A Cisco Partnership in Record Time
Fast Lane offers professional support on the way to becoming a Cisco Channel Partner
19th August 2008 – the Cisco Learning Solutions Partner Fast Lane supports companies in their choice of suitable options from the Cisco Channel Partner Program, aligned with their individual business strategies and goals. Together with the customers, the training experts analyse the qualification requirement and then develop a custom-made training programme which secures the necessary qualifications for the Cisco partnership which is being aimed for. Together with the customers, Fast Lane completes all of the necessary qualifications for the different certification steps.
For reasons of quality assurance, Cisco demands specific requirements from applicants who want to actively participate in the high quality Channel Partner Program. The decisive points include a comprehensive level of technological know-how and specialist knowledge about the complete lifecycle of the solutions including services for the support. The certification step which is being aimed for by the companies provides information about the technological expertise and is also the basis for being able to successfully implement, operate and optimise the Cisco solutions.
“Our goal is to prepare customers for the Cisco partnership that they aspire to having in a professional way, to ensure that they can successfully achieve the certification which is essential for their business activities. To make sure that this is realised, a comprehensive concept, a sophisticated qualification plan and a well versed trainer team are all necessary as a limited time frame is often available - frequently only a few weeks” explains Rüdiger Weskamm, the Director for Germany at Fast Lane.
Cisco Channel Partner Program There are four partner certification levels:
- Select Certification - requires the SMB Specialization.
- Premier Certification - requires the Express Foundation Specialization.
- Silver Certification - requires the Express Foundation Specialization, plus either of the two following options: * Any two advanced specializations OR * Express Unified Communications Specialization plus one advanced specialization, excluding the Advanced Unified Communications Specialization.
- Gold Certification - requires all four of the following: Advanced Routing and Switching, Advanced Security, Advanced Unified Communications and Advanced Wireless LAN Specializations for expanded expertise across multiple advanced technologies.
The different Cisco Specialisations prove the expertise of the partner in a technology. To this end, Cisco offers four specialisation steps:
- SMB Specialisation – for partners who are focusing on the small-medium business (SMB) market.
- Express Specialisation - the Express Foundation Specialisation for Cisco solutions in the areas of routing, switching, wireless and security is necessary for all Premier Partners.
- The Express Unified Communications specialisation qualifies partners in the area of convergent data / audio / video networks.
- Advanced Specialisation – partners are able to attain advanced specialisations in the areas of Unified Communications, Security, Wireless LAN as well as routing & switching technologies. Depending on the certification level, a wide range of different specialisations are necessary.
- Master Specialisation – a master specialisation can be achieved independently of the certification level and proves highest technical expertise for the successful sale and application of Cisco solutions in a certain technological area as well as for the corresponding services.