September 25, 2000

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Demand For IT Pros Drives Vendor Certification Growth

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The Cisco Networking Academy program, which the company hosts at 3,600 locations in 64 countries, teaches students the basics of networking technology. In June, Cisco said it would provide assistance to students in finding internships, mentors, and access to on-the-job training. As a result of the initiative, 15 students awarded Cisco Network Associate certification through Macon Technical Institute, a two-year college in Georgia, are working as interns at Cisco reseller TechLAN in the Macon area, says Gardner Long, the head of the institute's IT department.

IT consultants who work in Compaq's Professional Services division must have at least six to 10 years experience before the company will foot the bill for certification training and testing, which can cost thousands of dollars. Michael Falotico, Compaq's worldwide business manager for enterprise management solutions, says this delay ensures that its consultants have the practical knowledge that lends credence to the paper certificates.

"Certification is a means for our customers to judge whether we have the capability to deliver services for our strategic partners' products," Falotico says. "People who aren't certified lose credibility very quickly with potential customers."

The certification program at Compaq Professional Services incorporates technologies from Cisco, Computer Associates, Microsoft, Nortel Networks, and Tivoli, says Richard Ward, manager of Compaq Professional Services' vendor certification pro-gram. Ward says certified employees provide a competitive differentiator in the services market. "We've found a direct correlation between our ability to produce service revenue and the level of certified people we have," he says.

When clients submit requests for proposals, they often ask how many certified professionals Compaq Professional Services has on staff, Ward says. About 8,000 employees, or one-third of Compaq Professional Services' consultants, have some level of vendor certification, he says: more than 3,000 are Microsoft-certified, 200 are certified by Computer Associates, and more than 100 hold a Cisco certification. The programs with Nortel and Tivoli are new, and there are a handful of Compaq employees who have certification from those companies.

Tivoli has certified more than 3,000 professionals worldwide since beginning its education program three years ago, Briggs says. Those numbers could rise sharply next year because four leading IT consulting firms--Andersen Consulting, Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young (now owned by Cap Gemini), and IBM Global Services--say they plan to send consultants through Tivoli's professional certification program.

Tivoli offers four levels of certification: Tivoli certified consultant, which reflects mastery in a single area of Tivoli software; certified enterprise consultant, a higher level of certification recognizing either mastery of a broad group of subjects or in-depth expertise in a single complex area of Tivoli Enterprise software; certified solutions expert, which covers Tivoli's technologies for small and midsize businesses; and certified instructor, which indicates product expertise and a demonstrated ability to teach specific Tivoli course material, Briggs says.

These certifications are designed for implementors--people who can install a Tivoli solution that's already been designed to suit a particular customer's requirements. Later this year, Tivoli will introduce a certificate for the Tivoli solutions architect--a person who can design a Tivoli solution for a commercial environment.

Tivoli's IT consulting partners, such as Deloitte & Touche and IBM Global Solutions, need more trained architects capable of designing Tivoli systems, says Bill Kribbs, VP of worldwide customer support services for Tivoli. "In the past, Tivoli was involved in reviewing the architecture our partners had done," he says. "Now we want to prepare them to do an end-to-end solution for their customers."

Tivoli's tests cost from $100 to $150, and the rate for instructor-led preparation classes is $500 per day. The full-scale professional certification involves 15 to 25 days of training, Kribbs says. Based on those estimates, training alone for Tivoli certification would cost more than $12,000.

Some employers are reluctant to invest that much money in training their IT staff, especially because certification makes employees more attractive to other companies that might lure them away with offers of more money. Job-hopping among new certificate-holders has become so widespread that a joke among IT consultants is that Microsoft's MCSC certification stands for "MCS-see-you-later."

Businesses and consulting firms have taken a variety of steps to avoid having newly certified employees depart for greener pastures. One method is to ask employees to agree to stay with the company for a certain period of time after they obtain company-funded certification, says Tim Engle, president of Collectibles.com

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Illustration by Dave Black
Photo of Michael Falotico by Tsar Fedorsky
Photo of Tim Engle by Richard Crichton

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