TIBCO Spotfire Training

INFORMATION BROCHURE

Optimize your investment in TIBCO Spotfire software with training solutions designed by our Learning Enablement and Adoption Programs (LEAP) team of educational professionals.
Spotfire Training will work with you to design an appropriate training strategy for your organization and ensure that you realize a measurable return on your educational investment. Our learning solutions employ a variety of delivery methods and provide training content that covers every stage of the deployment process. By engaging with Spotfire Training, you can: Ensure efficient and effective deployment and usage of Spotfire software Empower all user roles Facilitate user adoption Reduce the total cost of ownership Maximize your Investment

Contact us at: spotfireregistrar@tibco.com

TIBCO Software Inc.

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Why Spotfire Training?

Put simply, Spotfire training is a uniquely designed learning experience. Unlike other software training you may have had in the past, the Spotfire training experience is interactive and engaging. Through the use of role-based, process-driven, handson learning approaches, we provide a variety of delivery vehicles to suit the broad range of learning styles across your organization.
Role-based training: Across the Spotfire platform, different people play different roles. Administrators, information designers, developers, authors, analysts and consumers each need a different set of Spotfire skills in order to do their job. Our courses recognize these roles and enable each person to easily select the right training based upon the specific Spotfire hat or hats they will need to wear. Learning and enablement: Dont confuse check-the-box training with enablement. The goal of Spotfire training is to empower the student to perform optimally in their designated Spotfire role. Consequently, our training is not scripted toward the endpoint of passing a test. Instead, the student is provided with a variety of learning materials, examples, and exercises designed to provide a core understanding of what is possible with Spotfire and the knowledge and skills to do it. An experienced Spotfire instructor serves as the students guide to leverage these materials in an effective manner and fills in any gaps in understanding by answering questions, ensuring that each student is ready for the ultimate test: doing their job. Process-driven and hands-on: Effective training does not happen as a single event. The Spotfire learning approach is a process which encompasses activities before, during, and after the actual training event. Jumpstarts set the stage for what is possible with Spotfire and set expectations for what functionality students will learn how to implement during a training event. Workshops following the event ensure that training concepts are internalized and applied appropriately in the specific circumstances faced by each student. At each stage of the process, the focus is giving the student as much time as possible working hands-on within the application, instead of passively watching slides. Highly adaptable: Everyone learns differently. Consequently, Spotfire provides a wide array of options for training delivery and various materials within those delivery methods in order to suit all types of students, schedules, locations, and learning styles. You can put the pieces of the training puzzle together in a manner which best suits your organizations needs. Enterprise class: Spotfire is an enterprise platform; therefore, you can rest assured that we offer training solutions which are designed to suit the needs of a large company. Each scenario is slightly different, so a needs assessment will be conducted to determine the best logistical approach to providing training for each role across the platform. When required, content can even be customized to fit the needs of a specific scenario.

What are people saying?

I've just followed the SP121 online training, it's really well done! The instructor was well trained in Spotfire, very easy to understand, and made the course interesting. Fantastic...very well organized and it touched upon many key points useful to new users. I learned many new useful functions that I can utilize in my work. [The instructor] was great. Energetic, fun...answered every question, often in different ways so that everyone understood. Questions that he did not know immediately he researched during breaks and came back with answers. The whole follow-along format was great! Well probably do some more soon. [The instructor] did an excellent job catering to both novice and expert Spotfire users in this two day training! In fact this was the best training class I have attended I would highly recommend bringing [the instructor] back later this year for more extensive training.

Contact us at: spotfireregistrar@tibco.com

TIBCO Software Inc.

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Creating a Successful Training Plan

With training being such a critical element of user adoption and successful deployments, the first step should be to define the precise training requirements for your organization. TIBCO can provide a needs assessment to ensure that we deliver the right training at the right time to the right people.
Training Needs Assessment: Let us help you identify user roles and the functionality that each role will use. We will also determine the number of users in each user role, and what experience they have with Spotfire products, allowing us to determine learning objectives for each user role. This could include training on standard concepts and procedures, re-training on concepts, training on company-specific concepts and data, or delta training to bridge the gap between software versions

A training needs assessment answers five key questions:

1. How many users exist in each location that are assigned to each Spotfire user role within your organization? 2. What are the preferred methods of training and support for users in each user role, both initially and long term? 3. Will one-on-one support or additional training courses be required by users in each user role following their initial training? 4. What is the current knowledge and skill set of typical users in each user role, and are there areas where these levels may not be sufficient to support the use of the platform? 5. Is the infrastructure available in each location to support the training rollout or, should training be delivered using an online, on demand, remotely supported learning resources?

Learning Solution Roadmap: The training needs assessment can help you identify potential skill gaps in your organization, so they can be addressed before system deployment. The resulting roadmap uses this assessment of what knowledge your users need in order to make effective use of the system and drive maximum value from your investment. This roadmap can include a number of different recommendations, including: Role-specific training paths: We will identify and define specific user roles, the number of users for each user role and location, their existing Spotfire knowledge, as well as their preferred learning styles. Course Identification and Content: Based off the user roles defined and their specific business needs and objectives, we will recommend standard training curriculums or custom curriculums developed specifically for your users. Delivery Options and Timeline: We will also recommend how the courses should be delivered. Should the training be on-site, use our regional training locations, or be provided as online learning. The plan will recommend the specific schedule as well. Investment Summary: We will put together the costs associated with each, and ensure that you get the best value for your training dollar. Contact us at: spotfireregistrar@tibco.com
TIBCO Software Inc.

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Role-based Training Courses

Courses are designed to suit specific user roles across the Spotfire platform. User roles include:
Role System Administrators Data Administrators Software Developers Responsibilities Install, configure, validate, manage and monitor products in the Spotfire platform Establish connections to back-end data systems and expose information to client users Automate, integrate and extend the Spotfire platform using the Software Development Kit (SDK)

Statistical Programmers
Analysts

Create and integrate statistical scripts and functions into applications, including TIBCO Spotfire
Use TIBCO Spotfire Professional to perform ad hoc analysis by loading data, configuring visualizations and applying analyses for their own use Use TIBCO Spotfire Professionals custom expressions, multivariate analysis, curve fitting, and predictive statistical capabilities for their own use Design and implement Spotfire analyses, using the TIBCO Spotfire Professional client, for others to consume Consume Spotfire analyses which are created by Authors, typically using TIBCO Spotfire Web Player or TIBCO Spotfire Enterprise Player clients

Client Users

Computational Analysts Authors Consumers

SP301 - TIBCO Spotfire Administrator Essentials I: Introduction to installing, configuring, and validating all components required to support users of TIBCO Spotfire Professional and TIBCO Spotfire Web Player. This course is useful for administrators needing to establish the server environment and gain familiarity with all related components.

SPS101 - TIBCO Spotfire S+ Essentials - or SPR101 - TIBCO Spotfire R Essentials: This course covers the core topics necessary to understand the S+ or R language and become proficient in using that language. A wide range of topics are discussed, from data objects to functions and operators, to importing and exporting data, and creating basic graphics.

SP302 - TIBCO Spotfire Administrator Essentials II: This course is useful for administrators maintaining an established TIBCO Spotfire server environment. All topics related to configuring and administering the server environment will be covered.
SP311 - TIBCO Spotfire Information Services: This course is designed to introduce system administrators, database administrators, and architects to the concepts behind TIBCO Spotfire Information Services so that they can provide client users with access to data via Information Links.

SPS201 - TIBCO Spotfire S+ Programming - or SPR201 - TIBCO Spotfire R Programming: In this course, different aspects of programming are covered, from effectively using an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to writing S+ or R functions and using and creating packages for quick distribution of functionality.
SPS211 - TIBCO Spotfire S+ Advanced Programming - or SPR211 - TIBCO Spotfire R Advanced Programming: In this course, different programming best practices are covered, from effectively formatting variables to writing efficient and maintainable code, to writing vectorized code.
TIBCO Software Inc.

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SP121 - TIBCO Spotfire Essentials I: This course (in combination with SP131, Spotfire Essentials II) teaches the essential concepts required to effectively utilize TIBCO Spotfire Professional. SP131 - TIBCO Spotfire Essentials II: This course (in combination with SP121, Spotfire Essentials I) teaches the essential concepts required to effectively utilize TIBCO Spotfire Professional. SP188 - TIBCO Spotfire 1-day End-user Workshop: This workshop session provides an opportunity for client users to apply what they have learned about TIBCO Spotfire Professional toward their own analysis goals under the guidance of an instructor. SP141 - TIBCO Spotfire Computational Analytics: This course teaches the concepts required to utilize the broad array of computational features available in TIBCO Spotfire Professional. SP151 - TIBCO Spotfire for Authors: This course teaches the concepts required to effectively utilize TIBCO Spotfire Professional to construct an analysis experience for others to use. SP199 - TIBCO Spotfire Author Bootcamp: This course comprehensively teaches the broad array of concepts required to effectively utilize TIBCO Spotfire Professional to construct analysis experiences for others to consume, including all content from SP121, SP131, SP141, and SP151. SP144 - Statistical Applications for TIBCO Spotfire: This course teaches the concepts required to add Data Functions to a TIBCO Spotfire Professional analysis.

SP211 - TIBCO Spotfire Web Player APIs: This course teaches the concepts required to use the TIBCO Spotfire Web Player APIs to automate, control, and integrate with the TIBCO Spotfire Web Player. SP232 - TIBCO Spotfire Automation APIs with IronPython (Script Controls): This course teaches the concepts required to add script controls to automate features and expand capabilities within a TIBCO Spotfire analysis. SP221 - TIBCO Spotfire Developer Foundations: This course provides an introduction to developing with the TIBCO Spotfire Platform. This is not an intensive and complete training for either Visual Studio or C#, but a useful overview for beginners. SP231 - TIBCO Spotfire Automation APIs with C#: This course provides an introduction to developing with the TIBCO Spotfire Client APIs. This course is only for those who are comfortable developing software using Visual Studio and C#. SP241 - TIBCO Spotfire Basic Extensions: This course teaches how to use the TIBCO Spotfire SDK to extend the TIBCO Spotfire Clients by adding custom functionality. Participants will learn how to build custom extensions like Tools and Calculations. SP251 - TIBCO Spotfire Advanced Extensions: This course teaches how to use the TIBCO Spotfire SDK to extend the TIBCO Spotfire Clients by adding custom functionality. Participants will learn how to build advanced extensions that extend the TIBCO Spotfire Document Object Model including custom visualizations and other extensions that maintain state.

Spotfire offers free orientation-level training called Jumpstarts. You can view any of the following jumpstart training courses in order to help you decide what different components of the Spotfire platform can do, what training is appropriate for specific user roles, or the courses may be used as an overview to prepare users for an extensive and detailed how-to training engagement.

TIBCO Spotfire Platform Overview Jumpstart

TIBCO Spotfire User Roles Jumpstart TIBCO Spotfire Professional Jumpstart TIBCO Spotfire Web Player Jumpstart TIBCO Spotfire Developer Jumpstart TIBCO Spotfire S+ Jumpstart

FREE TRAINING

Contact us at: spotfireregistrar@tibco.com

TIBCO Software Inc.

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Delivery Methods
When it comes to learning, one size does not fit all. Therefore, TIBCO Spotfire offers a wide variety of delivery methods to suit different learning preferences, organizational logistics, and the needs of specific Spotfire user roles.
Bootcamp training: This training delivery is an extensive, 8-week, college-style approach to learning comprehensive capabilities for a specific Spotfire role (Authors, Developers, and Administrators). This delivery method includes online materials* and regular virtual meetings with an instructor, allowing ample time for Q&A. This method may be tailored to substitute an onsite instructor visit for the regular virtual meetings. Mentored online training: This training delivery is designed for individual courses selected from the full suite of bootcamp materials, and is available for Spotfire users to get the specific training they need right now. It is delivered with online materials* and a virtual meeting with an instructor for follow-up Q&A. This method may be customized to include your own data and workflows.

Instructor-led classroom training: This delivery method is the traditional classroom computer training approach, delivered onsite at your facility or regionally at select TIBCO offices. An instructor leads a group of students through slides and demonstrations, in-person, while students follow along in Spotfire. In addition, online materials* are provided as a leave-behind for attendees. This method may be customized to include your own data and workflows. In addition, we currently support classroom training delivery in the following languages: English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, various forms of Chinese and Indian languages.

* Online materials: These internet-delivered materials include videos of an instructor leading the student through lessons comprised of slides and demonstrations in Spotfire (like having your own personal instructor). Examples are available for the student to follow along with the demonstrations and perform exercises, skills tests, and work with industry-specific examples where newly-acquired Spotfire skills are applied.

Help plus: This delivery method is an enterprise-scaled training resource which is not designed to replace other training delivery options, but rather is designed to supplement other training with quickreference topics and examples organized into modules. This method may be customized to include your own data and workflows. Tailored Training: Since one size does not always fit all; therefore, you may consider designing a modified training session which is based on our existing training structure, but is tailored to cover only the specific capabilities required by your users. This training approach is suitable for Instructor-led classroom training experiences. Custom Training: This approach applies when you have new extensions developed using the Spotfire SDK, or complex analytical workflows have been developed and training is required for your staff to effectively use those workflows. Training materials are generally developed from scratch and there is a daily rate for creating and delivering those materials. Customized training may be applied to a variety of training delivery methods, including: Instructor-led, Online materials or Help Plus modules. The book: Individuals may supplement their learning by using a self-paced book, designed to help readers perform analytics. Contact us at: spotfireregistrar@tibco.com
TIBCO Software Inc.

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Courses and Delivery Methods by Role

System Administrators Computational Analysts FREE eLearning Instructor-led classroom training Mentored online training Assessment SP199 Bootcamp Optional SP299 Bootcamp Client Users Data Administrator Statistical Programmer Software Developers Consumers DELIVERY METHODS

Analysts

TIBCO Spotfire User Roles Jumpstart TIBCO Spotfire Web Player Jumpstart TIBCO Spotfire Professional Jumpstart SP121 - TIBCO Spotfire Essentials I SP131 - TIBCO Spotfire Essentials II SP188 - TIBCO Spotfire 1-day End-user Workshop SP141 - TIBCO Spotfire Computational Analytics SP151 - TIBCO Spotfire for Authors TIBCO Spotfire Platform Overview Jumpstart TIBCO Spotfire Author Knowledge Assessment SP301 - TIBCO Spotfire Administrator Essentials I SP302 - TIBCO Spotfire Administrator Essentials II SP311 - TIBCO Spotfire Information Services TIBCO Spotfire Developer Jumpstart SP221 - TIBCO Spotfire Developer Foundations SP231 - TIBCO Spotfire Automation APIs with C# SP241 - TIBCO Spotfire Basic Extensions SP251 - TIBCO Spotfire Advanced Extensions SP232 - TIBCO Spotfire Automation APIs with IronPython
(Script Controls)

SP211 - TIBCO Spotfire Web Player APIs TIBCO Spotfire Developer Knowledge Assessment TIBCO Spotfire S+ Jumpstart SP144 - Statistical Applications for TIBCO Spotfire SPS101 - TIBCO Spotfire S+ Essentials SPS201 - TIBCO Spotfire S+ Programming SPS211 - TIBCO Spotfire S+ Advanced Programming SPR101 - TIBCO Spotfire R Essentials SPR201 - TIBCO Spotfire R Programming SPR211 - TIBCO Spotfire R Advanced Programming
Register for a Mentored online training course: http://inter.viewcentral.com/reg/TIBCO/blended Contact us at: spotfireregistrar@tibco.com
TIBCO Software Inc.

Authors

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Training Timeline
As they say, Timing is everything, and with the variety of moving parts in a Spotfire platform deployment it is sometimes difficult to determine when each type of training should be done. Consider what we have learned from our experience with enterprise software deployment as we work together to establish training timelines.
Providing the proper training at the proper time in the deployment is crucial to your overall adoption and success. While slight variations in the timeline are acceptable, the general principles below should be followed. First, your administrators should be trained on the Spotfire Administrator courses before the test implementation is ever installed. This will allow them to communicate better with Spotfire Professional Services and Customer Support and also better verify and validate the footprint and what is required to support it. After the test implementation is up and running, you should train your authors, or report developers. These are the key users who are responsible for building reports that will be shared with other consumers and users. They should have workflows and other analytic reports built and ready before the system goes live and into production. Finally right after going live, the casual users, analysts, consumers, and other users should be trained on Spotfire and/or the workflows specifically built for them. The following figure depicts this typical recommended training timeline and also the number of people trained for each role over the timeline:

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TIBCO Software Inc.

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Knowledge Assessments
Training requires considerable time and effort on the part of your user population. The obvious reward is that those users understand what the software can do, and know how to do, it in the context of their specific job responsibilities. However, sometimes it is valuable to be able to demonstrate proof of that knowledge and skill set in a standardized forum. Whether your users would benefit from the self-assurance gained from passing the test upon completion of a rigorous training engagement, or they need to present documented proof of their Spotfire skills to others, knowledge assessment can serve as a valuable component of the overall learning experience. The knowledge assessment represents the final milestone in the overall learning pathway:
Jumpstarts Lessons Practice Knowledge Assessment

Why take assessments?

Self-Confidence: A user who can prove to themselves that they effectively learned the concepts presented in the training will approach the application of the software with confidence. Confirmation: For an organization to be effective and competitive, you need the right people doing the right jobs. Knowledge assessment ensures the requisite skills are being applied across the Spotfire platform.

orientation what is possible

how to demonstrations instructor interaction

exercises skills test

applied learning performance enhancers

Spotfire Author Knowledge Assessment: This assessment requires knowledge and skills obtained either in our author bootcamp course or across the entire series of client-user core courses: SP199 - TIBCO Spotfire Author Bootcamp -orSP121 - TIBCO Spotfire Essentials I SP131 - TIBCO Spotfire Essentials II SP141 - TIBCO Spotfire Computational Analytics SP151 - TIBCO Spotfire for Authors

This assessment includes some general knowledge questions which ensure that the user understands specific concepts and the Spotfire vocabulary germane to those concepts. However, our knowledge assessment goes far beyond these traditional assessment parameters. The user needs to demonstrate that they can connect the dot from learning concepts to the dot representing actual application of those concepts in a real world scenario. Therefore, our knowledge assessment requires the user to open data in Spotfire and address challenging questions based upon their analysis of that data in TIBCO Spotfire Professional. Register for the Author Knowledge Assessment: http://inter.viewcentral.com/reg/TIBCO/spotfireAuthorExam Spotfire Software Developer Knowledge Assessment: This assessment is an evaluation of the key concepts covered in our core developer courses: SP231 - TIBCO Spotfire Automation APIs with C# SP241 - TIBCO Spotfire Basic Extensions SP251 - TIBCO Spotfire Advanced Extensions This 50-question exam will help your developers validate what they have learned, relative to using the TIBCO Spotfire SDK to integrate with other software, automate existing Spotfire functionality, and extend the TIBCO Spotfire clients by adding custom functionality. Contact us at: spotfireregistrar@tibco.com
TIBCO Software Inc.

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Training Costs
As mentioned in the discussion of training courses, we do have free training in the form of what we call Jumpstarts. However, other types of training engagements are associated with a cost. Consider educational passports as a way to buy training at discounted rates.
Educational Passports: Educational Passports enable companies to buy blocks of educational services at discounted rates. Educational Passport units can be allocated to employees over time towards the purchase of any training option, including regional, on-site, virtual, and custom training. Passports can be purchased in any number of units you require, starting at 20 units. If you have a valid TIBCO Spotfire software license, the term for the passports can match the term of the software license, otherwise the term is 12 months. If you need help determining which passport bundle is right for your organization, please contact us at spotfireregistrar@tibco.com. We can also provide you with a detailed Learning Solution Roadmap that defines the specific training roadmap your company should utilize, and what passport bundles are appropriate for the recommended roadmap.

The cost of NOT training.

Return on Investment According to a third party analyst firm, untrained users often ignore, misuse, or underutilize new technologies. If your users are not able to utilize the solution you purchased, you may not be meeting your ROI goal. Low Productivity If end users are not given the proper training, they are going to need to get that information somewhere, typically this is from a co-worker, power user, or support desk. Each of these has a time and cost associated with it. Every day spent in training will reduce this time taken from other peoples productivity by one quarter of a day. Excessive Support According to the same third party analyst firm, for every hour of training, end users require 0.5 hours less help. Learning something new from the user manual and trial and error is possible, but requires 4.5 times as long as learning through formal training
TIBCO Software Inc.

Option

Passport Units

Regional Training

1 unit per person per class day 1 unit per person per class for Users (SP1xx) and Developers (SP2xx) and 1.5 units per person per class for Administrators (SP3xx) 4 units per person per class for the Author Bootcamp (SP199) and 5 units per person per class for the Developer Bootcamp (SP299) 8 units per day (for up to 12 students)

Mentored Online Training

Bootcamp Trainings

On-Site Spotfire Training

Custom Training Development

3 units per day

Custom Training Delivery

3 units per day

Short courses/webinar Training

1/2 units per person per class

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Spotfire User Community

Visit our Spotfire User Community at http://spotfire.tibco.com/community to view and participate in some of the following freely available informal learning assets: Tip of the week blog - Includes weekly articles describing how to perform various functionality inside TIBCO Spotfire. These FAQs may help you to truly extend your Spotfire capabilities. Discussion Forums - Search, ask , or answer questions related to various TIBCO Spotfire products. Community users include peers, as well as experts from Spotfire support, engineering, marketing, training, and field organization. Free Jumpstart Training - Six orientation level Jumpstart Training videos can be accessed from this page. Get the Book Performing Data Analysis with TIBCO Spotfire Professional can be ordered on this page. Analytics Examples From the Analytics Exchange to Analytics in Action to Spotfire Analytics Live, see interesting demos of Spotfire solutions leveraging the entire platform, including SDK extensions, integrations with S+ or R, and much more. You can even share your own analysis examples.

The Importance of Training Users

We often hear this from potential Spotfire users, I was told Spotfire is easy to use, why do I need training? Our answer is this: With increasing functionality and flexibility comes increasing complexity. Elements of the Spotfire software platform are intuitive and easy to use; however, it is also a highly configurable analytical solution which requires orientation, training, and support to efficiently and effectively use to its maximum potential, thereby maximizing your investment.

Training Value for Every Experience

Training and performance support must reflect the learning needs critical to meeting business objectives. Organizations should realize that if those objectives involve using a new application and/or business process, the proficiency and skill with which people can perform their jobs using the technology and/or business process can mean the difference between organizational success and a wasted investment.

- IDC, Training Efforts Drive Enterprise Application Success, October 2003

Need More Information?

Do you need more information about Spotfire software training? If so, visit our website at spotfire.tibco.com/training for the most up-to-date information available regarding Spotfire training offerings. There you can learn more about all our courses, our delivery methods, our current regional training schedule, register for courses and locate a variety of other useful information. In addition, you can always contact us with questions at:
Email:

spotfireregistrar@tibco.com
TIBCO Software Inc.

Contact us at: spotfireregistrar@tibco.com