Claude Enterprise getting started at VCCS
Get productive quickly, and leverage useful features of the product like Skills to cut repetitive prompting.
Overview
Claude is an AI assistant from Anthropic that VCCS provides through a Claude Enterprise plan. You can use it to draft and edit documents, summarize long files, analyze spreadsheets, write and review code, and work through research or planning tasks in plain language. This article gets you signed in and points you to the documentation you will want next.
claude.ai
Assumption
You are a VCCS faculty or staff member who has been granted access to the VCCS Claude Enterprise workspace. If you cannot sign in and should have access, submit a ticket to confirm your account has been provisioned.
Before Getting Started
Claude Enterprise keeps your conversations inside the VCCS workspace, and your data is not used to train Anthropic's models. Even so, follow VCCS data handling policy: do not enter data classified as restricted or confidential unless policy explicitly permits it for this tool.
You access Claude Enterprise by either clicking the Claude tile within myVCCS or downloading the desktop app (see instructions below) and signing in.
Useful documentation
Getting Productive Quickly
Start a new conversation and describe what you want in plain language. A few things worth knowing early:
- You can attach files such as PDFs, Word documents, spreadsheets, and images, then ask Claude to summarize, extract, or transform them.
- Claude can produce downloadable files, including Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint decks, and PDFs.
- The more specific your request, the better the result. State the goal, the audience, the format, and any constraints.
- You can keep refining in the same conversation. Ask Claude to adjust tone, shorten, expand, or correct without starting over.
Desktop App and Advanced Features
Some capabilities are only available through the Claude desktop app, not the browser. Install the desktop app to gain access to features like Claude Code (for writing, debugging, and shipping code from your machine) and Claude Cowork (for handing off longer multi step tasks that span many files and tools).
- Go to the Claude download page.
- Download the installer for your operating system (Windows or macOS).
- Run the installer and sign in with your VCCS credentials.
- Confirm you are in the VCCS workspace, then open the Code or Cowork tab to get started.
The Windows install can fail with an error. See Troubleshooting below for the fix.
Using Skills to Reduce Repetition
If you find yourself pasting the same background, format rules, or step by step guidance into prompt after prompt, Skills solve that. A Skill packages instructions, and optionally templates and scripts, into a reusable capability that Claude pulls in automatically when your request matches it.
Think of a Skill as templated context you write once. Instead of restating your standards every time, you capture them in a Skill, and Claude applies them when relevant. This is how you get consistent output across a team without everyone memorizing the same prompt.
Troubleshooting
Getting Help
For product questions, start with the Claude Help Center.