I Work for a London based IT Support Company and have done so for the last several years, during this time my company has spent literally thousands of pounds ensuring all the staff get the latest qualifications so we can be a ”certified partner” of various IT related industries.
But is it worth getting these qualifications? From my experience, all of the engineers I have worked with in the past that are self taught, are just as knowledgeable as the ones that has sat their exams, in my opinion there is no substitute for experience. Granted it looks great on their CV if they are qualified, there is no denying this, but from a day to day task perspective, it really doesn’t make too much difference in my opinion.
And what do the customers think? Well I can tell you from speaking with our sales staff that 75% of potential clients couldn’t care less when it comes to certification. The old one liner of “we are Microsoft Gold Certified” just doesn’t cut it in this day and age with clients, their perspective on things is that all IT support companies are capable of doing the same job; they just want the cheapest one.
So now I wonder whether we are doing he right thing when we invest in our staff. Would we be better off putting this money towards sales and advertising? Should we keep this additional money and lower our IT support costs in order to compete with other IT support companies that don’t necessarily offer the level of service we can? It’s a fine line and sometimes its a job to know what to do best.
Getting qualifications from companies such as Microsoft isn’t cheap; we pay a pretty penny to be Microsoft gold certified. But don’t get me wrong, being certified does have its benefits’ internally as we get access to resources that wouldn’t normally be available and we get discounts on software etc etc.
At the end of the day I will keep our engineers qualified as it feel it reflects well on us as a company. Although I have full confidence in my engineers, getting them to sit exams does keep them on their toes and that can only benefit everyone.
David Morton has worked for an IT Support London based company for the last seven years. During this time he has seen a lot of changes in the industry and has experianced just about every aspect of IT support. feel free to contact David regarding any of the articles posted on the article directory.
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