The Link Between Certification and Partner Profitability

How Partner Certification Programs Deliver a Win-Win Trifecta for the Partner, Customer, and Vendor

Customers face a deluge of potential service providers who can design, implement, service and support technology implementations. Increasingly, technology vendors continue to add or improve their certification programs to meet their customers’ desire for peace-of-mind deployments, industry vertical capabilities, and integrated solution delivery. Constellation Research’s latest survey of 126 partners from the IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and Salesforce.com ecosystems unveils the correlation between certification programs and direct partner benefits. As partners undergo the certification process, they can expect to face challenges in revenue adjustment, new sales models, higher cost resources, and additional training requirements. Despite the short-term pain, certification programs deliver long-term win-wins for the partner, customer and vendor trifecta.