Room for improvement in computer training

By ADAM GIFFORD

Geoff Reid's training is in hotel management. That makes him an ideal person to run Clifton & Associates' new computer training rooms at the bottom of Queen St.

"We have been described as a techno hotel - instead of sleeping or showering you train in your room," Mr Reid says.

Clifton & Associates does not run courses. It just provides the space and the hardware for other people to do so, as well as a private club lounge or coffee shop breakout area.

Its core customers rent dedicated, permanent space in the facility. Compaq is the cornerstone customer, with rooms in all centres across Australia and now here.

Mike Hill, director of Compaq New Zealand's enterprise solutions and services group, says the Auckland room will be used for training technicians in operating systems like Tru 64 Unix and Open VMS, and in advanced server engineering.

"Previously we've had to send people to Australia for this kind of training," Mr Hill says.

"More and more, we are finding training is part of retaining employees because money won't do it any more."

Auckland also includes space for Linux specialist Red Hat and Silicon Graphics, whose suite includes $100,000 of the specialist hardware being used to render special effects for films like Lord of the Rings.

Other training rooms are equipped with the latest and greatest PCs, rented out by the day or the week. The smallest 8-PC suite will cost $950 for the day. Specialist equipment and applications can be brought in when needed.

Mr Reid says hotels, as well as computer training schools and polytechnics with spare capacity, are the competition.

"If you were to hire a hotel room to do a training session, it's $300 or $400 for the room, then $90 for each PC you hire for the day. If you're unlucky, the hotel will try to charge you for night time use of the room unless you take out the PCs at the end of each day.

"Also, a hotel makes most of its money not from room hire but from coffee, tea and lunches, so if you don't take the whole package it's not that interested."

Clifton & Associates started in Sydney in 1991 as a recruitment company. In 1997 it was asked to set up a training room and realised there was huge demand for outsourced training facilities. It now has 52 rooms across Australia and New Zealand and plans to open in Hong Kong and Singapore later this year.

"The main reason companies use us is it enables them to focus their energy and resources on core business functions," Mr Reid says.

"It's a big outlay for all the hardware needed to set up a training room. By coming here firms have access to up-to-date technology, knowledge and tools."

Customers include firms wanting to train their staff in a new system, software vendors which train up resellers or customers in new applications, and hardware manufacturers wanting to train technicians.