Aaron K. Hawkins

I can hardly believe what just happened.  I was attending an all day training session for Adobe Illustrator done by the corporate training department.  Things started out great.  I arrived on time and found the classroom.  They had name-tags, training books, pens and highlighters and even a bowl of candy.  Laptops were set up on the desks with clear instructions on how to sign in.  The teacher arrived and introductions were shared.  Finally it was time, “Everyone please open up Illustrator”.  

Thats right.  The grand plan was to have everyone use trial versions.  Except - all but three of the trials were expired.  Obviously, thats not to hard to fix… just re-image the machine and monkey around enough so you can trick adobe into giving you another 30 day free trial.  Repeat every 29 days.  She said it takes about 7 hours per machine.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  Buy the licenses or don’t offer the class.  I felt bad for the instructor.  She asked for the licenses and was told that it’s too expensive to pass onto the students’ departments and its not in the budget.  But instead of just offering classes based on CS2, they insisted on CS3 and their special never-ending 30 day free trial arrangement.  

I’m embarrassed that this would be an acceptable solution.  I’m sure they offer training on ethics and corporate values - I don’t think this fits.  This is a department that’s sole purpose is corporate training and they do it on a big scale.  How is this in any way a professional solution?  

Then there is the economic impact.  Someone really thought that this was a better solution?  Pay a one time fee or tie up your staff re-imaging laptops over and over again?  I don’t know what the IT staff is making - but can this really result in a cost savings, including the lost opportunity costs?  How about the costs of canceling the class and rescheduling it so machines will be available?  

Absolute shameful behavior.