Re: The Informix Certified Professional Program

In <4ntosn$20j@newsbf02.news.aol.com> thillick@aol.com (Thillick) writes: > >Has no one being paying attention to Informix' new Vertical Marketing >plan? The idea of certification is the elimination of competition. By >decree all Informix employees will be 'certified' by the end of this year. > Consultants on the other hand will be forced to take time to study the >minutae in the manuals and give up billable time plus pay expenses to sit >for the tests. This will allow Informix to market their people at their >rates (no comment needed) by arguing 'Sure we're 2 to 3 times more per >hour but our people are 'certified' and therefore can accomplish the work >in a more timely and cost effectice manner'. If you don't think this >argument has been/will be used your dreaming. The amount of money being >generated by all of the body shops supplying all of the bodies to GTE/DS, >ATT, AAA various gov't agencies etc. etc. etc. is staggering and Informix >wants it's share. It would be sad to see someone lose a position or >opportunity for lack of certification and for business acumen, experience, >intelligence, integrity and the ability to solve 'real world' business >problems take a back seat to some one ability to pass a test. After all >everything on the test can be 'referenced' in the manuals. > >;-) > >P.S. > >I know it doesn't sound it but I really do like Informix' products. Well said. In general, Novell launched its own certification program as somewhat of an offshoot of its late eighties acquisition of approx. 17 Netware Centers chocked full of Netware knowledgeable technical support persons. The certification program came at a time where it served to different it from Microsoft -- who had very little standards at the time on which to become certified on. Today, the CNE certification is so widely obtained, it is no longer a differentiator. It won't prevent the following: At a major bank, a MIS director sent their most certified Novell engineer (a consultant) to major installation to fix the network printer which no one could access. After a day, their CNE/network consultant leaves the site defying anyone to find out what is wrong with the network printer setup on the server. With much frustration, the MIS director resorts to having a non-certified but common sense rich person go out to the site. After 15 minutes on-site, she observed the missing printer cable and resolved the problem moments later [Actual story from CIO of major bank on why CNE is not important anymore]. Good luck to Informix. Consulting is more than certification. Larry