Microsoft has cash incentive for trainees

In a bid to tempt network managers over to Windows 2000, Microsoft announced last week that it will spend £3.1m to subsidise training for the latest release of its OS.

The company says the subsidy is the most it has ever spent on training.

This comes at a time when industry experts are concerned that many Windows 2000 rollouts will fail because network managers believe the product is identical to Windows NT and wrongly think they do not need retraining).

Under the scheme customers will receive subsidies of up to £500 on Windows 2000 training between now and February 2000.

Sharon Saw, of training company Saw IT, said that Microsoft's move was an attempt to kick-start the Windows 2000 market with cheap training in much the same way as it had done with SQL 7.

"It's an aggressive marketing strategy which would be beyond the financial reach of most companies. This will leave Microsoft a pool of people who are able to upgrade NT4 to 2000," Saw said.

Saw said that the subsidies' time limit will force companies to train staff in Windows 2000 fast and encourage an early upgrade.

Microsoft said it would also offer £99 one-day hands-on training courses for customers on Windows 2000 Server and Professional. The company will redesign its Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) qualification to include the Windows 2000 platform.

Andrew Lees, Microsoft's director for emerging markets, said: "We want to ensure that customers have the best experience possible when deploying Windows 2000."

www.microsoft.com/uk/skills/w2k/