Borland Canada aims to train more customers, developers and resellers on its JBuilder software by taking on more partners.
Borland Canada’s most recent training partner, announced this week, is Ensemble Systems, based in Richmond, B.C. Ensemble, a systems development and consulting firm specializing in object-oriented technology, will provide training sessions in the Vancouver area. Training will primarily cover JBuilder 5, J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) and other Java applications.
Ensemble is now part of the Borland Learning Partner (BLP) program, first started in January of last year. The only other Canadian partner to date is Infocam, also based in B.C., which provides Delphi training. Borland Canada plans to increase its number of BLP’s in the next year to provide better coverage across Canada, said John Fisher, president of the Markham, Ont.-based company.
Ensemble came to be part of the BLP program through a relationship with Borland’s corporate headquarters in Scotts Valley, Calif., which began back in 1998, said Ensemble’s marketing manager Vlad Ghelesel.
Borland made training available prior to the BLP program and does offer university and college programs, but “we wanted a consistent program worldwide,” said Fisher. “We wanted to offer a program in the case of the learning partners specifically that offered a value proposition to customers that they could make money out of. We needed to make sure we have a growing number of training partners to be able to deliver that.”
The learning sessions will last a week and class sizes will be five to 10 people. The courses are open enrolment, but are aimed at the professional community.
“We focus our attention on developers, business analysts, IT managers, that kind of thing,” according to Ghelesel, who added that many trainees will be existing Borland customers or those evaluating Borland tools for future rollouts.
Borland Canada’s improved focus on training is part of a wider strategy to offer an array of services to customers, said Fisher. “Our focus over the next year will be a total solution approach — when they’re (customers) purchasing the tools they’re also purchasing the training services and mentoring services and, if need be, architectural services.”
Ensemble will start training sessions imminently and may soon be joined by other training partners. Borland Canada is seeking other BLP participants in Quebec, said Fisher. In Ontario, Borland can provide training through its Markham offices.
