The proposal that convinced the diocese came from Com Training and Services, a Munich-based subsidiary of M.I.T e-Solutions, which, in turn, is a subsidiary of the bit group, headquartered in Graz, Austria. It involved a blended-learning project that began with the installation of an online training portal and was accompanied by two information events in March 2014. The project concluded successfully in July, with the last migration training and telephone support.

In between there was a mix of measures interconnected by both time and contents that were designed to the make the 2500 employees fit to work with the new software versions. The strengths of the blended-learning solution: It was optimally customised to the special conditions and the need for flexibility. A main feature was onsite support for a diocese serving a large area, with 23 deaneries and 988 parishes and which did not try to squeeze all of the diocese’s widely distributed employees into an inflexible training concept.

The building blocks used included, in addition to the information events, classic migration trainings, as well as V.I.P-Administrator and multiplier trainings. These took place at the head office and six other locations, including two mobile classrooms provided by Com.

In order to enable the target groups to become fit outside of the seminar rooms, they had the possibility to access learning programmes for Windows and the Office suite through an online-learning portal. The electronic workplace-assistant QuickTipps, which the parent bit group offers as permanent help to users directly in the ribbon of the original Office applications, was available for self-help. The use of the learning programmes and QuickTipps was supported with a telephone hotline. This meant that none of the diocese employees felt left alone if the self-help or the short manuals on the individual Office applications, which were provided next to every workstation, did not answer their questions.

Ultimately, the blended-learning concept, with its many help and support elements, was able to successfully support a widely distributed and exceptionally mixed target group in their migration to the new Windows and Office versions. Through the comprehensive training package, the need for support and the hotline were clearly reduced, which allowed the IT department to concentrate on the technical implementation of the new software versions.

Dr. Anton Schuster from the Continuing Education Department of the Episcopal Ordinariate Augsburg summarised, "The cooperation with Com Training proved to be uncomplicated and very efficient. The feedback from participants was completely positive. The flexibility of the provider enabled trainings to be held at nine locations in the diocese, which meant the participants did not have far to travel. In particular, the Com Training registration process relieved us of an enormous organisational burden."