L-Soft Training and Consulting Guide

Our Training Agenda

Our training agenda consists of a collection of subject areas designed for a specific niche of customers. These subject areas contain a series of courses designed for our customers' different needs or even whole tracks tailored to a specific audience. However, customers may elect to take only specific courses within a track or have their employees take different courses within the same track. Please note that any/all the following groupings can be customized. All of our courses are 1/2 day courses, except where otherwise noted.

Topic A: LISTSERV

List Owner Track (1 day)

3040 LISTSERV List Owner I (Basics) (1/2 day)

Audience: Current and prospective LISTSERV list managers

Prerequisites: None

Objectives: Course participants will learn how to perform basic list ownership functions – managing list's character and behavior, managing list's subscribers, diagnosing and solving problems – through LISTSERV's Web interface and email.

Duration: 0.5 day

3042 LISTSERV List Owner III (Advanced) (One-Way Announcements Lists) (1/2 day)

Audience: Current and prospective LISTSERV list owners who are using or intend to use LISTSERV for one-way, announcement lists

Prerequisites: 3040 List Owner I (Basics) (or equivalent knowledge / experience)

Objectives: Course participants will learn how to set up and manage one-way announcement LISTSERV lists, send mail to a one-way list, use the super-list/sub-list architecture, use topics, customize mail and Web templates, and create customized Web signup pages.

Duration: 0.5 day

Site Administrator Track (1.5 days)

3080 LISTSERV Site Administrator I (Basics) (1/2 day)

Audience: Current and prospective LISTSERV site administrators

Prerequisites: OS-specific administrative skills

Objectives: Course participants will learn what a site administrator needs to know about LISTSERV (email/web), new list creation and initial configuration, list-specific and site-wide mail and web template creation and modification, how a site administrator assists list owners with error-bounce management, list management, subscriber management.

Note that Course 3080 covers almost identical material to Course 3040. Normally we will not teach both 3040 and 3080 to the same person since the material is redundant. Site Administrator Track students should only take 3080.

Duration: 0.5 day

3084 LISTSERV Site Administrator V (Advanced) (1/2 day)

Audience: Current and prospective LISTSERV site administrators

Prerequisites: 3080 Site Administrator I (Basics) or equivalent knowledge/experience

Objectives: Course participants will learn how to customize mail and Web templates, create customized Web signup pages, implement a super-list/sub-list architecture, use list topics, and use a standard toolset for LISTSERV and related diagnostics.

Note that Course 3084 covers almost identical material to Course 3042. Normally we will not teach both 3042 and 3084 to the same person since the material is redundant. Site Administrator Track students should only take 3084.

Duration: 0.5 day

3085 LISTSERV Site Administrator VI (Analysis and Problem Solving) (1/2 day)

Audience: Current and prospective LISTSERV site administrators or advanced list owners

Prerequisites: 3084 Site Administrator V (Advanced) or equivalent knowledge/experience; OS-specific administrative skills

Objectives: Course participants will learn to interpret LISTSERV and SMTP log files, to interpret CHANGELOG files, bounce management, LISTSERV/SMTP behind a firewall, tuning LISTSERV, troubleshooting, operations monitoring/backups. This course has separate Windows and Unix versions.

Duration: 0.5 day

Topic B: LISTSERV Maestro

Site Administrator Track (1 day)

10001 Maestro Admin I (1/2 day)

Audience: Server administrators for sites running LISTSERV Maestro

Prerequisites: OS-specific administrative skills

Objectives:

  • Logging in to HUB
  • Creating/managing users/groups
  • Creating/managing identities
  • Setting global configuration
  • Setting group/user level configuration
  • Logging in to LUI as admin
  • Archiving/deleting jobs
  • Managing ownership of jobs/datasets
  • Viewing system metrics
  • Creating/managing suppression lists

Duration: 0.5 day

10002 Maestro Admin II (1/2 day)

Audience: Current and prospective users of LISTSERV Maestro

Prerequisites: 10001 Maestro Admin I (or equivalent knowledge/experience)

Objectives:

  • Configuring and testing backups/use of test-bed backup
  • Configuring security settings/account lockout
  • Configuring and testing email notifications
  • Sending user email notifications
  • Installing database plugins
  • Configuring Basic User Interface mode
  • LISTSERV and LISTSERV Maestro
  • LISTSERV Maestro system services
  • Distributed components/TCP ports/firewalls
  • LISTSERV Maestro filesystem
  • LISTSERV Maestro log files
  • Using IIS to Proxy Tomcat (integration with LISTSERV WWW)

Duration: 0.5 day

User Track (2 days)

10101 Maestro User I (1 day)

Audience: Current and prospective users of LISTSERV Maestro

Prerequisites: None

Objectives:

  • Logging into LUI
  • Setting default preferences
  • Navigating the LISTSERV Maestro dashboard
  • Creating/managing sender profiles
  • Creating mail jobs
  • Sending basic mail jobs
  • Managing mail jobs
  • Recipient source options
  • Uploading recipient files
  • Target groups
  • Hosted list/datasets
  • Recipients based on reaction to previous jobs
  • Plain text messages
  • HTML/multi-part messages
  • Introduction to content templates
  • Link tracking
  • Tracking types
  • Open-up/click-through tracking
  • Privacy and legal concerns
  • Quick reporting

Duration: 1 day

10102 Maestro User II (1 day)

Audience: Current and prospective users of LISTSERV Maestro

Prerequisites: 10101 Maestro User I (or equivalent knowledge/experience)

Objectives:

  • SQL database
  • Recipient data and mail-merge/conditionals
  • Send to existing LISTSERV list
  • Have LISTSERV select from DBMS or LDAP
  • Mail-merge
  • Conditional blocks
  • Conditional content
  • Drop-in content
  • Forward-to-a-friend
  • Social media sharing
  • Scheduled/triggered delivery
  • A/B-splitting
  • Social media publishing
  • Social media tracking
  • Action tracking
  • Detailed reporting
  • Exporting reporting data (XML)

Duration: 1 day

Data Administrator Track (1 day)

10201 Maestro Data Admin I (1/2 day)

Audience: Any LISTSERV Maestro User or Administrator with "Data Administrator" rights

Prerequisites: 10101 Maestro User I (or equivalent knowledge/experience)

Objectives:

  • Introduction to datasets
  • Building hosted recipient lists
  • Lookup tables
  • Target groups
  • Data importers

Duration: 0.5 day

10202 Maestro Data Admin II (1/2 day)

Audience: Any LISTSERV Maestro User or Administrator with "Data Administrator" rights

Prerequisites: 10201 Maestro Data Admin I (or equivalent knowledge/experience)

Objectives:

  • Building/using hosted LISTSERV lists
  • List protection settings
  • Suppression lists
  • Data importers
  • Parameters in target groups
  • Limit mail by subscriber
  • Customizing subscriber access pages

Duration: 0.5 day

L-Soft Training Facilities, Schedule and Pricing

Depending on our customers' requirements, we can offer training on-site at a customer location or online via live-remote (GoToMeeting, Skype, etc). You will find the latest announcements about training facilities, our training schedule and pricing at: https://www.lsoft.com/products/training.asp.

L-Soft Consulting

L-Soft offers a range of consulting services, providing your organization with access to our product expertise throughout the implementation cycle. L-Soft's experienced consultants are here to help your technical teams integrate our products and services with your current systems and the rest of your IT roadmap. Through needs assessment, system analysis, project planning, implementation assistance, testing and issue analysis, L-Soft's consultants will guide you in meeting your objectives and making the most of your investment in LISTSERV and LISTSERV Maestro. For more information, visit: https://www.lsoft.com/products/consulting.asp.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I register for a training course?

Please complete and submit the Training Request Form and an L-Soft representative will respond with related information. Please address any questions to: training@lsoft.com.

2. Do I have to sign an agreement to take a training course?

Yes. Please complete and submit the Training Request Form and an L-Soft representative will respond with related information. Please address any questions to: training@lsoft.com.

3. Who are L-Soft's trainers? What are their qualifications?

From their education, our trainers hold different academic degrees in Mathematics, Information Systems, Political Science, Anthropology and Psychology. What is common to all of them is their long-time involvement with L-Soft, their confidence in and familiarity with our products and services, and their training, education and technical support backgrounds. Our trainers are also experienced with topics such as business communication, media production and marketing that are necessary to succeed in today's fast-moving Internet businesses.

4. How do I find the most suitable training course?

The section titled Our Training Agenda classifies our courses into several different topics, which are intended to appeal to different kinds of customers:

We recognize that any organization that uses LISTSERV is likely to have a number of people who use it or are interested in using it. In general, these people will be using LISTSERV for different purposes and will need different types of information. For this reason, in the LISTSERV and LISTSERV Maestro topics, we have identified different tracks of courses, which we feel would be logical sequences of courses for the different types of LISTSERV users.

Of course, these groupings of courses into topics and tracks is intended purely for your convenience and orientation; there is no requirement that you take the courses in sequence or stay within a given topic. We do, however, recommend that you look at the prerequisites and objectives of courses you are considering taking to make sure that the course will neither be too basic for you nor expect you to have information at your disposal that you do not have.

If the course you require is not listed, do not hesitate to contact us at: training@lsoft.com. New courses can be added on demand. Existing courses can be combined or customized to suit your exact needs. Please ask us if you don't see what you need.

5. How much does training cost?

Training costs are variable depending on the method of delivery, the location, the timing and the degree of customization required. On-demand, custom training delivered in person at your location is the most expensive but also often the most directly effective. Scheduled real-time, interactive training through the Internet is generally the least expensive and most convenient option.

Pricing is detailed in the information posted on our web site at: https://www.lsoft.com/products/training.asp.

Pricing for other forms of training are by quotation based on your requirements. Please send an email inquiry to: training@lsoft.com.

6. Where are the training courses held?

Depending on our customers' requirements, we can offer training on-site with a customer or via live online sessions. You will find the latest announcements about training facilities, our training schedule and pricing at: https://www.lsoft.com/products/training.asp.

7. What is needed in an on-site training facility?

Generally, a classroom should be equipped with workstations for the instructor and each participant (no sharing of workstations; each person needs their own). The instructor's workstation should be connected to a video projector. A white board should be available as well.

The instructor workstation requires a web browser, Microsoft PowerPoint and unrestricted HTTP access to the Internet (specifically including but not limited to, *.lsoft.com).

Participant workstations require a web browser, unrestricted HTTP access to the Internet (specifically including but not limited to, *.lsoft.com), an email application (or web-mail account) the participant normally uses to access their email. Access to their normal work email account (for live, real-time send/receive capability) is a plus.

If you have any questions about your training facilites, please write to: training@lsoft.com.

8. Is there a maximum number of course participants?

For on-site training, six is optimum; eight is our normal maximum. Occasionally we have allowed a few more. Above eight, we would need to consider adding a second instructor, which substantially increases the cost.

For online live training, one or two trainees per session is optimum, three is our maximum. If you have more trainees than this for a given course, we will schedule multiple sessions. Online live courses are generally always done in half-day increments so that both the instructor and the trainees can perform their normal work for the other half-day.

L-Soft Sales Contact Information

U.S. Office

L-Soft international, Inc.
7550 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 400
Bethesda, MD 20814
USA

Phone: 1-800-399-5449
Email: sales@lsoft.com

European Office

L-Soft Sweden AB
Fatburs Brunnsgata 5
118 28 Stockholm
Sweden

Phone: +46 (0)8-50709900
Email: sales@lsoft.se