The Technology Channel Association has announced hitting two milestones: over 500 members and 200 members registered for the Certified Telecom Professional certification program. Those that have passed are listed on a special page. Why? Pride in being an Agent who takes this business seriously.
CompTIA has many certificates including a cloud one. Other organizations are putting together certificate programs - some for revenue, some because it will take a lot of education to move the needle on cloud revenue sold via the channel.
One of the reason for the need for certification is the change in telecom. For years, telecom was TDM. A PRI was a PRI, a standard with just two configurations available. Everyone knew what they were getting. Today, it is a miss-mash of TDM and IP - and a lot of grey area in the middle. If you are running a fax server, for example, a PRI that is actually a SIP Trunk with PRI signaling in the IAD is just not going to cut it. Some companies don't even know that is what they are delivering until it is turned up - and doesn't work! Then the real mess begins.
SLA's are all over the map, but are a feature that appear on many RFP's.
Certificates are about education. A certified professional is someone who takes pride in his (or her) business and understands that it takes ongoing education to do the job well.
