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August 30, 1999

IBM Launches E-Business Certification

Multiplatform approach will help users develop plans, learn integration Training in the burgeoning

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-business market has typically focused on individual hardware and software certifications. IBM is looking to change that by launching a formal certification process for E-business. Classes start this week.

IBM, like other vendors, already offers certification classes on its Web servers specifically, but its new training program is based on an open, multiplatform approach to conducting E-business. Not only does the program provide information on a multiplicity of E-business systems, it also teaches key concepts necessary to setting up an E-commerce site.

IBM launched its E-business training program in response to customer requests for help getting IT people trained and knowledgeable in E-commerce in a quantifiable way, says Peter Tarrant, IBM's VP of E-business applications. "Customers tell us they want a little more discipline in the way they approach E-business," he says. "The idea was to put together a set of classes that would train people to do E-business and provide some testing so people who say they know E-business can assure clients that they're qualified."

IBM's program includes Solution Advisor classes, which train IT people to develop sound E-business plans; and Solution Designer courses, technical classes that help IT staffers evaluate E-business technologies and learn integration skills. Students include businesspeople who plan to set up E-commerce operations at their companies as well as systems integrators who need to hone their existing skills.

Champion Solutions Group, a 120-person systems integrator in Boca Raton, Fla., has an E-business practice that has grown by 300% in the last year. The company already sent employees to pilot versions of IBM's Solution Advisor classes and plans to send 40 more to Solution Designer courses, says VP and general manager Mark Willie. "The certification lets us show our clients' IT managers what they're buying when they hire us," says Willie, who himself attended the pilot Solution Advisor course.

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