Mohammad Gawdat, Regional Manager, Middle East and Africa with Microsoft - Communications Sector, first met with the Telecoms Academy when he attended a training workshop run alongside the GSM in the Middle East conference. Impressed with the training, he thought he might have found the ideal company to provide the training solution for a project that he and his colleague, Terence Lyons, Marketing Manager, Telecommunications, EMEA, had in mind.

Terence approached the Academy with an outline of his requirements and asked for a detailed training plan. The idea was to produce a one-day intensive course covering many aspects of telecommunications, and giving specific details in those areas relevant to Microsoft's role.

Technical in nature, this programme was aimed at a wide range of delegates, with varying degrees of telecommunications knowledge and experience. The Telecoms Academy produced a training plan based on these requirements, and this was quickly agreed.

After a successful internal pilot course held in London, the Telecoms Academy released the final version. A series of delivery dates were subsequently programmed at 8 Microsoft offices throughout the EMEA region.

A total of 130 delegates, from 27 countries attended the training. In this case, the training course was developed specifically for Microsoft and incorporated an excellent balance of new information, demonstrations and delegate exercises. Each delegate received a comprehensive, fully illustrated, course manual to be used for future reference.