Certifications That Pay

Just exactly which certifications provided the best return on investment, however, depends heavily on the size of the solution provider, the study showed.

The study, which calculated ROI on certifications that solution providers deemed most important, came up with widely varying results for large solution providers, those with at least $10 million in revenue, and small solution providers, those with less than $10 million in revenue.

For large solution providers, Check Point Software Technology's security certifications provided the biggest bang for the buck. The Check Point Certified Security Expert (CCSE) was No. 1, providing a 97 percent ROI, a measure of the annual revenue generated by the certified technician divided by the annual cost of the employee. The Check Point Certified Security Administrator (CCSA) was No 2, with 96 percent ROI.

"Security is growing more complex every day, and it takes a lot of understanding and training to make it work," said Gary Gwin, a partner at CafeSoft, an ISV in San Diego. "When a company has multiple servers running multiple applications, things get complicated very quickly as far as implementing security is concerned, and customers are going to pay premium prices for having people with the right skills working on their systems."

Among small solution providers, the CCSE and CCSA certifications also did well, ranking No. 3 and 4, respectively, with ROIs of 82 percent and 77 percent. That provides further evidence that security certifications are becoming increasingly important to all solution providers, regardless of size.

Small solution providers, however, received their biggest return on Citrix Systems' Certified Administrator (CCA) certification, which ranked No. 1 with a 87 percent ROI. The Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification, meanwhile, was No. 2 at 85 percent. The MCSE certification failed to make the top eight for large solution providers.

"The bigger a solution provider, the more vendor requirements there are for certification, and the more expensive it gets," said John DeRocker, vice president of sales and marketing at Nexus Information Systems, a $30 million solution provider in Plymouth, Minn. "And there is not as much Windows work to do in larger businesses, where [multiple] platforms can be found, compared with smaller businesses, where a single, Windows-based platform might predominate."

The survey also indicated that there is a high correlation between a certification's ROI and the percentage of solution providers willing to pay the cost for technicians to maintain their certifications. For example, the Check Point certifications were not only the top two in ROI for large solution providers but also ranked first and second in terms of the percentage of large solution providers that pay all of the certification maintenance costs.

For small solution providers, the correlation between ROI and willingness to pay maintenance costs was not as quite strong, indicating that factors other than ROI figured into the decision. In particular, the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) was not among the top eight in ROI, but ranked No. 1 in small solution providers' willingness to pay certification maintenance costs, with 72 percent indicating that they did so. But when the importance of Linux to these solution providers in terms of future sales and profit growth is considered, this trend makes good business sense.

"Solution providers are investing in the future when it comes to paying for Linux certifications, even if they aren't seeing the biggest payoff now," said Anthony Awtrey, vice president at I.D.E.A.L. Technology, a Linux solution provider based in Melbourne, Fla. "At our company, maintaining up-to-date certification in Linux is such an integral part of our business that it is a requirement for employment."

The return on investment for each certification included in the 2002 CRN Certification Study was computed by dividing the estimated annual revenue from a certified employee by the total annual cost of the employee.

To perform the calculation, information was obtained from solution providers on the average hourly rate they charge clients for use of an individual with each specified certification.

To calculate annual revenue from a certified employee, this hourly rate was multiplied by 1,000 hours, the number of billable hours in a year. That assumes certified personnel spend half their working day on billable projects and that there are 2,000 hours in a typical working year.

To calculate the cost of certified personnel, the survey asked solution providers to provide data on the average annual compensation paid to individuals holding each certification. An additional 20 percent was added to annual compensation to account for other employee costs, such as benefits and paid-for training.

The study calculated ROI for 12 certifications deemed most important in the next six to 12 months for both large and small solution providers.