CRN Research: Solution Providers Looking For Certification ROI

In a less-than-perfect sales climate, vendors need to offer solution providers as many tools as possible to boost sales growth. Certifications are such a tool, and results from the 2003 CRN Certification Study show, for example, that most vendors are doing a good job of keeping certifications up to date in response to changing technologies.

But increasing the overall rate of return that solution providers receive from investing in certification training is one area that is not up to par. About 60 percent of all respondents to this year's study said that the return on investment (ROI) for certifications had not changed in the past year. Only about 2 in 10 respondents indicated that the ROI had actually increased over that period. This trend generally extended to individual certifications as well.

One major factor behind this result is that certifications are lagging when it comes to driving new business for solution providers. Only about half of survey respondents said that certifications were driving a "moderate" or "significant" amount of new business, with the remaining saying that the role of certifications in this area was minimal or none at all.

With the pressure on pricing so great, new business is essential if solution provider revenue is to grow consistently over time, and the survey results cited above show that there is ample room for certifications to play a larger role in this process. If certifications are driving greater amounts of new business, then obviously their rate of return is growing as well, all other things being equal. And vendors take note: if the ROI on certifications in general is increasing, then solution providers might also become more likely to take additional certification training.

Which vendors stack up best when it comes to certifications driving business and providing growing rates of return to VARs? The results indicate that this in part depends on the size of the solution providers, but one company--Check Point Software Technologies--stands out.

Thirty percent of large solution provider respondents (those with at least $5 million in annual revenue) cite the Check Point Certified Security Administrator (CCSA) certification as driving a "significant" amount of new business--the highest figure among the 13 individual certifications surveyed. An additional 30 percent indicated that a "moderate" amount of new business was being driven by this certification. When it comes to ROI, 30 percent of respondents indicated that the ROI was increasing for the Check Point CCSA certification, while only 3 percent said the ROI was declining.

Among small solution providers (defined as those with less than $5 million in annual revenue), the results for the Check Point Certified Security Expert (CCSE) certification were similar to those cited above for the CCSA certification. Two Oracle database certifications also received high marks. Twenty-five percent of respondents, for example, cited the Oracle Certified Professional database certifications as driving a significant amount of business, with another 38 percent citing a moderate amount of business. Twenty-two percent of those surveyed said the ROI for this certification was increasing, compared with only 3 percent that said ROI was declining.

Complete results for all individual certifications covered in the 2003 CRN Certification Study can be found in our online database.

Next Week: Solution provider satisfaction with hardware vendor channel programs hits a new low.

John Roberts is CRN's director of editorial research and can be reached at jorobert@cmp.com