Re: Biggest issue facing YOUR IBM i shop?

Okay, I've stopped screaming and can now respond to Jim Franz's comment about online IBM i education being nonexistent or difficult to find. Jim, did you try Googling "IBM i training"? If you tried a different search string, what was it? If you do not use Google, how might a training vendor reach you? What publications do you read regularly and to which newsletters do you subscribe? Manta has advertised in every one of them. In addition, we have partnered with magazines, software vendors, and COMMON, who have all sold our products from their own web sites. We are an IBM business partner. So how could someone not find us after 19 years in the business?

Jim, I know that you know we exist, since you purchased our complete library through Midrange Computing back in 1998. By 1999, Manta was the dominant company in AS/400 self-study education, training more students that all of our rivals combined. Do you know that we've doubled the library since then, and updated every existing course at least four times? That the entire library has been available online since 2002? That our product includes a Learning Management System (LMS) that lets the training administrator track student progress and exam results? That every student can download a free Student Reference Guide to use as a reference after taking a course? If not, it's time for another look.

Many people assume that the vendors they used 25 years ago are still the dominate vendors in this marketplace. That is certainly not true in IBM i education, where most of the old-time vendors have either gone out of business or have decided to stop new development while continuing to sell their old courses. Heck, even IBM is now out of the public training business. The vendors who continue to serve the IBM i market deserve your support, but we can use some help. How can we best reach you?

Bill
William A. Hansen
whansen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Manta Technologies Inc.
Toll-free: (800) 406-2682 x 101
Direct: (303) 862-4562