Argentine IT Services Firm Uses Innovative Methods to Train Unemployed Workers

OverviewCountry or Region: ArgentinaIndustry: Professional services—Training

Partner ProfileBuffa Sistemas is an IT training and consulting firm with a Microsoft Gold Learning competency. Based in Buenos Aires, it has about 200 employees across Argentina.

Business SituationThe Argentine Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Social Security asked Buffa Sistemas to conduct a nationwide training program to help unemployed workers enter the IT sector.

SolutionBuffa Sistemas made alliances with 23 universities, adapted and developed courseware, and trained 5,000 people at 21 locations using instructor-led, online, and distance-learning formats.

Benefits Aid to Argentine people A stronger IT industry Industry recognition A base for company growth

“In our alliances with universities, we were able to train professors to teach Microsoft technologies—not only in this initiative, but also in their regular curricula. They become evangelists.”

Verónica González Bogarin, Educational Business Director, Buffa Sistemas

Buffa Sistemas, an IT training provider, is a Microsoft partner with a Gold Learning competency. Seeking to help the unemployed and provide workers for a key economic sector, the Argentine Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Social Security and the Software and IT Services Chamber of Commerce (CESSI) asked Buffa Sistemas to train 5,000 individuals on Microsoft technologies at 21 locations nationwide. Buffa Sistemas adapted and developed courseware in instructor-led, distance-learning, and online formats, offering trainees Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist certifications. Trainees—80 percent of whom now work in IT—gave the program high marks. The Argentine IT sector can use the new trainees to expand its business, especially in Microsoft technologies. Buffa Sistemas received a Partner of the Year award from Microsoft and is well poised for future growth.

SituationBuffa Sistemas is an Argentine IT services company with two primary divisions: consulting and educational training. Founded in 1985, Buffa Sistemas has about 200 employees at its headquarters in Buenos Aires and two other locations. The educational division has done technical training for more than 50,000 people over the years, with partners including Microsoft, Citrix, SAP, and Prometric.

A Microsoft partner for more than 20 years, Buffa Sistemas acquired its Gold Learning competency in 2003. “Microsoft has been one of our first choices in developing our training business,” says Verónica González Bogarin, Educational Training Business Director at Buffa Sistemas. “It’s important to us to be part of a large ecosystem, and Microsoft offers us considerable flexibility and support.”

In its role as one of the largest training providers in the country, Buffa Sistemas is heavily invested in the success of Argentina’s IT industry. The sector is growing but faces a shortage of IT professionals. During years of economic crisis, many Argentines lacked the economic resources to become sufficiently educated to perform those jobs. To address these problems—both helping the unemployed and providing workers for a key economic sector—in January 2010 the Argentine Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Social Security, in coordination with the Software and IT Services Chamber of Commerce (CESSI), planned a training initiative.

The Ministry asked Buffa Sistemas to design and conduct a nationwide training program to instruct individuals in the Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and 2005 Professional Edition development systems and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and 2008

data management software. To achieve this goal, Buffa Sistemas needed to overcome challenges that the trainees’ disparate locations, languages, and educational and technical backgrounds presented. These challenges provided a formidable, comprehensive test of its skills as a Microsoft Certified Partner for Learning Solutions.

SolutionThe initiative involved training 5,000 people at 21 locations in 11 provinces. “The Ministry wanted people trained for jobs not only in Buenos Aires, but also in smaller cities across the country,” Bogarin says. “To meet our customers’ needs, we had to expand geographically.”

To cover this geographical scope, Buffa Sistemas entered into alliances with 23 public and private universities across the country. It set up a multidisciplinary team of more than 120 academic advisors, trainers, and coordinators. “In establishing the alliances, we had to train many of the university professors,” Bogarin says. “For example, many of them had traditionally taught programming in Java, and so we trained them on Visual Studio Professional Edition.”

Once the network was set up, Buffa Sistemas also had to ensure a standard level of quality at all the sites. To help achieve this consistency, it used Microsoft SharePoint 2010 for Internet Sites to share timely information with instructors. It also audited online classes and used video conferencing to supervise instructor-led classes. “We were particularly pleased with SharePoint 2010 FIS,” says Bogarin. “We are continuing to use it for other initiatives.”

To develop the contents of the training materials, Buffa Sistemas turned to official Microsoft Learning Products. Adapting a

“Previously the skills and resources of many of our students allowed them to develop only using free software. Today, many of them are developing Microsoft technology applications.”

Verónica González Bogarin, Educational Training Business Director, Buffa Sistemas

variety of Microsoft Official Courseware, e-learning products, exams, and labs, Buffa Sistemas developed the training using a combination of instructor-led, distance-learning, and online formats. “The Ministry required that at least 60 percent of the training be instructor-led,” says Bogarin. “Because many of the trainees were unemployed, they placed value on going to the classroom every day. It was like going to work for them.”

At the same time, however, Buffa Sistemas encouraged the Ministry to also do some training in alternative formats. “We wanted to get people used to other forms of working,” Bogarin says. “A great deal of work gets done remotely these days. And once you have a job, you don’t have more time to commute to a class, so you will probably want any additional training to be in online or distance-learning formats. We wanted our trainees to understand how to learn and work in these new ways.”

An additional concern was that the financially underprivileged trainees had varied technical backgrounds, and many lacked skills in the English language. At the time, Microsoft did not offer Spanish-language official courseware for Visual Studio Professional Edition, the Microsoft Silverlight 3 browser plug-in, SQL Server 2005 and 2008, or the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5. To fill this gap, Buffa Sistemas developed Spanish-language modules to complement the Microsoft courseware in English. It also arranged supplementary training sessions to establish a standard academic quality.

Training took place from August 2010 to May 2011. Trainees learned how to implement and maintain SQL Server 2005 and 2008 databases, develop web applications using strong structural processes, deploy applications using

the .NET Framework 3.5, and enhance applications with Silverlight 3 and the Windows Presentation Foundation.

The alliance between Buffa Sistemas and Microsoft offered trainees considerable value. They earned Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist certifications, thus gaining international credentials, in two .NET Framework 3.5 categories: Windows Communication Foundation Applications and ASP.NET Applications. “Although Argentina is not a big market compared with the United States, this was a big project here,” Bogarin says. “So I was particularly pleased that Microsoft was engaged in meetings with the Ministry and that they were always there for us when we had problems with software or dealing with customers.”

BenefitsBuffa Sistemas used this training initiative to improve the lives of Argentine people, promote Microsoft while strengthening the Argentine IT industry, win industry recognition, and open doors to future company growth.

Aid to Argentine PeopleThe training initiative helped thousands of Argentines improve their careers. The Ministry reported that the initiative exceeded its expectations and was the most successful project of the year in finding employment for the financially underprivileged. Of the 5,000 trainees, 80 percent are currently employed in the IT industry and about half have used the training to get a new industry job.

Trainees gave the program high marks. According to Buffa Sistemas surveys, 90 percent rated it as very good or good and 90 percent considered the course useful for present or future employment.

It was those employment outcomes, even more than the learning outcomes, that gave Buffa Sistemas trainers their greatest satisfaction. “The best reward we had was all of the letters and emails we received from formerly unemployed people who were now able to get a job,” Bogarin says. “I have to say, one of them even made me cry.”

A Stronger IT IndustryWith those well-trained people now working for Argentine IT companies, the sector is able to continue its growth. Furthermore, it can do so using popular Microsoft technologies. “Previously the skills and resources of many of our students allowed them to develop only using free software,” says Bogarin. “Today, many of them are developing Microsoft technology applications. Furthermore, many university professors are using Microsoft technologies such as Visual Studio Professional Edition, SQL Server 2005 and 2008, and the Microsoft .NET Framework in their classrooms.”

This is good for Argentine IT companies, because now they will be able to serve a wider variety of international clients. It’s also good for Microsoft, because now more IT professionals will be familiar with its development ecosystem. Additionally, the program opened a pipeline that should strengthen future Microsoft relationships. “In our alliances with universities, we were able to train professors to teach Microsoft technologies—not only in this initiative, but also in their regular curricula,” says Bogarin. “They become evangelists.”

Industry RecognitionIn June 2011, Buffa Sistemas received the Learning Competency Innovation Partner of the Year award from Microsoft. Walid Abu-Hadba, Corporate Vice President of the Developer and Platform Evangelism Group

at Microsoft, says, “Buffa Sistemas has demonstrated creativity and enthusiasm in its approach to training, including the integration of cutting-edge solutions.”

Bogarin says, “When we found out we won the award, we were very happy. With Microsoft technologies, there are always so many innovative things to do. We feel honored that our innovations on this project were deemed so worthy.”

A Base for Company GrowthThe initiative has also primed Buffa Sistemas for future growth. “Our trainees, as specialists in Microsoft technologies, will become part of the developers’ community,” Bogarin says. “They will need more training in future years and will recall their successful collaborations with Buffa Sistemas and Microsoft.”

In addition to creating satisfied customers who may return for more training, the initiative also helped Buffa Sistemas reach out to new populations. “It has opened a lot of doors for us,” Bogarin says. “We reached out to people who had not previously been familiar with our services—sometimes even people who didn’t realize they could pursue a career in IT. We’ve shown them that there is a need for IT professionals in Argentina—and that we can help them enter and succeed in that market.”

“We reached out to people who had not previously been familiar with our services—sometimes even people who didn’t realize they could pursue a career in IT.”

Verónica González Bogarin, Educational Training Business Director, Buffa Sistemas

For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about Buffa Sistemas products and services, call (54 11) 5273-4400 or visit the website at:www.bs.com.ar

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published March 2012

Software and Services Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Microsoft SharePoint 2010 for

Internet Sites− Microsoft SQL Server 2008− Microsoft SQL Server 2005

Microsoft Visual Studio− Microsoft Visual Studio 2008

Professional Edition− Microsoft Visual Studio 2005

Professional Edition

−

Learning Solutions Competency Technologies− Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5− Microsoft Silverlight 3− Windows Presentation Foundation