Get certified!

New certifications around emerging technologies seem to be popping up all the time. In the US, tech-specific and vendor-neutral courses are taking off.

A CRN survey of resellers in the US found that four of the top five certifications resellers expected to grow fastest in importance over 2004 were vendor-neutral -- including CompTIA’s Linux+ and Security+, Planet 3’s Certified Wireless Network Administrator, and the Linux Professional Institute Level 1 and 2 courses.

So how can channel partners ensure they are trained and certified in the right technologies so they can win business? And, in the real world, does certification matter, or is it just an expensive piece of paper?

Services company Data#3 spends more than half its training budget on maintaining vendor certifications and has honed its business around four key vendors -- Microsoft, Cisco, IBM and HP. When asked whether vendor certifications are worth the money, Data#3’s managing director John Grant’s reply is blunt. "We couldn’t be in business without it."

Steve Ross, general manager of training provider Dimension Data Learning Solutions (DDLS), says there are two motivations for resellers to get certified: "One is to meet the demands of vendors; secondly, as a differentiator in the market". Certifications could be quite persuasive for customers dealing with a new reseller, he says.

But is certification really a differentiator, especially with ubiquitous vendors like Microsoft and Cisco? "Four or five years ago, no, but they now have specialisations," Ross says.

DDLS is largely a vendor-training oriented provider for Cisco, Microsoft, Novell, Lotus, Citrix and Check Point, although it offers such vendor-neutral courses as CompTIA and A+.

Ross says that recent increasing student numbers are a barometer for the strengthening of the IT sector. "People are back learning -- my numbers are proving it. Our student numbers were up by over 20 percent in the six months to the end of March. Because the market is on the rise, companies are investing in their staff to reduce churn and retain their good staff. IT people like to keep their skills updated."

And if the prospect of differentiation is not enough, the vendors offer a financial carrot too, Ross points out. Through lead provision, financial incentives and other benefits, certified partners could expect better treatment from vendors, he says. "A lot of vendors these days give more margin to certified partners such as Cisco and Microsoft in the business systems area."

One vendor that uses margin as a training carrot is network security vendor WatchGuard Technologies.

Sven Radavics, sales director for Australia/ New Zealand, says WatchGuard’s top tier Expert partners get a rebate of about 12 percent on their buy price, while second tier Professional partners would receive a discount equivalent to 7 or 8 percent. Certified partners also receive sales leads, he says.

Vendor training or vendor neutral? With the maintenance of partner certifications taking up the majority of the training for many resellers, including Data#3, Leading Solutions and Dimension Data, the value of vendor-neutral courses is somewhat overshadowed.

But while it might be expected that vendors would sing the praises of their own training courses, one vendor that advocates vendor-neutral qualifications is WatchGuard’s Radavics.

"I’m a big fan of some of the certification and training courses, such as SANS (SysAdmin Audit Network Security Institute).

"SANS offers very technical security training, ranging from auditing and policy generation through to specific generic technology training such as firewalls and intrusion detection.

"It’s an interesting approach and it will eventually take off in this country. We’re just lagging a little," he says.

A more common vendor-neutral qualification in Australia is the CISSP, says Radavics. "I’m not seeing it widely adopted in the reseller community, but is more widely adopted than SANS."
The CISSP course is perhaps more attractive to resellers because it is cheaper and required less time commitment, he says.