Ken,
I did some exhaustive research on the routing package in 2005. We were using SWx 2006 SP4 I think. I came to the conclusion, that it wouldn't meet our capablities. If it worked the way I expected it to, it would have been great. We needed it to document wiring harnesses for aftermarket automotive equipment (Emergency warning lights for police etc.). I also thought that the type of wiring we did was fairly simple too. In the end we stuck to 2D wiring diagrams, and manually calculated/measured cutting lengths. For the more common harnesses, we made nailboards to speed up production.
So my best advice is, unless someone can tell you there has been a revolutionary change in the routing package, don't waste your time with it.
If you still want to investigate it, your VAR should be able to give you a valuation copy to play with. Then you will understand how clunky and useless it is.
"I'm being told by my VAR that a traiining course is required and it takes a lot of setting up of the intial database."
This means it will be hard to get it to work.
Hope this helps.
Cheers, Dom