Peer-to-Peer Blog: Vendor Misconceptions About TCA Certification

By Dany Bouchedid, President, Technology Channel Association

I attended a session at the last Channel Partners Conference & Expo where a panel of esteemed vendors was asked how they felt about the Certified Telecom Professional (CTP) program that the Technology Channel Association (TCA) is unveiling this month. After hearing all of their responses, I quickly realized that the TCA had not done a very good job of explaining to the vendor community what this certification program is and isn’t. So here are the top three misconceptions that some vendor channel chiefs have about TCA’s Certified Telecom Professional program:

1. The TCA CTP will require vendors to partner only with agents who are certified. This is simply not true. Vendors, carriers and agents will continue to be able to partner together as they see fit. The objective of the certification program is to make it easier for vendors/carriers to grow their channel efficiently through the assurance that they are working with reputable, knowledgeable and experienced agents.  Most of TCA’s vendor members  already have embraced the idea of CTP as a tool they can use to create a de facto standard for their own internal programs.  We realize that there always will be certain types of agents and referral partners that don’t fit the typical mold of a telecom agent.  However, the CTP program is designed to cover the vast majority of agents that are currently in the industry.
2. The TCA CTP is trying to standardize the knowledge base across all vendors/carriers. The TCA recognizes there is no replacement for specialized knowledge of any one vendor’s products and services. The CTP program was never intended to supplant that.  In fact, the next step in the evolution of this certification program is for TCA to begin working with its vendor members on developing “vendor specific modules" that they can either administer in-house or through TCA.  The content for these modules will be specific to each vendor’s unique product set. What we are unveiling at this point is simply the general industry base module. This program is designed to reinforce telecom industry standards, technical concepts and business practices in an effort to verify that telecom agents have a solid understanding of industry fundamentals and how they apply to end users and vendors.
3. The TCA CTP will end up costing the vendors more money through the payment of higher commissions or better terms for certified agents. In TCA’s collective experience, we have found that 10 percent of your agents represent 90 percent of your revenue from indirect channels. The problem, however, is that the underperforming agents that comprise that 90 percent are consuming the vendor’s indirect channel resources. Offering a higher commission percentage or other incentives to agents who successfully complete the certification program is completely voluntary and at the discretion of each vendor.  The TCA believes that the savings realized from running a more efficient channel consisting of professional, ethical, self-reliant and top-producing agents will more than fund those optional incentives.

Dany M. Bouchedid currently serves as president of the board of trustees of the Technology Channel Association (TCA), the indirect channel industry’s first trade association. Bouchedid also is the CEO of Interaqt Corp. (dba COLOTRAQ ), a company he founded in 1999 with a vision of creating the premier sourcing management consulting firm for telecom and IT services. Today, COLOTRAQ brings buyers and sellers together in more than 1,300 markets across 221 countries and territories. Bouchedid also has taught a number of senior-level undergraduate business school courses, including strategic management, patterns of entrepreneurship and e-commerce. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and management from Montclair State University and a master’s degree in finance and international business from New York University's Stern School of Business. He also is a member of the 2010-11 PHONE+/Channel Partners Conference & Expo Advisory Board .