Vendors Can Influence VARs' Certification Training Decisions

This week's research report, focusing on the factors that induce solution providers to take certification training and hire certified individuals, marks the third of a four part series discussing in more detail the results of the recent 2003 CRN Certification Study.++

Solution providers are faced with an ever-increasing range of certifications and certification training programs as technologies become more specialized. The pressure on solution providers to take certification training is also increasing as VARs need to draw on multiple technologies to provide the most complete solutions for their business clients.

But in a time when market conditions are still stabilizing, solution providers are making hard choices about where to invest time and money in certification training. CRN has calculated the ROI for many of the certifications VARs think will be most important to their business in the coming year and a provided a list of these top certifications in the report.

Vendors, however, can tailor their programs to boost ROI and make them more attractive to solution providers. CRN asked VARs to specify, for each of the most important certifications, which of four factors would make them more likely to take certification training. The choices were an online virtual lab setup, free training or allowing use of MDF funds to pay for training, the ability to transfer program credit from one certification to another, and the ability to "test out" of certain parts of certification training.

The data clearly show that not only can the choice of factor vary across certifications, but can differ for the same certification depending on the size of the solution provider.

The cost of training is uppermost in the minds of many solution providers, with 37 percent of VARs (large and small) citing free training or allowing use of MDF funds to pay for training as the most important factor. The need for more "hands-on" training also figures in closely, with 29 percent of solution providers citing an online virtual lab setup as the key factor. A quarter of VARs surveyed cited testing out, while only about 10 percent listed the ability to transfer credit from one program to another.

Among large VARs (those with annual revenue of at least $5 million), these trends hold for many of the individual certifications surveyed. For the Cisco CCNA certification, for example, 36 percent of solution providers cite a virtual online lab setup as the factor most likely to induce them to take training, while another 31 percent cite free training, 23 percent cite testing out, and 10 percent list transferable credit.

There are exceptions, however, showing that one size does not fit all when it comes to certification training. For three certifications, the percentage citing an online virtual lab setup equals or exceeds the percentage citing free training, as the chart shows. These include the Oracle Certified Professional database, Cisco CCIE, and Red Hat RHCE certifications.

An unusually high percentage of large solution providers (52 percent) cite free training or use of MDF funds as the key factor that would make them more likely to take training for the Microsoft MCSA certification.

For the Microsoft MCSD and MCBDA certifications, nearly a third of large VARs cite transferable program credit as the key factor. This is also substantially higher than for any of the other 13 individual certifications surveyed.

Turning to small solution providers (with annual revenue of less than $5 million), the general trends are very similar to those for large solution providers, as shown above. On average, the highest percentage of small VARs think free training or use of MDF funds is the factor most likely to induce them to take certification training.

Once again, however, there are exceptions. The highest percentage of small solution providers citing an online virtual lab setup (42 percent) is for the 3Com Certified Professional certification. This is the only case among the 12 individual certifications surveyed where this percentage actually exceeds those citing free training (32 percent).

The highest percentage of small VARs citing transferable credit, at 22 percent, is for both the Oracle Certified Professional for database certification and those holding the Symantec SCSP certification. For the latter certification, this figure exceeds the percentage citing an online virtual lab setup.

For the Check Point CCSA certification, nearly a third of small VARs surveyed listed the ability to "test out" of parts of the training program as the key factor, highest among the 13 certifications surveyed. As was the case with the Symantec SCSP certification, this percentage was higher than the figure for an online virtual lab setup.

Several certifications appear on the most important list for both large and small solution providers. While there is little difference across solution provider size for the Microsoft MSCE or Cisco CCNA certifications, there are distinct differences in other cases.

When it comes to the Symantec SCSE certification, for example, 40 percent of small VARs cite free training or use of MDF funds as the key factor, significantly above the figure of 30 percent for large VARs. Conversely, only 15 percent of small VARs cite the ability to test out, barley half the 27 percent figure for large VARs.

The differences are even more striking for the Check Point CCSE certification. Among large VARS the percentage citing free training or use of MDF funds is significantly higher (42 percent) than those citing an online virtual lab setup (27 percent). Among smaller VARs, however, the online lab setup rates a slight edge over free training, at 35 percent to 33 percent.

John Roberts is CRN's Director of Editorial Research and can be reached at jorobert@cmp.com