Mentor™ Offers Just-in-Time Learning for
Lotus Notes R5

System Speeds Rollout, Raises Productivity, Cuts Costs

South Norwalk, CT, March 01, 1999 —Mentor™ for Lotus Notes R5, a performance-enhancing, network-based, just-in-time multimedia Communication, Learning, and Support system (CLS) for the latest version of Notes, has been introduced by VSI Communications Group.

Mentor™, with the power of CLS, has proven to accelerate rollouts of Lotus Notes, slash help desk and training costs, boost productivity and speed ROI, according to VSI's CEO Dan Gallo. This latest version of Mentor accommodates all the new R5 features, including bookmarks, web protocols and updated core applications.

"Mentor is like having your own personal coach to help you become a Notes R5 power user," Mr. Gallo said. "Mentor answers questions, doesn't keep you waiting, always has the right answer, has infinite patience and lets you keep on working as you learn.

"To echo Lotus' advertising campaign, Mentor offers SuperHumanLearning for Lotus' Super.Human.Software," he said.

Unlike traditional courseware, Mentor breaks down the basic functions of Lotus Notes into small multimedia units of instruction, called JITs—for just-in-time. They come in two types: "Conceptuals," averaging three-and-a-half minutes, explain with audio and animation the capabilities and benefits of Notes' groupware functions. "How-To's," averaging 45 to 60 seconds, show how to perform specific tasks, so you can get things done quickly. Mentor, with over 265 JITs amounting to six hours of instruction, covers the entire R5 application.

"As we've seen from the experience of more than 500,000 'seats' using Mentor™ for Lotus Notes 4.5 and 4.6, this type of support is critical for maintaining productivity while migrating users to new applications. As a result, Mentor accelerates assimilation and cuts Help Desk costs at the same time" Mr. Gallo observed.

Occupying less than 50 megabytes of disk space, Mentor™ for Lotus Notes R5 offers 20 percent more content than earlier versions, installs in minutes, and is integrated into the Notes client. Mentor™ for Lotus Notes R5 delivers more sophisticated graphics and animation, more compelling conceptuals, and improved multimedia.

Mentor uses bit streaming and high compression techniques to deliver its content to workstations with connections of 28.8kbps or faster via LAN, intranet or Internet. No downloading is necessary.

Mentor resides in a standard Notes database running on a Domino server. The best way to access Mentor is via the Mentor bookmark on the new R5 desktop, Mr. Gallo said. Browser users can also bookmark the URL and place it on their personal toolbars. There are three ways to select JITs. Users simply do a keyword search, or drill down through the table of contents, or scroll through the index.

Mentor™ for Lotus Notes lists for $15 a seat for 1,000 seats—"less per user than one help desk call, a good user manual, an extra half hour of classroom time or a CBT course," Mr. Gallo noted. Smaller quantities and large volume discounts are available. A new 25-seat Starter Pack is also available for product evaluation.

Mentor™ for Lotus Notes 4.5 and 4.6 is already installed at IBM, DuPont, Colgate-Palmolive, Duke Energy and Transamerica, in addition to Reuters, Canon, Philips Petroleum, Bayer and many smaller companies.

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Lotus, Lotusphere and Lotus Notes are registered trademarks and Notes and Domino are trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation. All other brands and product reference herein are the trademark or registered trademark of their respective holders.

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