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Why All IT Certifications Aren’t Created Equal

As enterprise IT has become more complex over the years, vendors have been nudging partners to increase the number of certified IT professionals they have on staff. The basic thinking is that the more those IT professionals are certified, the better job solution providers will do implementing products as part of a larger IT solution—which, […]

Written By: Michael Vizard

Feb 27, 2015

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As enterprise IT has become more complex over the years, vendors have been nudging partners to increase the number of certified IT professionals they have on staff.

The basic thinking is that the more those IT professionals are certified, the better job solution providers will do implementing products as part of a larger IT solution—which, in turn, should result in more satisfied customers. That’s critical because satisfied customers are more likely to buy additional products and services.

Given that focus on customer satisfaction, many vendors have ratcheted up the number of certifications that their best partners have to attain to become recognized as top-tier players. For their part, solution providers want their team to become certified because the top-tier partners have a lot more flexibility when it comes to the level of discounting that most vendors provide their best partners. Vendors also tend to steer more of their best leads to partners that participate at the highest levels of their channel programs.

The partners, in turn, wield that discounted pricing to win deals in ways that don’t affect their bottom lines as heavily as partners that don’t attain gold- or silver-level status in a vendor channel program.

The issue is that vendors can sometimes get carried away with certifications, which can result in solution providers opting not to participate in channel programs because the cost of attaining all the required certifications is too high. Recently, Citrix moved to reduce the number of certifications its top partners had to attain to participate at the highest levels of its channel programs.

Having to attain all those certifications was getting in the way of actually selling products and services, said John Carey, Citrix’s senior director of worldwide channel programs. To reduce the complexity of the Citrix channel, Citrix cut the number of certifications partners need to attain to participate in the top tiers of its programs to focus on two core competencies.

“We used to require six for the top partners,” Carey said. “But that limited the number of partners that could participate at the top tiers of our channel programs.”

Citrix isn’t alone in simplifying its channel programs, which by extension, often means reducing the number of certifications that partners need to attain.

IBM, for example, as part of a reorganization of its channel strategy recently simplified the certification requirements for selected software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings, thereby enabling business partners to earn incentives faster.

That’s critical for partners because most of them, on average, carry 30 to 40 products. When you add up all the potential certifications that can be involved, the training and certification costs of being a top partner for all the vendors that make those products can be substantial.

Of course, none of this means certifications are going away any time soon.

Red Hat, for example, recently added three new Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA) concentrations around its data center, cloud, and application platforms. To earn the title of RHCA, an IT professional must attain Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) status and then acquire at least five of the eligible certifications, each of which cover different product and solution areas.

Michael Vizard

Michael Vizard is a seasoned IT journalist, with nearly 30 years of experience writing and editing about enterprise IT issues. He is a writer for publications including Programmableweb, IT Business Edge, CIOinsight, Channel Insider and UBM Tech. He formerly was editorial director for Ziff-Davis Enterprise, where he launched the company’s custom content division, and has also served as editor in chief for CRN and InfoWorld. He also has held editorial positions at PC Week, Computerworld and Digital Review.

Why All IT Certifications Aren’t Created Equal

Michael Vizard

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