ARIS Corp. One of First to Provide Training Via Microsoft OnLine Institute; New training method saves time and money for MIS professionals.

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 24, 1995--ARIS Corp. -- one of the first companies to start training management information systems (MIS) professionals via the Microsoft OnLine Institute (MOLI) -- predicts significant cost and time-saving advantages for corporations who use this newest method for computer training, according to Jeff Gilles, ARIS vice president of education.

The Microsoft OnLine Institute is an interactive instruction service designed for users of the Microsoft Network. Combining the convenience of self-paced online training with the advantages of the instructor-guided classroom, MOLI is an alternative to traditional class instruction or self-study for busy technical professionals.

"The changing nature of companies and the work they do, especially with large-scale downsizing and the shift to an information-based economy, is requiring workers to be more flexible and better trained," says Gilles. "With the emphasis on productivity, it is not always feasible to pull an employee out of the office and into a classroom. MOLI saves MIS professionals and their employers valuable time by bringing the course information directly to their desk.

"Training via MOLI can also mean huge cost savings for many U.S. corporations who would otherwise pay travel costs to send their MIS managers to seminars or training classes," Gilles continues.

Training magazine, in its annual industry survey, estimates that U.S. corporations with more than 100 employees budgeted $51 billion for training in 1994. Sending an employee to a training session across the country can cost a corporation as much as $4,000. An average course via MOLI costs $500 per employee.

ARIS students access MOLI through the Microsoft Network and download the course material into their own systems. They interact with an instructor via chat sessions and e-mail, working at their own pace within a pre-established timeframe. The instructors are all Microsoft Certified Trainers and Certified Systems Engineers.

During the MOLI pilot last spring, ARIS trained approximately 20 students from around the country, including MIS professionals from Tandy and Weyerhaeuser, on Windows NT Server & Workstation. Other programs which ARIS and other training providers will teach this fall include Windows 95, Windows Operating System, Visual FoxPro, Visual Basic 3.0 and 4.0, Visual C++, Windows UI Design, Access and Office 95 for end users.

Gilles cautions, however, that online training is only one component of the overall technical training mix. "Online training is an ideal environment for teaching material that is procedural or systematic in nature," he says. "But until video, sound and animation are more easily and quickly transmitted online, it is more effective to teach conceptual subjects in an instructor-led classroom situation."

MOLI is run by Microsoft's Education and Certification group. This group is in charge of training offered by Microsoft and its Authorized Technical Education Centers, as well as certification for developers, systems engineers, product specialists and trainers.

ARIS (Applied Relational Information Systems Inc.), founded in Seattle in 1990 by Paul Song, is an information systems consulting and education company with offices in Seattle and Bellevue; Beaverton, Ore; Denver and San Francisco. -0-

Reporters Note: To view ARIS's education site on MOLI, students need Windows 95. The ARIS classroom is found in the following hierarchy: Categories, Computer Education, Microsoft OnLine Institute, Classrooms, 1st Floor Classrooms, ARIS.

To interview Jeff Gilles; Paul Song, president of ARIS; Bill Lane or Paul Kautz at ARIS, please call or e-mail Carol Rogalski or Sue Whitcomb at [e-mail].

CONTACT: Communication Northwest Inc.

Sue Whitcomb and Carol Rogalski, 206/285-7070

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