Category: Press Releases

Dec 4th

Microsoft SATV Training Benefit – Update

Microsoft is updating Software Assurance benefits beginning in February 2020 to ensure Software Assurance stays relevant and useful to customers. With this change in direction, some Software Assurance benefits will be retired or changed to eliminate redundancies and better align Software Assurance benefits across Microsoft’s products and services portfolio. The changes made also simplify benefit redemptions and replace outdated implementation mechanisms. While each customer experience is unique, all customers can benefit from the ability to optimize their business performance through Software Assurance.

Microsoft is investing in new ways to help organizations deploy, train, and get support for the products and services they buy. Because those new ways overlap with some dated and underused Software Assurance benefits, and the redemption process for some benefits are cumbersome and outdated, Microsoft is retiring those overlapping and outdated benefits.

Why are the SATV training vouchers being retired?

Customer and market feedback indicated a need for a streamlined learning experience. Microsoft is making significant investments to increase the alignment and quality of training offerings and certifications outside of Software Assurance over time.

When do the SATV program changes begin?

Over the next three years, Microsoft will be retiring the Software Assurance Training Voucher program and it will be migrated to new training and certification programs designed to better support learners.  Important dates to be aware of:

• FEBRUARY 1, 2020 – Azure Cloud Services training courses will be retired from the SATV catalog.
• FEBRUARY 1, 2021 – This is the final day that new SATV training vouchers can be purchased for any training.
• JANUARY 1, 2022 – The is the final day any SATV training voucher can be redeemed.

How can Babbage Simmel help?

• Find Azure Training – We are here to assist during this transition period so we have filled up the Azure schedule between now and February 1, 2020.
• Reach out to us – e-mail info@babsim.com or call (614) 481-4345.

ADDITIONAL SATV FAQs

HOW LONG ARE MY TRAINING VOUCHERS VALID?
The ability to access your training vouchers expires with your Software Assurance coverage. If you create a training voucher before your Software Assurance coverage expires, the voucher remains valid for 180 days after the date it was created.

While Software Assurance Training Vouchers are being retired, you can still create and use training vouchers until January 01, 2022, with the exception of Azure training, which will be removed from the course catalog in February 01, 2020.

DOES MY ORGANIZATION HAVE SOFTWARE ASSURANCE?
If your organization purchased volume licensing of Microsoft software, you most likely participate in Software Assurance. Software Assurance offers a broad range of benefits in one program which helps you deploy, manage, and migrate software.

DO I QUALIFY FOR SOFTWARE ASSURANCE/FREE MICROSOFT TRAINING?
Software Assurance is selected at the time of software purchase. If your organization purchased volume licensing of Microsoft software, you most likely participate in Software Assurance. “SA Pack MVL” on your Microsoft Licensing invoice means your organization participates in the Software Assurance program. The Notices Contact listed on the agreement is your organization’s Agreement Administrator. Your organization can begin using qualifying benefits immediately and over the term of the license agreement.

HOW CAN I FIND SATVS AT MY ORGANIZATION?
You can ask the Benefits Administrator, Software Purchasing Manager or IT Manager at your organization for your training vouchers.

CAN TRAINING VOUCHERS BE USED FOR ANY OFFICIAL MICROSOFT LEARNING PRODUCT COURSES?
Training vouchers can be used for any of the following type of courses designated for IT professional and developer courses only.

• Digital MOC (DMOC)
• Community Courseware
• MOC On-Demand

WHAT IS NOT ELIGIBLE THROUGH SATV?
SA training vouchers cannot be used for:

• First Look Clinics
• Hands on Labs
• End User ILT training
• Fresh Editions

WHAT IF AN EMPLOYEE WANTS TO ATTEND A CLASS THAT IS NOT ON THE SOFTWARE ASSURANCE LIST OF ELIGIBLE COURSES?
Software Assurance training vouchers can only be used for eligible courses. Courses not covered under SATV scheme can be enrolled by making payments separately.

WHEN A VOUCHER IS CREATED FROM THE AVAILABLE TRAINING DAYS, HOW LONG DOES IT LAST?
Training vouchers expire 180 days after their creation date. If the designated employee does not use a voucher within 180 days, the voucher is automatically revoked and the training days are returned to the company pool of days for use by others. If the customer agreement has expired, vouchers and training days will be forfeited.

WHERE TO REDEEM THE TRAINING VOUCHERS?
You can redeem training vouchers only at participating a Learning Partner like NetCom.

WHAT IS THE VALUE OF EACH SOFTWARE ASSURANCE TRAINING VOUCHER?
One training voucher day equals one classroom training day. For example, if a course is five days, a five-day voucher is required.

DOES THE VOUCHER VALUE VARY BY COURSE TYPE?
The voucher value is the same for all eligible courses. There is no difference in voucher value between a developer course and an IT professional course. If the course length is the same, they both require the same number of voucher days.

Other questions not listed?
send us an e-mail info@babsim.com or give us a call (614) 481-4345

Jun 19th

FREE WEBINAR – Moving to the Cloud – Ensuring a Safe and Informed Journey

Free Cloud Webinar JUNE 20th @ 12:30pm!

Moving to the Cloud – Ensuring a Safe & Informed Journey

The benefits and risks of moving to the Cloud will be explored in this webinar.
Topics include:

• Participants in your Cloud Journey
• The Security Triad
• The Treacherous 12
• Architectural Concepts
• Service and Deployment Models
• Business Drivers
• Reality Check

Click to SIGN UP

May 22nd

Babbage Simmel is Moving!

We are very excited to announce that our Columbus campus is relocating on June 3^rd!
Our new address is:

1900 E. Dublin Granville Rd., Suite 108, Columbus, OH 43229

We will be located in the Ashland University Columbus Center building.  That means, in partnership with Ashland University, we will continue to be offering college credit for a number of our courses.  We cannot wait to show you our new classrooms and amenities!

If we can provide additional help, please call us at (614) 481-4345 or e-mail info@babsim.com.

See you there soon!

Apr 13th

More About Learning as a Service (LaaS)

What is Learning as a Service?

LaaS is an interactive, cloud-based education subscription that combines individual and collaborative learning.

Learners progress at their own pace and can access a variety of remote activities including a virtual lab or dedicated support from qualified experts.

Benefits for Individuals and Teams

• Flexible Learning Plan: Learn when it suits your schedule.
• Anytime & Anywhere: Location-independent access – 365 days a year.
• Sustainability through human interaction: Collaborate with Industry Experts.
• Cost-efficient: Saving time and money on travel and accommodation.
• Scalability: Perfect for teams & organizations

Our Learning as a Service Options will include:

• Premium E-Learning Title
• Virtual Labs
• Q&A Coaching
• 1:1 Virtual Live Coaching
• Coaching Office Hours
• Moderated Discussion Forums

Beginning in Q2 2018, Babbage Simmel will be offering “Learning As A Service” (LaaS) through the Open edX Platform on Azure.

More details coming soon!

Mar 12th

Learning as a Service (LaaS) – Coming Soon at Babbage Simmel

Learning has been an integral part of the Technology industry and ecosystem. Having the right skills in the workforce have influenced the growth of the IT services industry for the past few decades, fueling industry growth and the economy.

Microsoft Learning programs offering world-class curriculum and certification have been a key factor to the availability of trained and skilled manpower driving technology deployment and adoption.

Learning styles have undergone a significant transformation. This is primarily driven due to ubiquitous connectivity and availability of devices with rich content and media capabilities.

Over time, demands on traditional Learning Platforms such as LMSs have increased:

• Students have demanded more engaging video-based content on these platforms, consumable from their personal mobile devices.
• Organizations and Educators have requested learning analytics to help better visualize their students’ progress and engagement.
• Administrators have been pressured to educate more students with fewer resources by leveraging new learning platforms such as Massively Open Online Classes (MooCs).

As a Microsoft partner, Babbage Simmel is working directly with Microsoft to help transform our businesses through a blend of Platform, Technology, and Curriculum to offer our customers a complete end-to-end connected Hybrid Cloud Learning Platform solution.

Beginning in Q2 2018, Babbage Simmel will be offering “Learning As A Service” (LaaS) through the Open edX Platform on Azure which will provide the following:

• Self-Paced / Blended Learning Solutions
• Learning Services such as Labs, Mentoring, Learner Support etc.
• Solutions to our customers as a SaaS solution or
• Deploy it as a Cloud Solution for our customers as a System Integrator.

More details coming soon!

Oct 14th

Babbage Simmel & Salesforce Partner For Training

Columbus, OH – At Babbage Simmel, we pride ourselves on enabling our customers on the world’s best business solutions.  That’s why we’re very excited to announce that we have been certified as an official Authorized Training Partner for the worlds’ #1 CRM solution – SALESFORCE.

“Whether you’re brand-new or a Salesforce expert, this is a great opportunity to get the knowledge you need to get up to speed, perform at your best, and get the most out of Salesforce.”

Mike Lazroff, Babbage Simmel

Our team of Instructors have been trained and certified directly by the experts at Salesforce, which means that when you consume Salesforce training from us, you’re learning direct from the source.  Better yet, you can rest assured that you’re learning the latest Salesforce features, as we are required to maintain our curriculum offerings per the latest release.

We invite you to explore our Authorized Salesforce training class schedule HERE.

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If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Babbage Simmel at (614) 481-6555 or email at info@babsim.com.

Additional Information
Learn more about Salesforce training at www.babsim.com/salesforce

About Babbage Simmel
For 34 years Babbage Simmel has been committed to helping organizations solve complex technology and business problems through advancing the skills of Technology, Business and Management professionals through a broad range of knowledge transfer methods across a wide array of technology / business issues and content areas.

About Salesforce
Salesforce, the Customer Success Platform and world’s #1 CRM, empowers companies to connect with their customers in a whole new way.

May 17th

June Promotion Now Available

June Promotion Now Available!

NOW, when you enroll in any of the upcoming June Security courses below by May 31, 2016 you can save up to $1,000 per person*!

Contact Mike at (614) 481-4392 or use the following link to schedule a time on his calendar and he’ll call you to discuss the details.

CompTIA® Security+® Certification Support Skills – 6/13

Build on your knowledge of and professional experience with security fundamentals, networks, and organizational security as you acquire the specific skills required to implement basic security services on any type of computer network.

CISSP® Certification Prep – 6/20

In-depth coverage of the eight domains required to pass the CISSP exam:
1. Security and Risk Management

2. Asset Security
3. Security Engineering
4. Communications and Network Security
5. Identity and Access Management
6. Security Assessment and Testing
7. Security Operations
8. Software Development Security

Hacking and Hardening Websites/Web Apps – 6/27

Practically information security personnel from any organization with the responsibility of handling important data would find this Advanced Security course beneficial.

Aug 23rd

BabSim and… Agile Practices

What Is Agile?

Agile is not a process, it’s a philosophy or set of values.  It is an alternative to traditional project management, typically used in software development. It helps team members respond to unpredictability through incremental work cadences, known as sprints.

Why Agile?

Agile provides opportunities to assess the direction of a project throughout the development lifecycle through sprints, at the end of which teams must present a potentially shippable product increment.

By focusing on the repetition of abbreviated work cycles as well as the functional product they yield, the agile philosophy is described as “iterative” and “incremental.”  The results of this “inspect-and-adapt” approach to development greatly reduce both development costs and time to market. Because teams can develop software at the same time they’re gathering requirements, the phenomenon known as “analysis paralysis” is less likely to impede a team from making progress.  And because a team’s work cycle is limited to short time increments, it gives stakeholders recurring opportunities to calibrate releases for success in the real world.

Agile development helps companies build the right product instead of committing to market a piece of software that hasn’t even been written yet.  Agile empowers teams to continuously plan and re-plan their release to optimize its value throughout development, allowing them to be as competitive as possible in the marketplace.

Core Agile Principles

1. Satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery
2. Welcome change requirements
3. Deliver frequently, preferring a shorter timeline
4. Business and Technical sides work together daily
5. Pick the right team & support and trust them
6. Face-to-face communication is key
7. Working software is the primary measure of progress
8. Work at a sustainable pace
9. Technical excellent and good design enhances agility
10. Simplicity, maximizing the amount of work not done, is essential
11. Best results emerge from self-organizing teams
12. The team regularly reflects to become more effective

Interested in learning more about Agile?

Join us for a 2 day comprehensive workshop starting 9/9 :

Agile Practices for Managers – 9/9/13

This course introduces managers to management principles in an Agile environment. Students learn the paradigm shifts that occur when organizations move from traditional environments to Agile environments. Students learn the different management dimensions to examine the organization, and the appropriate techniques which should be used to assist and support Agile teams to successful implementations.

Throughout the course students will also work on Agile teams which simulate the environment of their workers. The environment enables students to better understand the perspective of Agile team members. It also gives the students an opportunity to test subtle changes to the Agile environment and observe the results for additional learning.

This course is intended for leaders/managers/project managers who want to learn to manage Agile Teams.  Agile Team members such as developers/testers/analysts will also benefit from the foundational management concepts. (No practical experience with Agile methods is necessary, though some familiarity with Agile principles and practices is useful).

About the Instructor

Scotty Bevill – PMP, PMI-ACP, CSP, CSM, CELC, CPC

As a mentor and certified coach, Scotty Bevill has made it a personal mission to assist others in their journey to personal actualization. From executives and functional management to project teams and independents, a understanding of self as a state of “Agile Being…”

Scotty is a Certified Executive Leadership Coach among other things. As the Founder and CEO of Bevill Edge®, he keeps a focus on consulting in State Government & Enterprise Business Process Management assessments and implementations.
Scotty is a Certified Executive Leadership Coach, Project Management Professional (PMP®), PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP^SM), Certified Professional Coach (CPC), Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Innovation Games^® Trained Facilitator (IGTF), and Innovation Games^® Qualified Instructor (IGQI).

For more information please call 800.288.5937 or e-mail: info@babsim.com