computer users is provided by each of the campuses separately. Thus,
since USNHCS is located on the Durham campus, there are two separate
groups providing training there, one for administrative users and the
other for academic users. While this may seem like a duplicative
approach to training, the ability of each group to tailor its training
to the individual needs and learning styles of academic or
administrative users has, in fact, made this approach more effective,
thereby helping to reduce overall support costs.

Academic Computing Training at UNH

The training function for academic computing at the University's
Durham campus is part of the Computing and Information Services
department and falls specifically under the responsibility of the
Manager of User Support, who oversees four areas that provide different
forms of training: the User Support Center, the Faculty Resource
Library, the Desktop Publishing Center, and the Training Center. Seven
full-time staff members support these four areas, out of a total
Computing and Information Services staff of forty-five.

The User Support Center was set up two years ago in response to
user complaints that they were unsure where to go to get answers to
computing questions. The Center is the first place for faculty and
students to go for help with any computing question. If a user needs
help with software, hardware, or any other computing information, a
member of the User Support Center will either answer the question
directly or refer the user to a consultant responsible for small or
large systems support. These consultants are located either in the
Center itself, or in offices adjacent to it. At the User Support Center
there are a number of "self-help" training and support facilities such
as a library of trade journals and a selection of one-page "how to"
documents on such topics as: Getting Started with BITNET, How to Protect
Your Work, and Installing WordPerfect 5.0. There is also a Media
Conversion Center with self-help guides to help users convert data files
between computer operating systems. Users can also transfer information
between different sized MS-DOS disks there.

The Faculty Resource Library and Desktop Publishing Center are two
other learning environments which are particularly attractive to the
more sophisticated academic user. In both centers, faculty may sit down
by themselves, try new software, and ask for help from consultants when
they have a problem. One-on-one training is available by appointment on
the use of all software and hardware available in the centers.

The Training Center is located near the User Support Center and is
used for training of both academic and administrative users. There are
three classrooms at the Training Center tailored to the training needs
of faculty, staff, and students. They provide projection equipment,
microcomputers, and terminals which allow trainers to include either
classroom demonstrations, hands-on training, or a combination of both,
as appropriate. As part of the overall training effort, the Training
Center offers regularly scheduled short courses on such popular topics
as WordPerfect and dBASE III. Many of these courses are also available
on videotape for viewing at the user's convenience. These tapes may be
checked out for viewing on- or off-campus. There are also a number of
commercial tapes, many of which incorporate software for hands-on
exercises and self-paced learning.

The Training Center also provides projection equipment and
computers for use in classrooms. Training Center personnel will deliver
equipment to the classroom and set it up. Arrangements can also be made
for extended-use setups. Each piece of loaned equipment is labeled with
a hotline phone number to call if there is an equipment problem.

Administrative Computing Training

Just as the organization of the training function in academic
computing resulted from a perceived need on the part of academic users,
the creation of a new model for providing training to administrative
users grew out of their perceived needs. As a result of a number of
complaints by administrative users of a newly installed online financial
accounting system, it became evident to USNHCS that it must find a way
to provide quality, timely, and comprehensive training to a diverse
group of approximately 1,000 administrative users located on four
separate campuses across the state. Moreover, due to budget constraints,
the new model for training would have to be developed within the
constraints of existing resources and staff.

The training model developed has three components: a user services
unit into which all staff providing direct service to users have been
grouped and designated "trainers"; a "train-the-trainers" program for
developing "end-user trainers"; and a strong documentation program.

     User services group

The definition of "user services" is viewed broadly by USNHCS. The
functions of production services, quality assurance, data security, user
accounts, technical writing, the Information Center, consulting, and
training are considered to be part of user services and are consolidated
in the USNHCS User Services group. There are seven staff members in this
group out of a total USNHCS staff of sixty-five. Each staff member in
User Services, regardless of his or her speciality, is designated as a
trainer and expected to provide end-user training.

Our experience has shown that computing staff members are not only
willing to provide training in addition to their primary
responsibilities, but often find training to be a welcome relief from
these other responsibilities. Over time, each staff member develops a
particular area of expertise and, in some cases, the skills of these
"secondary" trainers even surpass those of the primary trainer.

The practice of designating all User Services personnel as trainers
is also extended to telephone support. The objective is to ensure that
the telephone will always be answered quickly during the business hours
of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Everyone in User Services is expected to
provide telephone support, and this support is considered one of the
most important services provided by the group. Our approach to providing
service has allowed User Services to develop the critical mass needed to
provide consistent and effective delivery of user support.

Among the User Services staff are two professional trainers and one
technical writer/editor. One of the trainers specializes in application
systems--financial accounting and human resources; the other 
concentrates on technical products such as fourth-generation languages, 
text editors, job control utilities, and operating system commands. Each 
is capable of substituting for the other if needed.

     End-user trainers

Since the number of professional trainers is limited, the skills of
these few have been leveraged by developing a large group of non-
professional "end-user trainers" through a "train-the-trainers" program.

The professional trainers in USNHCS have promoted the idea that
their primary function is to train end-user trainers who, in turn, will
provide front-line training to a particular department or division. The
ideal would be that the USNHCS professional trainer would provide
support only to these end-user trainers. In practice, however, this is
not always possible. Many departments have end-user trainers who are not
effective, and some have none at all. The USNHCS trainer must therefore
prepare training for both end-user trainers and end users themselves.
The fact that the "train-the-trainer" model is not 100 percent
effective, however, does not invalidate the concept itself. Since the
purpose of training end-user trainers is to provide more cost-effective
training, if the number of end users to be trained by the USNHCS staff
is halved, fewer professional trainers are needed.

It takes a significant effort to recruit end-user trainers and,
once recruited, to keep them involved. For this reason, USNHCS
established an end-user trainer committee that meets periodically to
share information and learn new training techniques from the USNHCS
professional trainers. This committee is particularly important to end-
user trainers from the remote campuses, Keene State and Plymouth State,
located 90 miles from Durham. Unless these remote end-user trainers
receive training updates and share information regularly, ineffective or
inaccurate training may result.

It is the responsibility of the USNHCS staff to encourage an active
interest in the end-user trainer committee. The end-user trainers all
have other jobs to perform. Training is their secondary responsibility,
and their interest and enthusiasm will wane unless they are provided
encouragement and support from the central staff. Although this requires
a commitment of time on the part of the USNHCS staff, the results are
worthwhile.

     Developing quality documentation

An excellent way to reduce reliance on direct end-user training is
to provide useful documentation. Producing effective documentation can
be an elusive goal, however, and the initial effort to prepare quality
materials is very time-consuming. Obviously, the content of training
materials is important; not so obvious is the need for an effective
format for the documentation. Regardless of how well the narrative is
written, if it is delivered to end users in a form that is not easy to
use, it will not be used and the efforts to produce it will have been
wasted. Our experience has shown that an effective format for training
manuals requires the services of a professional technical writer/editor.
The form of a document is as important as the content, and quality form
requires the services of a professional.

The approach that has proven effective for USNHCS requires that the
end-user office develop the documentation narrative. The technical
writer/editor in User Services then edits and formats the document using
destop publishing software, prepares documents for printing, coordinates
printing with the UNH printing services department (whose
photocomposition/typesetting system is compatible with the editor's
software), and distributes completed documentation to end users.

Once the initial document preparation is completed, the task of
keeping documentation current is also assumed by User Services.
Effective updating of documentation can occur only when the initial
effort has produced a manual that is designed for ease of maintenance.
This is another argument in favor of having a professional involved from
the start. If the initial effort produces a document that must be
reprinted in its entirety each time an update occurs, the cost of
printing and distributing the manual would be prohibitive. Doing the job
right at the start saves a significant amount of time and effort over
the useful life of the manual.

Part of every training session is the presentation of a User Guide
to the staff being trained. The training must not only show how the
automated system works but must include instruction in the use of the
User Guide. The objective is to have the end user rely on the Guide
rather than on the User Services trainer. Again, the objective is to
leverage the skills of the professional trainers: when a large
percentage of end users use the documentation, the User Services
trainers can spend time on other responsibilities.

Although the impact of quality documentation on the training
efforts of the User Services staff cannot be fully measured, the fact
that a large group of end users is well trained and knowledgeable
attests to the success of the overall USNHCS training model. We believe
that the documentation is a major contributing factor to this success.

     Other training services

A monthly calendar of events is published to announce all courses
for the upcoming two months. User Services has developed an online
course registration system that is easy to use and available to end
users. Telephone reservations are also accepted. In addition to formal
courses, User Services has set aside time each week for introductory
training on the major administrative systems. In this way, new staff
members can stop by and receive initial training on any administrative
system in the first week they are employed. This "drop-in center" also
provides a comfortable atmosphere for end users who need answers to
questions or a quick training update. The emphasis in the center is on
friendly service to end users. The goal is to provide "one-stop
shopping" to meet all user needs.

Conclusion

There is no one right approach to effective user training. Taken
together, however, the diverse approaches to training outlined above
have allowed the departments of USNHCS and Computing and Information
Services to provide quality and comprehensive training, with relatively
small staffs, to both academic and administrative users.

As the above examples show, effective training can take on a number
of different forms, not all of which take place in the traditional
classroom environment with an instructor. Documentation, software
packages, and video tapes can provide adequate and cost-effective
training for certain user needs. For training to be successful and, at
the same time, provide a cost-effective means of support for users, it
must be evaluated carefully and tailored to both institutional and
individual needs. The goals of the overall support function of the
computer services department must be taken into account, as well as the
resources available for the training function.

With careful planning, implementation, and evaluation, a number of
cost-saving benefits to the overall support effort will result. These
include:

  *  Teaching users how to do things for themselves rather than having
the computer services staff do things for them

  *  Enhancing the personal productivity of faculty and staff

  *  Reducing the time spent on problems and crises

  *  Reducing the time needed to install and maintain user systems

  *  Decreasing departmental "downtime" resulting from turnover

  *  Reducing lost productivity due to the learning curve associated
with the implementation of new systems

  *  Reducing risk of loss by educating end users on data integrity and
security

To be effective, training must not be considered a quick-fix, an
add-on, or a standard "cookbook" approach to educating users. Rather,
training must be seen as a process to strengthen long-term institutional
goals and as a cost-effective means of providing user support. Often,
not enough time is spent up front assessing needs and planning the
training effort, nor is enough time spent evaluating the results and
making necessary changes.

Changes in personnel, upgrades to hardware and software, and the
availability of new technology necessitate a long-term approach to
providing computer support and training. Given the distributed nature of
the equipment, a strong computer support organization that can
coordinate training and other support functions is essential. With
proper planning and evaluating, training can be one of the most cost-
effective and efficient means of providing computing support to users.

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