The Microsoft Office 365 Ignite courseware was designed to train Microsoft employees and partners on the subscription service for the new cloud computing version of Microsoft Office communications and Web applications: Exchange Online, Lync Online, and SharePoint Online. Eventually, this training courseware could reach an audience of several thousand people.

Business Issue and Requirements

Microsoft identified the need for training both internal employees and partners on the new Office 365 cloud hosting technology, which was released in June 2011. Microsoft required both hands-on lab materials and PowerPoint presentations to deliver the training material. Because Office 365 is a cloud-based service designed for businesses that need communication and collaboration tools accessible from PCs, the web, and mobile devices, Internet connectvity was a requirement to take advantage of the Office 365 cloud environment.

Solution

Wadeware created hands-on labs (virtual machines) to train participants at Microsoft Office 365 Ignite events. Delivery of these labs was different than past events Wadeware has developed for Microsoft in that the virtual machines were not in a local virtual environment, but required a secure Internet connection to access the labs in a hosted environment, along with a connection to the Office 365 service. In addition to providing the hands-on labs, Wadeware also worked closely with Microsoft to edit and format the PowerPoint presenations for the Office 365 Ignite training events.