In this difficult economic market its more important than it ever has been to make sure you get your money’s worth. As readers of this blog, you know that FREE is great. We at Engineered Efficiency gladly share our knowledge via this blog, via EECasts, magazine articles and more (and sometimes swag too!) under the premise that a “rising tide lifts all boats”.

When FREE isn’t an option, the next best thing, of course, is low-cost, high-value. You need to get the most bang for your buck.  That’s why we launched our EE CivilAccess and EE GuidedAccess programs last year and they have been a huge success. (As one of our clients said, “Wow, what a great way to learn! We absolutely loved it!”)

IMPORTANT: Engineered Efficiency is an Autodesk Partner in the ISV program and we can provide bundled software sales and service to the Americas (North, South and Central). Don’t let anyone tell you differently.

Lately, we’ve seen several imitations that portend to offer a similar quality and quantity of training, but in reality fall far short. (Remember shortly after the iPod was released, the number of sub-par imitators that flooded the market?)

So when does $775 not equal $775? Well lets look at what it can get a single user these days. (Of course, with Engineered Efficiency, the price drops substantially the more users you add)

EE CivilAccess gets you:

• 9 classes totaling over 80 hours of instructor-led hands-on training EVERY MONTH FOR  A YEAR. You can attend the live classes each and every month if you want to.
• Recorded versions of most classes, available online 24x7x365. Again, you can watch these as many times as you want from any Internet-connected PC. These are the same hands-on exercises as presented in the live class, but viewable on your schedule at your own pace. (Some classes are more work-shop in nature and address specific user’s needs, so they are not conducive to recording)
• Custom courseware, created by Engineered Efficiency, based on real-world projects, used for both instructor-led and recorded classes.
• Instructors with real-world production experience. They learned engineering and drafting by doing engineering and drafting in a production environment.
• EE ProPack Base, a custom add-on that gives you the features you say you wanted in Civil3D.
• Web- and phone-based tech support from the experts you’ve come to trust.
• Exclusive client-only Civil3D knowledge base for self-help and in-house learning.

Our clients told us that others are stating they offer “online-training too”, that “they provide recorded classes”, and that they do it at a “similar price point.” So I looked around online and this is what I found you can get the old way. (I strongly encourage you to do your own research and compare EE to everyone else):

Most offer training the old static way:

• Classroom training ranges from $200-$450/day (depending on location in country). So a SINGLE 3-day class will cost between $600 and $1,350! For ONE class! Some vendors will let you repeat the class as often as you like throughout the year, assuming there is space. There are no recordings of these and the quality of the courseware varies.

Some are dipping toes in creative training:

• “Blended Learning”: For $220 you can get about 125 “lessons”. Per the web, this is less than 20 hours of recorded training. This amount of training would likely cover the Essentials of Civil3D and not leave time for much else.
• “Citrix Training”: 1-2 hour intensive sessions intended to supplement in-person training. No recordings; not sure about courseware or pricing.
• “Virtual Training”: For the same high cost of in-person live training, you get to remote into a workstation at the training center. At $325/day, $775 gets you about 60% through an Essentials class. No recordings; no repeats.
• There are other offerings out there, but these are those that I found doing a quick search.

Now don’t get me wrong; I am 100% in support of alternate training methods, as long as they are of high quality and cost effective. Engineered Efficiency has structured its services around combining technology with rock-solid expertise to give you the best service at the best price. Seriously, why should it cost more to learn (really learn it, not just scratch surface with Essentials) your software than it does to buy it? It shouldn’t and we’re proving it. Ultimately, it’s the end-user who needs to come first and get the best they can possibly get within a reasonable services budget.

If you haven’t done so already, check us out at www.eng-eff.com. And remember, we can provide you with a solution regardless of your geographic location.