Training and Consulting Guide
Last Revised: 2010 December 15 BParker
Previous revision: 2007 March 20 JHarlan
© 2010 L-Soft international, Inc. All rights reserved.
LISTSERV® and ListPlexSM are Registered Trademarks or Registered Service Marks licensed to L-Soft international, Inc.
EASE is a Service Mark of L-Soft international, Inc.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
- Our Training Agenda
- Courses Track A: Foundations
- Courses Track B: LISTSERV
- LISTSERV List Owner Track
- LISTSERV Site Administrator Track
- Courses Track C: LISTSERV Maestro
- LISTSERV Maestro for Users Track
- LISTSERV Maestro for Site Administrators Track
- LISTSERV Maestro for Data Administrators Track
- Courses Track D: Extended Learning
- Courses under preparation
- L-Soft Training Facilities, Schedule, and Pricing
- L-Soft Consulting
- Frequently Asked Questions
- 1. How do I register for a training course?
- 2. Do I have to sign an agreement to take a training course?
- 3. Who are L-Soft's trainers? What are their qualifications?
- 4. How do I find the most suitable training course?
- 5. How much does training cost?
- 6. Where are the training courses held?
- 7. What is needed in a training facility?
- 8. Is there a maximum course size?
- L-Soft Sales Contact Information
- U.S. Office
- European Office
- About L-Soft
- L-Soft's Products and Services
- LISTSERV® Email List Management Software
- LISTSERV® Maestro Email Marketing Software
- ListPlexSM and EASESM Email List Hosting Services
- ListPlexSMMaestro and EASESM Maestro Hosted Email Marketing Services
Audience: Organizations engaged in e-mail communication
Prerequisites: None
Objectives: course participants will learn how to more effectively target their e-mail communications, how to create and maintain positive relationships with their recipients (and their recipients's e-mail providers), and how other e-mail communicators engage in effective and responsible e-mail communications (e.g., case studies).
Duration: 0.5 day
Audience: Organizations using LISTSERV that wish to take an introduction or refresher course in the basic concepts of electronic mail, e-mail lists and related underlying networking principles.
Prerequisites: Basic personal computer skills and familiarity with e-mail.
Objectives: course participants will initially be given a short introduction on the basics of the Internet (TCP/IP, Domain Name Service, routers, firewalls, etc.). They will then become familiar with the basic concepts of e-mail and e-mail lists (i.e. how e-mail is generated, the protocols used for transmission, delivery and reception, and why e-mail is an effective medium).
Duration: 0.5 day
Audience: Customers using LISTSERV (list owners or administrators) who want to take an introduction or refresher course in more advanced concepts of electronic mail, e-mail lists and related underlying networking principles.
Prerequisites: 3020 E-mail and Networking I (Basics) (or equivalent knowledge / experience.)
Objectives: course participants will be able to read and understand e-mail headers, generate and send HTML / multipart / attachments via e-mail, and comprehend other advanced concepts of e-mail and e-mail lists.
Duration: 0.5 day
Audience: Current and prospective LISTSERV list managers
Prerequisites: 3020 E-mail and Networking I (Basics) (or equivalent knowledge / experience)
Objectives: course participants will learn how to perform basic list ownership functions -- managing list's character and behavior, managing list's subscribers, diagnosing and solving problems -- through LISTSERV's Web interface and e-mail.
Duration: 0.5 day
Audience: Current and prospective LISTSERV list owners who are using or intend to use LISTSERV for one-way, announcement lists.
Prerequisites: 3040 List Owner I (Basics) (or equivalent knowledge / experience)
Objectives: course participants will learn how to set up and manage one-way announcement LISTSERV lists, send mail to a one-way list, use the super-list / sub-list architecture, use topics, customize mail and Web templates, and create customized Web sign-up pages.
Duration: 0.5 day
Audience: Current and prospective LISTSERV site administrators.
Prerequisites: 3020 E-mail and Networking I (Basics) (or equivalent knowledge / experience) OS-specific administrative skills
Objectives: course participants will learn what a site administrator needs to know about LISTSERV (e-mail/web), new list creation and initial configuration,list-specific and site-wide mail and web template creation and modification, how a site administrator assists list owners with error-bounce management, list management, subscriber management.
Note that Course 3080 covers almost identical material to Course 3040. Normally we will not teach both 3040 and 3080 to the same person since the material is redundant. Site Admin Track students should only take 3080.
Duration: 0.5 day
Audience: Current and prospective LISTSERV site administrators.
Prerequisites: 3080 Site Administrator I (Basics) or equivalent knowledge / experience.
Objectives: course participants will learn how to customize mail and Web templates, create customized Web sign-up pages, implement a super-list / sub-list architecture, use list topics, and use a standard toolset for LISTSERV and related diagnostics.
Note that Course 3084 covers almost identical material to Course 3042. Normally we will not teach both 3042 and 3084 to the same person since the material is redundant. Site Admin Track students should only take 3084.
Duration: 0.5 day
Audience: Current and prospective LISTSERV site administrators or advanced list owners
Prerequisites: 3084 Site Administrator V (Basics) or equivalent knowledge / experience. OS-specific administrative skills.
Objectives: course participants will learn to interpret LISTSERV & SMTP log files, to interpret CHANGELOG files, bounce management, LISTSERV/SMTP behind a firewall, tuning LISTSERV, troubleshooting, operations monitoring / backups. (This course has separate Windows/Unix versions.)
Duration: 0.5 day
Audience: Current and prospective users of LISTSERV Maestro
(There is no charge for this orientation when given in conjunction with other 4000 series courses.)
Prerequisites: none
Objectives: General orientation lecture/demonstration in how LISTSERV Maestro operates, and can be used to create, administer and analyze results from e-mail marketing campaigns using Maestro. This is not a hands-on course but is lecture/demonstration only.
For this course only the normal class size limits may be doubled.
Intended only as orientation/overview for persons NOT taking other 4000 series courses.
Duration: Typically 1 hour
Audience: Server Administrators for sites running LISTSERV Maestro.
(Not intended for sites also running standard LISTSERV lists. Ask about a special combined 3085+4002 course if you run Maestro along with standard LISTSERV lists.)
Prerequisites: 3020 E-mail and Networking I (Basics) (or equivalent knowledge/experience) OS-specific administrative skills
Objectives: course participants will learn the LISTSERV Maestro System Components, administering Maestro via HUB, administering LISTSERV and SMTP, interpreting HUB/LUI/TRK log files, interpreting LISTSERV log files, interpreting SMTP log files, bounce management in Maestro, troubleshooting, operations monitoring / backups.
Duration: 0.5 day
Audience: Current and prospective users of LISTSERV Maestro
Prerequisites: 3020 E-mail and Networking I (Basics) (or equivalent knowledge/experience)
Objectives: course participants will practice how to define recipients for an e-mail job in different ways, including uploading a text file, selecting recipients from a database, sending to an existing LISTSERV list, and selecting recipients from a Target Group.
Duration: 0.5 day
Audience: Current and prospective users of LISTSERV Maestro
Prerequisites: 4004 Defining Recipients for LISTSERV Maestro
Objectives: course participants will practice how to define and edit content for e-mail jobs, including creating text and HTML messages/message parts, adding attachments, personalizing e-mail messages for individual recipients with mail-merge, creating and using drop-in content elements and using conditional blocks for personalization.
Duration: 0.5 day
Audience: Current and prospective users of LISTSERV Maestro
Prerequisites: 4004 Defining Recipients for LISTSERV Maestro, 4005 Defining Message Content for LISTSERV Maestro
Objectives: course participants will practice how to define tracking behavior for a job, how to generate quick reports from the tracking statistics, and how to create customized reports.
Duration: 0.5 day
Audience: Current and prospective users of LISTSERV Maestro
Prerequisites: 3020 E-mail and Networking I (Basics) (or equivalent knowledge/experience)
Objectives: 1 day course combining slightly abbreviated versions of 4004 Defining Recipients, 4005 Defining Message Content, and 4006 Defining tracking and generating reports. See above for fuller description of each part.
Duration: 1.0 day (i.e., 1 full day) For online delivery only this course is broken into two half-days.
Audience: Data Administrators (DAs) administering databases that will be used with LISTSERV Maestro. Any LISTSERV Maestro User or Administrator with 'Data Administrator' rights
Prerequisites: Database Administrator (DBA) experience with the selected DBMS. Familiarity with SQL. 4004 Defining Recipients for LISTSERV Maestro, 4005 Defining Message Content for LISTSERV Maestro
Objectives: course participants will learn about the LISTSERV Maestro System Database and the User Database(s), how LISTSERV Maestro connects to databases, creating Recipient Target Groups with an external database, Presenting Options/Choices to Assist Maestro Users.
Duration: 0.5 day
Audience: Any LISTSERV Maestro User or Administrator with 'Data Administrator' rights who will create/adminster Datasets in the internal Recipient Warehouse.
Prerequisites: 4004 Defining Recipients for LISTSERV Maestro
Objectives: course participants will learn about the LISTSERV Maestro System Database and the internal Recipient Warehouse, creating Recipient Datasets, creating Hosted Recipient Lists (HRLs) within Datasets and creating Recipient Target Groups for Hosted Recipient Lists (HRLs).
Duration: 0.5 day
Audience: Any LISTSERV Maestro User or Administrator with 'Data Administrator' rights who will create/adminster Datasets in the internal Recipient Warehouse.
Prerequisites: 4004 Defining Recipients for LISTSERV Maestro
Objectives: course participants will learn about the LISTSERV Maestro System Database and the internal Recipient Warehouse, creating Recipient Datasets, creating DBMS-backed Hosted LISTSERV Lists (HLLs) within Datasets and creating Recipient Target Groups for DBMS-backed Hosted LISTSERV Lists (HLLs).
Duration: 0.5 day
Please complete and submit the Training Information Request Form and an L-Soft representative will respond with related information. Please address any questions to: training@lsoft.com
Yes. Please complete and submit the Training Information Request Form and an L-Soft representative will respond with related information. Please address any questions to: training@lsoft.com
From their education, our trainers hold different academic degrees in Mathematics, Information Systems, Political Science, Anthropology, and Psychology. What is common to all of them is their long-time involvement with L-Soft, their confidence in and familiarity with our products and services, and their training, education and technical support backgrounds. Our trainers are also experienced with topics such as business communication, media production and marketing that are necessary to succeed in today's fast-moving Internet businesses. See also http://www.lsoft.com/products/tcgroup.asp
The section titled Our Training Agenda classifies our courses into several different topics, which are intended to appeal to different kinds of customers:5. How much does training cost?
- Foundation Courses are intended for people who know how to use a computer and have some experience using e-mail, but do not have a great deal of familiarity with the underlying way the Internet in general and e-mail in particular works.
Since this knowledge is assumed in most of the other courses, if this describes you, you should strongly consider taking these courses before taking the other ones listed in our catalog.
- The second group of courses, LISTSERV, is intended for people who are using LISTSERV to host traditional mailing lists. These mailing lists may be either discussion mailing lists, where subscribers discuss a particular topic on the mailing list, or one-way mailing lists, where subscribers get periodic announcements e-mailed to them but cannot themselves post to the mailing list.
If these are the kinds of ways you plan to use LISTSERV, then these are the courses that are most likely to be of interest to you.
- The third group of courses, LISTSERV Maestro, is intended for customers who are using the enhanced LISTSERV Maestro solution to send targeted mailing campaigns to their customers (and track responses to these mailings).
If you're planning to use LISTSERV to send targeted mailings these are the courses that are most likely to be of interest to you.
- Finally, there are the Extended Learning Courses, which cover information which is of interest to some customers but which are too advanced or specialized to be included in the other topics. If the information you are interested in is not covered in one of the other topics, you may find it here. If not, Please contact us if you need customized training not listed above.
We recognize that any organization that uses LISTSERV is likely to have a number of people who use it or are interested in using it. In general these people will be using LISTSERV for different purposes and will need different types of information. For this reason, in the LISTSERV and LISTSERV Maestro topics, we have identified different tracks of courses, which we feel would be logical sequences of courses for the different types of LISTSERV users.
Of course these groupings of courses into topics and tracks is intended purely for your convenience and orientation; there is no requirement that you take the courses in sequence or stay within a given topic. We do, however, recommend that you look at the prerequisites and objectives of courses you are considering taking to make sure that the course will neither be too basic for you nor expect you to have information at your disposal that you do not have.
If the course you require is not listed, do not hesitate to contact us at training@lsoft.com. New courses can be added on demand. Existing courses can be combined or customized to suit your exact needs. Please ask us if you don't see what you need.
Training costs are variable depending on the method of delivery, the location, the timing and the degree of customization required. On-demand, custom training delivered in person at your location is the most expensive but also often the most directly effective. Scheduled real-time, interactive training through the Internet is generally the least expensive and most convenient option.6. Where are the training courses held?
Pricing is detailed in the information posted on our web site
http://www.lsoft.com/products/training.asp .
Pricing for other forms of training are by quotation based on your requirements. Please send an e-mail inquiry to training@lsoft.com .
Depending on our customers' requirements, we can offer training on-site with a customer or via live online sessions. You will find the latest announcements about training facilities, our training schedule, and pricing at:7. What is needed in an on-site training facility?
http://www.lsoft.com/products/training.asp
Generally, a classroom should be equipped with workstations for the instructor and each participant (no sharing of workstations; each person needs their own). The instructor's workstation should be connected to a video projector. A white board should be available as well.8. Is there a maximum number of course participants?
The instructor workstation requires a web browser (IE6 or later/FF2 or later) and Microsoft PowerPoint, and unrestricted HTTP access to the Internet (specifically including, but not limited to, *.lsoft.com).
Participant workstations require a web browser (IE6 or later/FF2 or later), unrestricted HTTP access to the Internet (specifically including, but not limited to, *.lsoft.com), an e-mail application (or web-mail account) the participant normally uses to access their e-mail. Access to their normal work e-mail account (for live, real-time send / receive capability) is a plus.
If you have any questions about your training facilites, please write to training@lsoft.com .
For on-site training, six (6) is optimum; eight (8) is our normal maximum. Occasionally we have allowed a few more. Above eight (8), we would need to consider adding a second instructor, which substantially increases the cost.
For on-line live training, one (1) or two (2) trainees per session is optimum, three (3) is our maximum. If you have more trainees than this for a given course, we will schedule multiple sessions. On-Line live courses are generally always done in half-day increments so that both the instructor and the trainees can perform their normal work for the other half-day.
"On behalf of the team here at Microsoft and all of our mailing list customers, I'd really like to thank all of you guys for your tremendous work helping us get our mailing lists configured and up and running. We really threw you some curve balls on this project and we appreciate your help more than you know (...) you have no idea what a pleasure it is to work with smart, responsive and pleasant people. And the delivery statistics! Amazing!"
Mary Haggard
Program Manager
Microsoft Site Builder Network