Training and Consulting Guide
Last revised: 2007 March 20 (Tu) JHarlan
Previous revision: 2007 February 15 (Th) BParker
© 2007 L-Soft international, Inc.
LISTSERV® and ListPlexSM are Registered Trademarks or Registered Service Marks licensed to L-Soft international, Inc.
EASE is a Service Mark of L-Soft international, Inc.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Table of Contents
- Our Training Agenda
- Courses Track A: Foundations
- Courses Track B: LISTSERV
- LISTSERV List Owner Track
- LISTSERV Site Administrator Track
- Courses Track C: LISTSERV Maestro
- LISTSERV Maestro for Users Track
- LISTSERV Maestro for Site Administrators Track
- LISTSERV Maestro for Data Administrators Track
- L-Soft Training Facilities, Schedule, and Pricing
- L-Soft Consulting
- Frequently Asked Questions
- 1. How do I register for a training course?
- 2. Do I have to sign an agreement to take a training course?
- 3. Who are L-Soft's trainers? What are their qualifications?
- 4. How do I find the most suitable training course?
- 5. How much does training cost?
- 6. Where are the training courses held?
- 7. What is needed in a training facility?
- 8. Is there a maximum course size?
- L-Soft Sales Contact Information
- U.S. Office
- European Office
- About L-Soft
- L-Soft's Products and Services
- LISTSERV® Email List Management Software
- LISTSERV® Maestro Email Marketing Software
- HDMail SMTP High Deliverability Mail Server Appliance
- ListPlexSM and EASESM Email List Hosting Services
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 (e.g. site administrators may wish to take the list owner courses). 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: Foundations
3010 Best Practices for E-Mail Communication and Deliverability
3020 E-mail and Networking I (Basics)
3021 E-mail and Networking II (Advanced)
Note: All topics and tracks mentioned in the following section require the above courses 3020 and 3021 or equivalent experience.
Topic B: LISTSERV
List Owner Track (1 day)
3040 LISTSERV List Owner I (Basics)
3042 LISTSERV List Owner III (Advanced) (One-Way Announcements Lists)
Site Administrator Track (2 days)
3040 LISTSERV List Owner I (Basics)
3080 LISTSERV Site Administrator I (Basics)
3084 LISTSERV Site Administrator V (Advanced)
3085 LISTSERV Site Administrator VI (Analysis and Problem Solving)
Topic C: LISTSERV Maestro
4000 Overview of LISTSERV Maestro
LISTSERV Maestro for Users Track (1.5 days or 1 day)
4004 Defining Recipients for LISTSERV Maestro
4005 Defining Message Content for LISTSERV Maestro
4006 Defining Tracking and Generating Reports with LISTSERV Maestro
or
4456 Defining Recipients, Message Content, Tracking and Generating Reports with LISTSERV Maestro (1 day combined version of 4004, 4005 and 4006)
LISTSERV Maestro for Site Administrators Track (1.5 days)
4002 Site Administration for LISTSERV Maestro
4456 Defining Recipients, Message Content, Tracking and Generating Reports with LISTSERV Maestro (1 day combined version of 4004, 4005 and 4006)
LISTSERV Maestro for Data Administrators Track (select one course only)
4007 Data Administration for LISTSERV Maestro with External Databases
4008 Recipient Warehouse Data Administration for LISTSERV Maestro Using Internally Hosted Recipient Lists (HRLs)
4009 Recipient Warehouse Data Administration for LISTSERV Maestro Using Internally DBMS-backed Hosted LISTSERV Lists (HLLs)
L-Soft Training Course Descriptions
3010 Best Practices for E-Mail Communication and Deliverability
Audience: Organizations engaged in e-mail communication
Prerequisites: None
Objectives: course participants will learn how to more effectively
target their e-mail communications, how to create and maintain positive
relationships with their recipients (and their recipients's e-mail providers),
and how other e-mail communicators engage in effective and responsible e-mail
communications (e.g., case studies).
Duration: 0.5 day
3020 E-mail and Networking I (Basics)
Audience: Organizations using LISTSERV that wish to
take an introduction or refresher course in the basic concepts of electronic
mail, e-mail lists and related underlying networking principles.
Prerequisites: Basic personal computer skills and familiarity
with e-mail.
Objectives: course participants will initially be given a short
introduction on the basics of the Internet (TCP/IP, Domain Name Service,
routers, firewalls, etc.). They will then become familiar with the basic
concepts of e-mail and e-mail lists (i.e. how e-mail is generated, the
protocols used for transmission, delivery and reception, and why e-mail
is an effective medium).
Duration: 0.5 day
3021 E-mail and Networking II (Advanced)
Audience: Customers using LISTSERV (list owners
or administrators) who want to take an introduction or refresher course in
more advanced concepts of electronic mail, e-mail lists and related underlying
networking principles.
Prerequisites: 3020 E-mail and Networking I (Basics) (or equivalent
knowledge / experience.)
Objectives: course participants will be able to read and understand
e-mail headers, generate and send HTML / multipart / attachments via e-mail,
and comprehend other advanced concepts of e-mail and e-mail lists.
Duration: 0.5 day
3040 LISTSERV List Owner I (Basics)
Audience: Current and prospective LISTSERV list
managers
Prerequisites: 3020 E-mail and Networking I (Basics) (or
equivalent knowledge / experience)
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 e-mail.
Duration: 0.5 day
3042 LISTSERV List Owner III (Advanced) (One-Way Announcements Lists)
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 sign-up pages.
Duration: 0.5 day
3080 LISTSERV Site Administrator I (Basics)
Audience: Current and prospective
LISTSERV site administrators.
Prerequisites: 3040 List Owner I (Basics)
(or equivalent knowledge / experience)
Objectives: course participants will learn what a site
administrator needs to know about LISTSERV (e-mail/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.
Duration: 0.5 day
3084 LISTSERV Site Administrator V (Advanced)
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
sign-up pages, implement a super-list / sub-list architecture, use list topics,
and use a standard toolset for LISTSERV and related diagnostics.
Duration: 0.5 day
3085 LISTSERV Site Administrator VI (LISTSERV Analysis & Problem Solving)
Audience: Current and prospective LISTSERV
site administrators or advanced list owners
Prerequisites: 3084 Site Administrator V (Basics)
or equivalent knowledge / experience. OS-specific administrative skills.
Objectives: course participants will learn
to interpret LISTSERV & SMTP log files, to interpret CHANGELOG files,
bounce management, LISTSERV/SMTP behind a firewall, tuning LISTSERV,
troubleshooting, operations monitoring / backups. (This course has Windows/Unix versions.)
Duration: 0.5 day
4000 Overview of LISTSERV Maestro
Audience: Current and prospective users of LISTSERV Maestro
(There is no charge for this orientation when given in conjunction with other 4000 series courses.)
Prerequisites: none
Objectives: General orientation lecture/demonstration in how
LISTSERV Maestro operates, and can be used to create, administer and
analyze results from e-mail marketing campaigns using Maestro.
Intended only for persons NOT taking other 4000 series courses.
Duration: 1 hour
4002 Site Administration for LISTSERV Maestro
Audience: Server Administrators for sites running LISTSERV Maestro.
(Not
intended for sites running standard LISTSERV lists. Ask about a special
combined 3085+4002 course if you do run Maestro along with standard
LISTSERV lists.)
Prerequisites: 3020 E-mail and Networking I (Basics) (or equivalent knowledge/experience). OS-specific administrative skills
Objectives: course participants will learn the LISTSERV Maestro
System Components, administering Maestro via HUB, administering
LISTSERV and SMTP,
interpreting HUB/LUI/TRK log files, interpreting LISTSERV log files,
interpreting SMTP log files, bounce management in Maestro,
troubleshooting, operations monitoring / backups.
Duration: 0.5 day
4004 Defining Recipients for LISTSERV Maestro
Audience: Current and prospective users of LISTSERV Maestro
Prerequisites: 4000 Overview of LISTSERV Maestro
Objectives: course participants will practice how to define
recipients for an e-mail job in different ways, including uploading a
text file, selecting recipients from a database, sending to an existing
LISTSERV list, and selecting recipients from a Target Group.
Duration: 0.5 day
4005 Defining Message Content for LISTSERV Maestro
Audience: Current
and prospective users of LISTSERV Maestro
Prerequisites: 4000 Overview of LISTSERV Maestro, 4004 Defining Recipients for LISTSERV Maestro
Objectives: course participants will practice how to define and
edit content for e-mail jobs, including creating text and HTML
messages, adding attachments, personalizing e-mail messages for
individual recipients with mail-merge, creating and using drop-in
content elements and using conditional blocks.
Duration: 0.5 day
4006 Defining Tracking and Generating Reports with LISTSERV Maestro
Audience: Current
and prospective users of LISTSERV Maestro
Prerequisites: 4004 Defining Recipients for LISTSERV Maestro, 4005 Defining Message Content for LISTSERV Maestro
Objectives: course participants will practice how to define
tracking behavior for a job, how to generate quick reports from the
tracking statistics, and how to create customized reports.
Duration: 0.5 day
4456 Defining Recipients, Message Content, Tracking and Generating Reports with LISTSERV Maestro
Audience: Current
and prospective users of LISTSERV Maestro
Prerequisites: 4000 Overview of LISTSERV Maestro
Objectives: 1 day course combining slightly abbreviated versions
of 4004 Defining Recipients, 4005 Defining Message Content, and 4006
Defining tracking and generating reports. See above for fuller
description of each part.
Duration: 1.0 day (i.e., full day)
4007 Data Administration for LISTSERV Maestro with External Databases
Audience: Data Administrators (DAs) administering
databases that will be used with LISTSERV Maestro. Any LISTSERV Maestro
User or Administrator with 'Data Administrator' rights
Prerequisites: Database Administrator (DBA) experience with the
selected DBMS. Familiarity with SQL. 4000 Overiew of LISTSERV Maestro,
4004 Defining Recipients for LISTSERV Maestro, 4005 Defining
Message Content for LISTSERV Maestro
Objectives: course participants will learn about the LISTSERV
Maestro System Database and the User Database(s), how LISTSERV Maestro
connects to databases, creating Recipient Target Groups with an
external database, Presenting Options/Choices to Assist Maestro Users.
Duration: 0.5 day
4008 Recipient Warehouse Data Administration for LISTSERV Maestro Using Internally Hosted Recipient Lists (HRLs)
Audience: Any LISTSERV Maestro User or Administrator
with 'Data Administrator' rights who will create/adminster Datasets in
the internal Recipient Warehouse.
Prerequisites: 4000 Overview of LISTSERV Maestro
Objectives: course participants will learn about the LISTSERV
Maestro System Database and the internal Recipient Warehouse, creating
Recipient Datasets, creating Hosted Recipient Lists (HRLs) within Datasets and
creating Recipient Target Groups for Hosted Recipient Lists (HRLs).
Duration: 0.5 day
4009 Recipient Warehouse Data Administration for LISTSERV Maestro Using Internally DBMS-backed Hosted LISTSERV Lists (HLLs)
Audience: Any LISTSERV Maestro User or Administrator
with 'Data Administrator' rights who will create/adminster Datasets in
the internal Recipient Warehouse.
Prerequisites: 4000 Overview of LISTSERV Maestro
Objectives: course participants will learn about the LISTSERV
Maestro System Database and the internal Recipient Warehouse, creating
Recipient Datasets, creating DBMS-backed Hosted LISTSERV Lists (HLLs) within Datasets
and creating Recipient Target Groups for DBMS-backed Hosted LISTSERV Lists (HLLs).
Duration: 0.5 day
L-Soft Training Facilities,
Schedule, and Pricing
Depending on our customers' requirements, we can offer training on-site
with a customer or on-line via live-remote (WebEx, Skype, etc.).
You will find the latest announcements about training facilities, our training
schedule, and pricing at:
L-Soft Consulting
L-Soft international, Inc. offers consulting services, providing customized
assistance throughout your implementation cycle. L-Soft's consultants
can help you integrate L-Soft's products and services with your existing
systems and elevate those solutions toward measurable business results.
Through needs assessment, planning, implementation, testing, optimization
and troubleshooting, L-Soft's consultants will guide you toward achieving
your e-mail objectives. Please write to:
consulting@lsoft.com
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How do I register for a training course?
Please complete and submit the Training Information 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 Information 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.
See also http://www.lsoft.com/products/tcgroup.asp
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:
- Foundation Courses are intended for people who know how
to use a computer and have some experience using e-mail, but do not have
a great deal of familiarity with the underlying way the Internet in general
and e-mail in particular works.
Since this knowledge is assumed in most of the other courses, if this
describes you, you should strongly consider taking these courses before taking
the other ones listed in our catalog.
- The second group of courses, LISTSERV, is intended for people
who are using LISTSERV to host traditional mailing lists. These mailing
lists may be either discussion mailing lists, where subscribers discuss
a particular topic on the mailing list, or one-way mailing lists, where
subscribers get periodic announcements e-mailed to them but cannot post
themselves to the mailing list.
If these are the kinds of ways you plan to use LISTSERV, then
these are the courses that are most likely to be of interest to you.
-
The third group of courses, LISTSERV Maestro, is intended
for customers who are using the enhanced LISTSERV Maestro solution to send one-time
targeted mailings to their customers (and possibly track responses to
these mailings).
If you're planning to use LISTSERV to send targeted mailings these are
the courses that are most likely to be of interest to you.
- Finally, there are the Extended Learning Courses, which
cover information which is of interest to some customers but which are
too advanced or specialized to be included in the other topics.
If the information you are interested in is not covered in one of the
other topics, you may find it here.
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 things 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, or is not offered at a time
convenient for you, do not hesitate to contact us at training@lsoft.com.
Courses can be added on demand.
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 course offerings posted on our web site
http://www.lsoft.com/products/training.asp
.
Pricing for other
forms of training are by quotation based on your requirements. Please send
an e-mail 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 public training at a central training facility nearby. You will find the latest
announcements about the training facilities, our training schedule, and pricing at:
http://www.lsoft.com/products/training.asp
7. What is needed in a 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 Microsoft Internet Explorer and
PowerPoint, and unrestricted HTTP access to the Internet (specifically
including, but not limited to, lsoft.com).
Participant workstations require Microsoft Internet Explorer,
unrestricted HTTP access to the Internet (specifically including, but not
limited to, lsoft.com), the e-mail application the participant normally
uses to access their e-mail, and actual access to their normal work
e-mail account (for live, real-time send / receive capability).
If you have any questions about your training facilites, please write to training@lsoft.com
.
8. Is there a maximum course size?
For on-site training, six (6) is optimum; eight (8) is our normal maximum. Above eight (8), we would need to consider adding a second instructor, which substantially increases the cost.
For on-line live training, two (2) trainees per session is optimum, three (3) is our maximum. If you have more trainees than this for a given course, we will schedule multiple sessions. On-Line live courses are generally only 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.
8100 Corporate Drive, Suite 350
Landover, MD 20785-2231
USA
Phone: +1 301 731 0440 or +1 800 399 5449
Fax: +1 301 731 6302
Sales: sales@lsoft.com
Press Contact: pressinfo@lsoft.com
European Office
L-Soft Sweden AB
Östgötagatan 16
SE-116 25 Stockholm
Sweden
Phone: +46 (0)8 50 70 99 00
FAX: +46 (0)8 50 70 99 98
Sales: sales@lsoft.se
Press Contact: pressinfo@lsoft.se
About L-Soft
Founded in 1994, L-Soft is a
pioneer in the field of email list management, email marketing and SMTP
mail server software solutions and outsourcing services. L-Soft's
solutions are used for the management of email newsletters, discussion
groups and opt-in email marketing campaigns.
The company's LISTSERV software, developed in 1986, was the
first product of its kind and single-handedly launched the email list
management industry. Since then, L-Soft has expanded its portfolio to
include email marketing and email delivery solutions.
Today L-Soft's products deliver about 30 million messages a
day to more than 130 million list subscriptions. The company serves
more than 3,700 customers worldwide, including Microsoft, IBM, The New
York Times, AOL-Time Warner/CNN, Dow Jones/The Wall Street Journal, The
United Nations, the U.S. Senate and Harvard University.
L-Soft is an international company and works with both small
and large customers in nearly every industry worldwide. L-Soft has
local offices in Landover, Maryland (near Washington, DC);
London, UK; Stockholm, Sweden; and Erlangen, Germany.
L-Soft's Products and Services
LISTSERV® Email List Management Software
LISTSERV is a powerful email list management software solution that
sets the industry standard. It allows you to easily manage opt-in email
lists, such as email newsletters, announcement lists and discussion
groups. LISTSERV was originally developed in 1986 and was the first
email list management software available. It has since been
continuously developed and has become a highly robust, scalable and
easy-to-use software solution.
"On behalf of the team here at Microsoft and all of our mailing list
customers, I'd really like to thank all of you guys for your tremendous
work helping us get our mailing lists configured and up and running. We
really threw you some curve balls on this project and we appreciate your
help more than you know (...) you have no idea what a pleasure it is to
work with smart, responsive and pleasant people. And the delivery statistics!
Amazing!"
Mary Haggard
Program Manager
Microsoft Site Builder Network
LISTSERV® Maestro Email Marketing Software
LISTSERV Maestro is a complete email marketing software solution.
It allows you to manage and track sophisticated, database-driven opt-in
email marketing campaigns with an easy-to-use, yet powerful Web
interface. The workflow-oriented interface guides you through each step
of the campaign development process – from message creation to response
evaluation and analysis.
HDMail SMTP Mail Server Appliance
HDMail is L-Soft's high deliverability mailer, providing
unsurpassed reliability, performance and deliverability in today's
fast-changing email industry.
ListPlexSM and EASESM Email List Hosting Services
ListPlex is a high-end outsourcing service that provides you with
access to our expertise and technology without hardware, software or
personnel investments. Through ListPlex, you can host your email lists
on our servers using your own virtual domain name. The service is
designed for maximum flexibility and permits you to remotely integrate
your email lists with the rest of your in-house servers.
EASE stands for Expert Administration and Supervision of Email
Lists. These outsourcing services offer an alternative to the ListPlex
service for customers who want to outsource their email lists but are
comfortable with having them on a shared server with other EASE lists
under a common L-Soft domain name. The EASE services can be used for
email newsletters, announcement lists, discussion groups and email
marketing campaigns.