The 2011 webinar schedule is underway. Thanks to all of you who took time to respond to the webinar survey. Your feedback helps tremendously to determine the year's topics and to continue improving the training program.

Be sure to visit the webinar registration page to reserve your spot for these upcoming webinar classes. If you missed a recent webinar and would like it repeated, have questions, or have suggestions for future webinars then email me, Angie Markel.

Date	Time	Topic	Trainer
18-May-11	6:00 PM EST	Pivot Tables	Doug Moore
19-May-11	11:00 AM EST	Pivot Tables	Doug Moore
23-May-11	11:00 AM EST	Customer Service Letters - Part 1	Mike McCarren
24-May-11	11:00 AM EST	PCI Compliance	Paul DesRosiers
24-May-11	6:00 PM EST	PCI Compliance	Paul DesRosiers
26-May-11	11:00 AM EST	Customer Service Letters - Part 2	Mike McCarren
2-Jun-11	11:00 AM EST	Customer Service Letters - Part 3	Mike McCarren
7-Jun-11	11:00 AM EST	Questionnaires	Mike McCarren
8-Jun-11	6:00 PM EST	Questionnaires	Mike McCarren
13-Sep-11	11:00 AM EST	CIR Bill Suspends & Nonpay Cancels	Todd Gilson
27-Sep-11	11:00 AM EST	AMB Bill Suspends & Nonpay Cancels	Todd Gilson

On Tuesday, December 7^th,Phil Montgomery will be hosting a free webinar to review the rewrite of the ARPCSH view in the new UI.  He will also take input from clients on the design efforts.  If you haven't registered already, please visit the webinar registration page to sign up.  All webinars are at 11 a.m. EST and will last for an hour unless otherwise noted.

We've been hard at it with webinars this fall, and there are still a few more on the roster.   

Below is the complete listing of fall webinars. If you missed a recent webinar and would like it repeated, have questions, or have suggestions for future webinars, please email me, Angie Markel.

·         October 14^th Product Discounting, Paul DesRosiers

·         October 20^th Customer Response Letters – Part 1, Mike McCarren

·         October 27^th Customer Response Letters – Part 2, Mike McCarren

·         October 28^th Web Module Interface Architecture, Philippe Rowland

·         November 3^rd Customer Response Letters – Part 3, Mike McCarren

·         November 9^th Report Distribution, Eric Burbeck

·         November 11^th Web Module Interface Architecture (REPEAT), Philippe Rowland

·         November 18^th Back-issue Processing, Scott Ghormley

·         December 7^th ARPCSH in New UI, Phil Montgomery

Date to be determined:

AMB Updates at 10r3, Corey Mantel

Don't miss these FREE webinar presentations being put on by the Advantage Sales Team in July and August.

Corey Mantel will be doing a demo of recent updates to the Business Intelligence Module on July 29^th. Then on August 4th, Mona Hidayet will be showing 2010R2 New Feature Highlights.

You can sign up for either of these webinars at the webinar registration page. Please contact Angie Markel if you have any questions, need help registering, or have suggestions for future webinars.

May is another month jam-packed with webinars offering a wide variety of topics and presenters. Don't miss out, as space is limited!

May 19^th - Advantage Security Groups

This webinar, presented by Daryl Vautour, will cover the basics of defining a user group, adjusting security levels, and working with the Component and Action Permissions view.

May 20^th - Duplicate Consolidation

The goal of this webinar is to provide you with a solid understanding of Advantage duplicate consolidation processing, the accompanying reports, and some best practices for getting started.  This webinar will be presented by Eric Burbeck.

  

May 26^th - Promotion Item and Sub Choice

In this webinar, Mike Miklosovic will discuss how to define item and subscription choices in order to vary promotional settings for a given item.  He will also demonstrate using promotion choices during order entry.

Also coming up this summer, we have GL Mapping Setup presented by Bill Pinard and a free webinar of 2010R2 New Features Highlights that will be presented by Mona Hidayet.  Date will be announced in the next newsletter.

You can sign up for any of the above webinars at the webinar registration page. Please contact Angie Markel if you have any questions, need help registering, or have suggestions for future webinars.

by Greg Stout, Vice President of Client Services

"An educated consumer is our best customer." That was the long-time advertising slogan of a local retailer in the area where I live. It also correlates to one of ACS's key philosophies - that our most knowledgeable Advantage clients are the most satisfied ones.

Advantage is a comprehensive, feature-rich marketing and fulfillment package designed to help you operate most effectively. In addition, Advantage is updated three times per year to add more and better features that you can use when you upgrade to the latest revision. So, how can you keep up with all the new features and know that you are taking full advantage of all the functionality? Advantage training is one of the best ways.

The ACS Training Program has three components:

1.  Webinars
2. The annual Advantage Training Week
3. Customized training

Webinars

The ACS webinar program began in earnest in 2008. During that year, we presented 30 webinars, most of which were an hour long, with a total of 371 attendees. This type of training is very effective because it is focused on a particular topic, is time and cost effective, and very popular among our clients. Webinars are a particularly beneficial training option, especially in these challenging economic times when many companies are restricting travel and education budgets.

The 2008 webinars received very high marks from attendees. As a result, we are expanding our webinar offerings for 2009. Again, we plan on offering at least 30 webinars, but some of them will be presented as a series. These series will be offered in 2 or 3 sessions, some of which may be longer than one hour. This will allow us to delve into topics that require a more in-depth study. In addition, we will be able to include exercises that will help you put your learning into practice. Based on feedback we have received, we expect that these webinar series will meet a very real need.

Advantage Training Week

Historically, Advantage Training Week has been a week-long event, hosted by ACS in our Ann Arbor office, providing a dozen training classes and various types of group events. Training Week gives you the opportunity to pick and choose training classes that most interest you, and to network with other clients with similar interests and challenges. In addition, you have the chance to meet many of the ACS staff you may only know by telephone or email contact. We at ACS love to host our clients whenever we get the chance; Advantage users are simply the best!

For the past couple of years, we have limited the size of Training Week to four or five classes over three days. This shortened approach seems to work better in conjunction with the annual Advantage User Group conference, which ACS fully supports. The AUG conference also provides training opportunities, including presentations by ACS clients and roundtable discussions co-hosted by ACS staff. In addition, at the AUG conference, ACS has the opportunity to demonstrate new features contained in the latest release and to present our plans for future software enhancements. Options for 2009 Training Week are currently being considered.

Customized Training

Customized training is always a popular offering. ACS can provide tailor-made training to your staff, focused on the subjects you need, when you need it, at your site or ours. Your account manager can work out the specifics directly with you.

The bottom line is that "an educated client is ACS's best customer". Advantage training is important to us, and we welcome your input on potential training topics and suggestions for improvement. You can send them directly to me at gstou@advantagecs.com.