Lab Essentials

About this episode

Deltek’s Damon Schrader shares how his team uses CloudShare to deliver interactive workshops at scale through pre-conference workshops and virtual sessions. He explains how consistent sandbox environments, instructor visibility, and reliable access help create more interactive learning experiences while also highlighting the operational challenges of bandwidth, security restrictions, and event scale.

Transcript of the video

Zach Savage: It looks like we have a few people rolling in now. Good morning, everybody. We will give everyone another minute or two before we get started. If you do not mind, please go ahead and say in the chat where you are from. It is always interesting to see where everyone is from and whether anybody is in the same area. I see the Netherlands. Wow. Salt Lake City. Okay. I do have a bit of a brain teaser for everybody this morning. Would you consider a cheesecake a cake or a pie. I see everybody saying cake, but it has a pie crust and a pie filling, so I think it is a pie. All right, let us go ahead and get started. I am sure we will have a couple more people rolling in. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for coming today. For those of you who do not know me, I am Zach Savage. I am an account manager here at CloudShare. I have been here for about a year and a half now, and I have been fortunate enough to see some pretty amazing things that our incredible customers do with the CloudShare platform. Today we have one of those amazing customers joining us. Damon Schrader is a leader in customer education and has been shaping Deltek University over the past ten years. Today he is going to give us an overview of how CloudShare fits into his training program. Please feel free to ask questions in the chat, and we will take breaks throughout the presentation to address them. Without further ado, Damon.
Damon Shratter: Great. Thank you so much, Zach, and welcome, everybody, to the webinar. I hope you find this informative as I discuss both the successes and some of the challenges we have had as a company and as a learning and development organization, mostly customer facing, in coming up with ideas that keep our customers engaged in their learning. I also want to talk about how, over the years, we have found things that work and things that do not work as well, and why we ultimately decided to use CloudShare. The overall idea is that we wanted to create dynamic learning environments and experiences for our customers and the people attending our virtual or in person events. As we know, they have many choices for where they get training, where they get content, and how they learn. Things also change over time, so we want to make sure we are providing the best environments we can for them.

As part of that, Deltek has a yearly conference centered on the customer experience, and we usually have somewhere in the neighborhood of four to five thousand customers attending. Deltek has twenty four separate software products that our customers use. Some of those products work together and integrate natively, some integrate through easy setup, and some integrate with outside products through tools that we provide. Our thought process is that we want to provide not only all of this great information that customers get through the conference, which is a lot, but also an experience from the training organization that is different from the other sessions they will be attending. One of the biggest things we always want is interaction with our participants. Whether that is virtual, like today, or in person in a room together, we want interaction between the customers or participants and us as the instructors. We also want to provide something that the people already planning to attend the conference are willing to pay a little extra for because it is separate from everything else in the conference.

With all of that in mind, we came up with what we call pre conference workshops. We have multiple products and multiple instructors, so these workshops became our way of doing all of this. We have roughly twenty products overall, but some are used more than others and are more heavily represented at these conferences. We look at which products are most represented by the people attending and use that information to decide where to provide these extra learning experiences. The typical session at the conference is fifty minutes because there are so many sessions, but because these workshops take place before the main conference begins, we have more flexibility and made them three hours long so we can really do a deep dive into a topic. Because they are three hours long, because we are diving deeply into the content, and because they are designed to be hands on and interactive, we have to limit the number of people who participate. We keep them to around twenty five participants. That makes sense from a teaching standpoint. I originally came from a classroom teaching background, and as class sizes got larger over the years, it became obvious that you cannot interact the same way with forty people as you can with ten. It is the same thing with adults, especially when they are doing hands on activities in software they may not know well yet, which is why they are coming to the session in the first place. They want to learn and have those activities, so we limit the numbers to maximize the learning experience.

These workshops are not simply about taking someone through a process in the software and saying click here, then click here, then click here, and look at what you get. We try to make them relevant to the customer base by building them around real world situations and scenarios. We walk them through how to solve an issue and how to get the most out of their software. To do that, we rely on two things. First, we spend about thirty percent of the workshop on background instruction and setting up the scenario. Then about seventy percent of the three hours is spent in the software going through activities from beginning to end and arriving at a result. As part of this, we want to provide participants with a sandbox environment, meaning a copy of the software with a database. In some cases, that database has to be specially configured to work for what is being presented. Sometimes it does not. In either case, we want all participants to have access to the same type of environment and to be at the same level.

Last year at this conference, we did something a little different from what we had done before. In the past, we typically had between eight and ten of these workshops before the regular conference began. Last year, we decided to have nineteen. We more than doubled the typical number of workshops, but everything else had to remain the same. We still needed the three hour format, the sandbox environments, the topics that made sense to clients, and the interaction. Previously, all of the workshops would happen at one time, usually eight to ten sessions with twenty five people each. Last year, we really had to step up our game. We had two separate sessions, one in the morning from eight thirty to eleven thirty and one in the afternoon from twelve thirty to three thirty. We had ten sessions in the morning and nine in the afternoon. Across those sessions, we had four products represented in the morning and four in the afternoon, which meant multiple sessions for the same product, and in some cases the same product in both the morning and the afternoon. That creates additional complexity because the different sessions cover different topics, and sometimes those topics require different databases to work correctly. So now we are not only talking about having sandbox environments for a product that everyone can access and that can handle a hundred people working at once, but also about having multiple sessions at the same time using the same product with different databases. That adds a lot of complexity. As you can see, we had close to four hundred people overall accessing product environments throughout the course of that day. It was a huge undertaking to get this to work, but it did.

Zach Savage: When is the conference coming up this year.
Damon Shratter: Yes, we are having the same Deltek conference again, and it is coming up in November of this year in DC. We are doing pre conference workshops again. Because of the venue, we are not going to do separate morning and afternoon blocks this time. They are all going to happen at the same time. We are still going to be doing eighteen, though. That will be even more of a challenge because now we are doing eighteen at one time with everybody accessing things at the same time. That will bring its own challenges as well. It is going to be interesting. It always is, but it is really going to be interesting to see how that goes. It is definitely exciting. When it is done, it is a relief because it worked and we got through it. But leading up to it and during it, there is just something about working with people interactively and watching them use the software while you explain things and walk them through processes. You can see when the light bulb goes off. It is an old expression, but you can absolutely tell, especially in person, when something clicks for them. That combination of instructing them, having them go into the software, working through a hands on activity, and seeing results in real time really helps.

With all of that good, there are always challenges. The biggest one is bandwidth. As you can imagine, when you have three hundred people or more at the same time doing things, hitting save, sending information up, and bringing information back down, we are not talking about email or chat. We are talking about heavy data loads. Bandwidth is probably our biggest challenge. We are making some changes this year at the location that will hopefully alleviate that somewhat. Because of bandwidth issues, there can be latency, and because of the way the software works with databases, that can lock up environments. I will be honest, that has happened. In some cases, it required a participant to exit and reconnect to their environment. We noticed last year that as the day progressed and more and more people arrived for the conference and logged into the venue WiFi, the number of those issues increased. So this year we really need to try to eliminate that because we want the interaction to be as good as possible for the people participating in these classes.

Another challenge is that people are coming from many different companies. Different products deal with different kinds of data, and some of those companies consider their data or their systems sensitive. Their work laptops often already have built in security and firewalls that prevent them from going to certain sites and back. So we encourage them to pretest. We give them the ability to do that so they can make sure everything will work for them. But you cannot force them to do it. People are going to do what they do. Sometimes they do not test, and then when they arrive and try to connect, there are issues. We also send invitations well in advance because people need time to travel and prepare, and sometimes they lose those invitations, and we have to resend them. If they have not tested, that can become another issue. So we really run into the full gamut of things that can happen. In the end, it comes back to two main things. We need enough bandwidth for all the users, and we need participants to be able to get to the CloudShare site and into those environments. A lot of that can be blocked by security protocols within their own companies. We have had cases where people simply could not connect at all. At that point, there is not much you can do because they are already there. We have to find another way for them to work with the environment without using their own laptop. That can feel a little different for them, but the beauty of this setup is that they still get access to the same environment no matter how they connect. If people would pretest, they would know this beforehand and could work with their IT department to get exceptions or allow lists in place so they could fully participate using their own equipment. Because of all of this, we want participants to leave feeling good about the experience and that it was well worth their while. If they have issues, whether caused by the venue WiFi or their own security settings, and they do not come away with a good feeling, they will not do it again. Since this conference happens every year and we offer pre conference workshops every year, we want them to keep coming back because we are always offering something new.

Zach Savage: Damon, what were you using before CloudShare for these conferences.
Damon Shratter: I do not know if I should mention the name directly, but it was a different provider that is fairly well known. It tended to have a lot of issues. To give you an example, from my home office I could not connect to their site about eighty percent of the time. It simply would not work. I tried to figure out why, and there were no security issues or anything else obvious. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it did not.
Zach Savage: Wow. Are there features that CloudShare has that the previous provider did not have and that you really rely on now.
Damon Shratter: The main one is reliability. The ability to get into it is obviously very important. Beyond that, there are a few other things that really set CloudShare apart. One is the ability to manage multiple versions of a product with multiple versions of the data, all clearly visible and easy to work with, and then to create a class very simply from that. Another is being able to support large numbers of users at the same time. It also lets us create environments that participants may not even have in their own companies, meaning we can open access to certain areas of the software and show them features they may never have seen before. There are a lot of reasons why CloudShare was really the way to go. One of the biggest is the instructor console, which I am going to show in a minute. It allows the instructor, or even an assistant, to see what individual people are doing inside their environments. You can go into those environments and walk them through something on their machine without physically being right there. For virtual sessions, that is incredible. For in person sessions, it is just as useful because you can see what everybody is doing at the same time, and you do not have to run around the room. We do keep class sizes lower, and sometimes you still need to help someone directly, but the ability to glance at what everyone is doing and see if somebody is stuck is huge. Not everyone is going to sit in a room with peers and announce that they are struggling. But you can see it, walk over, and help them. All of those things together really push CloudShare over the edge for us. We use it just as effectively for virtual sessions with hands on activities as we do for in person sessions. It works for both. Previously, without naming names, we simply could not count on the other solution to work. Since we have had CloudShare, it has enabled us to expand from having eight pre conference workshops to having eighteen or nineteen. That has been a major factor.

Putting on something like these pre conference workshops is a huge undertaking, especially when you consider the number of different sessions, the need to make sure those sessions are relevant, and the need to have instructors who can effectively guide participants through the topics. In our general process, once we know what all the sessions are going to be, we do a call for that very early. As I mentioned, our conference is in November, and we finalized the list of all those sessions about two weeks ago, roughly six months in advance. Once we know the sessions, we start preparing. Around two months out, every instructor who will lead one of those sessions starts making sure the database they want to use is set up correctly. Typically, we start that process internally. Once they are comfortable with what they have used internally, we move that database over to CloudShare. Then they can go into CloudShare and work on it there. If any changes still need to be made, they can do that inside CloudShare, and then we use the blueprint feature to start creating the classes. We let them work in it, make sure they get the kinks out, practice, and test things. Once everything is signed off in those environments, we can start creating the sessions and sending the email notifications to participants who registered, telling them to test, giving them their credentials, and all of those details. Some instructors do not use CloudShare all the time, and while it is not complicated, it is still a system and you can forget how to work in it if you do not use it regularly. So we create a cheat sheet for every instructor that walks them through the process from logging in, to creating their software view with the correct data, and it also gives tips in case participants in the class are having issues. We also run practice sessions with all the instructors so they can get hands on experience with CloudShare just like our learners do. Then we send the participant emails far enough in advance that people can, hopefully, test things out from the device they plan to bring to the conference.

Beyond these workshops, CloudShare has also enabled us to do virtual training in a similar way. People can go into a sandbox, complete exercises, and do those same hands on activities virtually. That is a big deal because it is not all that common to be able to support that kind of activity effectively at scale. In a virtual class, you may not have twenty or twenty five people. You may have forty or more all going into the software and working through activities. In that case, the same features I mentioned before, like the instructor console that lets you see what other people are doing, become extremely valuable. You can see if they are paying attention, see if they are actually doing what they should be doing, or notice if they are not doing anything. Then you can nudge them. There are private chat features too. All of that is very useful in a virtual setting. After last year, when we dramatically increased the number of sessions and participants, it was clear just how much CloudShare helped us. Close to four hundred people used the relevant product software that day. The activities were delivered in a uniform environment, meaning everyone in a given session had the same data, the same environment, and the same security access in the software. In many cases, we hear during the session that people are able to access areas of the software they may not have access to in their own company, or areas they have simply never used. We can open that up and let them work in it. Most software has features people never touch. They get used to what they know and do that repeatedly. Then they discover, through training, that there is another capability they can use. That happens here too. They get so much out of it. They can use the software without worrying about breaking anything. Even if they enter crazy information, it does not affect their native database because it is all contained within the CloudShare environment. They can try areas of the software they have never touched and see how beneficial they can be. We also set things up so they can work together. They each have their own individual environments, but they can collaborate as a group and know that the environment, the data, and the numbers are all the same. We also keep those environments open for them after the session ends. They can log back in, follow the hands on activities again, or try something different, all without the risk of damaging their actual software. It gives them a much better experience than sitting in a room and looking at screenshots while someone tells them what they could do. Here, they actually learn how to do it.

Zach Savage: Damon, how do you organize your CloudShare subscription for this event. Do you put it in its own project or use your existing training projects.
Damon Shratter: We set up a separate project for the event. That is where we put all of the blueprints and make them available within that project. From there, we start creating the environments and then the training sessions. What I am showing here is a real basic example. I created a class for today based on an existing project for live events. We have multiple projects, but I made this one available through that particular project. You can see that there is a blueprint that I used to create the class. I am not going to walk through the entire process from blueprint to class creation, but I can tell you the amount of time it takes is negligible. It is very easy to set up, and honestly, if I can do it, pretty much anybody can. It is much easier than what we had before. I also saw a question pop up about WiFi, and I can answer that live before I continue. The question was whether I would suggest limiting participants to twenty five per session because of WiFi issues. That is hard to answer in a universal way. It depends on where you are and what bandwidth is available. We have found that limiting in person classes to around twenty five participants is a good number because most of the time the bandwidth will support that. But again, you have to multiply that across however many sessions you are running at once.
Zach Savage: And if you give us enough notice on events like this, our support team can actually meet with the venue IT department and do some testing to see what the bandwidth looks like and how many people it can support.
Damon Shratter: Yes, and that is very helpful. Thank you for mentioning that, Zach, for anyone interested in starting to do something like this.

Right now I am logged into my version of CloudShare, the one I would use to present, whether virtually or in person. I can go into my software and show people things if I want to, and it loads quickly. This is an example of what one of the participants in the class would see. Even though it has the same name for demo purposes, it is meant to represent a different person. What you would notice is that it is the exact same environment. We are all working from the same setup, whether virtual or in person. That is one of the biggest benefits because everybody can work in an environment with the same access. The instructor console is another part I really appreciate. Even though the live demo is not behaving perfectly right now because I may have set it to time out, the instructor console would normally show thumbnails of all the participant environments. You can zoom in to those environments and take control to walk someone through a process if they are having trouble. It really has made things much easier to manage. That is essentially everything I wanted to cover, and I am very happy to answer questions. The important point is simply that CloudShare works for us. You can always be told that something will work, but when you actually try it, sometimes it does not. We have found that CloudShare works, and it works for what we do.

If any questions come to mind later about specifics, feel free to send me an email and I will be happy to respond. If you want to learn more about Deltek as well, I will plug Deltek a little and point you to our general site for more information.
Zach Savage: Awesome. Thank you so much, Damon. We answered a few questions in the chat, and it does not look like any more are coming in, so if anyone still has a question, feel free to ask it while we still have Damon’s time.
Damon Shratter: Thanks so much for having me. It is always a pleasure.
Zach Savage: Thank you, Damon. We really appreciate it. Thanks, everyone. Bye.