COSMO CONSULT launches its own college

In the past, it was necessary to submit a request to book a training course from COSMO CONSULT, and bookings could only be made when they were directly related to an ERP project. Now the software and consulting company is launching COSMO College, an educational initiative aimed specifically at existing customers and other users of business software from Microsoft. Starting in the spring of 2020, it will be possible to book individual on-site company training courses in addition to classroom teaching and online seminars. With this training program COSMO CONSULT is focussing on the needs of many of its customers and supporting them with the skills acquisition and career development of their employees.

Training is usually required in the case of large software projects. After all, employees need to  become familiar with the advantages of new software solutions quickly and use them for the benefit of the company. But what happens after the introduction phase? When the system is running and the consultants are gone? Klaus Aschauer, Chief Customer Officer of the COSMO CONSULT Group, knows that this does not affect the need for training: "When new employees are hired, when processes change or when new functions are added after an update, training helps to make better use of the additional potential. With COSMO College, we can offer our customers exactly the right services. Aschauer has not only  existing customers in mind, but also companies that are not COSMO CONSULT customers, but that work with business software from Microsoft. This is exactly what the software and consulting company is concentrating on in terms of content: The focus is on business solutions such as Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Power BI and  the Microsoft Dynamics ERP family of products. The course covers both the basics and also specific topics such as production control, data analytics and digital collaboration.

The launch of COSMO College is planned for the spring of 2020. The training program can then be booked across the entire German-speaking area. An international rollout in other European countries will come later. At the moment work is being done on putting together the training program and recruiting instructors. One thing is certain: there will be a mixture of classic classroom training, online seminars and courses for individual companies. "In the future, classroom training sessions can be booked where COSMO CONSULT has it locations, such as Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg and Münster. Usually, individual training courses are held on site in the companies," explains Aschauer. The online seminars, on the other hand, are intended for people who want flexibility in their learning process or for whom it is difficult to integrate classroom training into their schedule.

The instructors of COSMO College have practical experience. "This is where we differ from other training providers: Our instructors are not only experts in the functional scope of the software solutions, they also know what is important in practice and can therefore answer individual questions," says Aschauer.

For him, the education initiative is an important building block in terms of customer orientation: "With COSMO College, we are orienting ourselves even more closely towards the needs of our customers and are supporting them with a task that is important for the future: career development and skills acquisition for their employees. This will raise our profile as experts for business software and digital transformation.” In the future, COSMO College will be successively expanded into a digital knowledge platform that includes not only training courses but also answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ), white papers and video tutorials.