From: Darby Weaver (darbyweaver@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Oct 02 2007 - 12:36:42 ART
Here's Cisco's Official Response and advice about
moving your certs around in such a fashion:
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/19970?t51hb
Here is the Rent A Cert business proposition:
Being a certified partner can save your company
unlimited amounts of money. For example, if a Cisco
retailer resells $1M of Cisco merchandise annually and
then as a result of being a "gold partner" can buy
products at 50% off retail instead of the previous
40%, the reseller will make an additional $100,000 on
the direct discount alone (not to mention the
additional marketing power the reseller will have with
their new status!).
Unfortunately, hiring 4 CCIEs full-time might run your
company half a million dollars.
Fortunately, you can arrange for a "support agreement"
with certified individuals through Rent A Cert for a
fraction of a fraction of the cost.
Monthly - Income - Payment - Profit:
Certification Monthly
Income
to
Cert Holder Monthly
Payment
from
Cisco Partner Monthly
Profit
to
Rent A Cert
CCNA $100 $139 $39
CCNP $250 $299 $49
CCDP $250 $299 $49
CCVP $250 $299 $49
CCSP $250 $299 $49
CCIE $1,000 $1,149 $149
Rent A Cert caveats worth mentioning:
Disclaimer
Should your use of the Site violate any agreement, you
agree that you shall be solely responsible for the
consequences that result, including but not limited to
termination of partner status and/or certification
status. You further agree, on behalf of yourself
personally and your company, if registering as a
company, to indemnify and hold harmless Rent A Cert
and Twelve Inches Around Corp. from any damages that
may occur from your use of this site and/or from your
violation of any certification or partnership
agreements.
Billing & Agreement Duration
Companies that have requested individuals with
certifications associate with their company must pay
all amounts due "upon receipt" and for the duration of
the agreement (generally, 1 year). All participating
certified individuals must give 30 days notice if they
would no longer like to participate. While the
duration of company - certified individual is limited
by time and other factors as described on the Site,
this agreement shall not terminate simply because
certified individual and company are no longer matched
with each other.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Cisco response to the Rent A Cert idea:
Lang Tibbils - PR Manager Corporate Communications for
Cisco, provided the following response from Cisco:
The main objective of the Rent-a-Cert idea is to help
companies (our channel partners) obtain a higher level
of certification.
Overview of the Cisco Channel Partner Program
Given the rules and regulations that govern our
Channel Partner Program, we see a couple of issues
with the Rent-a-Cert idea.
1. If a channel partner hires a CCIE away from another
Cisco Certified or Specialized Partner, Cisco will not
count this individual toward the certification or
specialization for the hiring channel partner for
12-months from the date of hire.
This would make it tough for a CCIE to rent themselves
to more than one partner over the course of a 12-month
period.
We can enforce this policy, because CCIEs are
identified by an individual # and we have a complete
employment history in our database, including moves
and changes among companies.
2. To obtain a Gold Certification the channel partner
must employ 4 CCIEs and to earn Silver the requirement
is 2 CCIEs.
According to our Channel Partner Program requirements,
partners can employ full-time contractor employees,
but that number cannot exceed 50% of the required
number of CCIEs, meaning for Gold partners you cannot
have more than two contracted CCIEs.
As part of our annual partner audit we validate the
employment contracts for the required CCIEs.
Near as we can tell, the Rent-a-Cert idea is based on
the concept that a CCIE could simply loan his/her
certification number to a channel partner, but given
that Cisco has a complete employment history of all
CCIEs we would discover during the audit process that
a CCIE was a registered employee for two companies
thus making it impossible for them to qualify as a
full-time contractor or employee.
3. Channel partners have 30-days to notify Cisco if
they lose a CCIE and no longer employ the required
number of CCIEs for their certification.
Upon receipt of this notice the partner may qualify
for a six month extension to replace the CCIE before
losing their certification, meaning if they are Gold
Certified they would move to Silver Certified and
Silver to Premier.
This requirement to remain compliant between annual
audits makes Rent-a-Cert a short-term fix or expensive
long-term proposition.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What I personally think about the Rent A Cert idea:
1. Cisco Cert holders have the right to market
themselves and create job opportunities in pretty much
whatever manner they wish.
However, the Rent A Cert idea is penny wise and dollar
foolish for the cert holder, although it may appear at
first to be a great way to earn extra monthly cash
from your cert.
Why?
Because it will drive down the salaries of all Cisco
cert holders once Cisco partners get into the habit of
"cheaply renting" Cisco certs.
2. Initially the Rent A Cert idea will appear
advantageous for Cisco partners renting CCIEs on the
"cheap".
But where is that partner's value proposition?
Rent A Cert touts on its home page:
Put your idle certification to use!
Earn money -- up to $1,200/month!
Almost no work required!
Securing larger discounts without the "value"
full-time CCIEs bring to customer accounts, will
rapidly lead to a competitive commodity pricing
situation where Cisco partner margins erode, resulting
in less profitability for all Cisco partners.
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