HP Exec: Market Should Demand Certification

The discussion over channel certification is only starting to heat up.

This week, Robert Faletra's column takes on the issue, and he writes:

Today, we have a problem. Every vendor wants you certified to their standard. Step back into a vacuum, and it makes sense that the customer and the vendor want some assurance you can perform to a certain level. But the reality is certifications cost money, and some aren’t worth the time or the money. Even if a vendor provides the training and testing for free—and damn few do—there is an opportunity cost associated with taking someone out of the field and putting them in a classroom. The need to carry so many certifications begs a cost-benefit analysis. Today, the vast majority of solution providers I talk to just don’t see the value. Many believe they never get a return on their certification investments.

That was followed a few days later by this blog entry from Susan Underhill, HP's vice president of HP global certification & partner education:

For most of our enterprise-level products such as storage, servers and networking, there are technical competency requirements a partner must have to become (or remain) authorized. These credentials or certifications, issued by the HP Certified Professional Program, are how HP ensures that the channel partner has the right knowledge and skills to represent HP in serving our mutual customers. Think of it as a "service level agreement" with the "outsource agency."

In my opinion, every customer should demand that an HP Certified Professional be involved in every step of their IT project, from scoping the business problem, to specifying and installing the solution, to servicing and maintaining it. Whether the Certified Professional works for a channel partner, HP, or the customer, this individual has proven that he or she has the requisite skills and expertise to deliver the best solution to the customer – with the assurance and power of HP behind them.

Underhill doesn't address another point by Faletra: That vendors should start thinking of how to convince channel partners that certification - which costs time, resources and money - is worth it and is actually a profit center rather than a cost center.