5 Ways Certification Changes the Channel

By Dany Bouchedid

It comes as no surprise that this industry has been described by some as “the wild, wild West." That’s partly due to the fact that there have been no standards for knowledge, conduct or best practices that are set across the industry and measured in an objective format. There have been several attempts; the creation of an industrywide certification has been tossed around for nearly a decade.

Other programs, often administered by a company or an educational institution, have failed to catch on perhaps because what sounds like a good idea in theory is tough to make a reality given the fast-paced nature of our industry.

The Technology Channel Association (TCA) announced the official launch of the Certified Telecommunications Professional (CTP) program at the end of last year. A certification program was part of the initial vision for the association when it began in 2008. The CTP program was designed to elevate the standards of professionalism throughout the industry, which ultimately provides verifiable credibility to the agent community.

Here are five reasons why the CTP exam is different from others that have failed, and why agents should put the exam on their to-do lists for 2011. 

1. CTP is a certification program that is administered by a neutral, non-profit trade association. Being sponsored by a non-profit makes it more about the industry and less about making money. Sure, there is a small fee for the course materials and the exam, but these are simply to cover the costs to manage the program. TCA began as a way to create a better sense of community among professionals in the indirect sales channel. By establishing standards of conduct, the association serves as the industry’s official voice and works to elevate our collective credibility.

3. CTP certification establishes a baseline for how agents perform their jobs. It’s common for any industry to have a standard; ours has gone too long without one. If there’s a bad client experience, everyone involved is accountable. With the CTP, there is now a standard in providing exceptional customer service. Most agents truly committed to their jobs know we’re not just selling boxes.

I believe CTP has the makings to become the de facto standard in the indirect channel sales world, much like the CCNE has become in network engineering. As the vendor and carrier community also begin to roll out the program internally to their direct sales folks, it will be almost imperative that an indirect sales agent be certified so that the customers have the same level of confidence working with an intermediary versus going directly to the account executive at the vendor company.

4. TCA provides helpful course materials that are easily accessible online. TCA members have access online at www.tcasite.org to 10 different courses that cover the major areas of the exam. These include voice communications, core telecommunications concepts, core data communications concepts, options for infrastructure facilities, wireless infrastructure, telecommunications history, data communications, Internet, the code of ethics and agent business practices.

An agent can prepare for the exam in the areas that make the most sense for them. If you’re stronger in some areas than others, you can fast track the prep materials for that area and focus on the ones you need to work on. In order to preserve a certain level of professionalism, a set of prerequisites has been created. It is required that the CTP candidate meet one of the criteria as illustrated, which relate to job experience and education. Candidates are also subject to a third-party background check, also in place to maintain integrity in the certification process.

5. CTP certification can open new doors to larger customers. More established enterprise customers, government agencies and Fortune 500 companies will rely on CTP certification to signify an agent is knowledgeable and trustworthy. The intent is that it will bring some credibility to the individual that passes the exam. It shows they have demonstrated a baseline understanding of the technologies and levels of professionalism. CTP is quickly becoming a differentiator between those that have accomplished the title and those that have not.

Many agents have become certified, so what’s stopping you? Most have completed the entire process of reviewing the course material within five hours, and the typical length of time to complete the exam is an hour and a half. Within hours, you can increase your value to customers and your own organizations.

Dany Bouchedid is president of the board of trustees of the Technology Channel Association (TCA), the indirect channel industry’s first non-profit trade association. He also is the founder and CEO of COLOTRAQ, a colocation, managed hosting and cloud computing sourcing company. He can be reached at info@colotraq.com.