Avaya Announces New Certification Tracks

Communications systems and services company Avaya has rolled out two new it certification tracks to support its solutions: Voice Services Management (VSM) and Contact Center Management (CCM). Each track currently has two credentials, Associate and Specialist, which verify different degrees of expertise. The expert level is slated for release sometime next year, said Dan Gorski, global director of learning at Avaya.

We've been doing certifications in the technical arena for implementing, designing and maintaining our products for some time,he said.The entire program is designed to run in a three-layer model. The base level is the ACA, the Avaya Certified Associate; the mid-level is the ACS, the Avaya Certified Specialist; the top level is the Expert, or ACE. Those levels are typically available today across our technical certifications. In this case, we've just announced the first two levels so far.

The ACA level is focused more on the technology side, Gorski said. Although the ACA-VSM deals with Avaya's IP telephony products and the ACA-CCM covers the company's CRM product line, both require successful completion of the same Communications Networking exam or the Telecommunications Industry Association's (TIA) Convergence Technologies Professional free practice IT questions (CTP) exam. In addition, the ACA-VSM entails a Voice Services Management curriculum assessment, and the ACA-CCM involves a Contact Center Management curriculum assessment.

The mid-level ACS credentials address the management side of these areas, Gorski said. Because the program takes a building-block approach to career development, an ACA in the VSM or CCM tracks is required before obtaining those respective ACS certifications. To achieve the ACS-CCM, participants must successfully complete the Specialist-Contact Center Management exam. ACS-VSM candidates have to pass the Specialist-Voice Services Management exam.

When we worked with our customers to develop this, what the folks who were doing these kinds of jobs told us was that they wanted to be able to be recognized for the level of technical skills they've developed, so that's the way we put together the ACA,Gorski said.They also wanted to be recognized for management skills, so we built the ACS on top of that in order to reflect those skills.

Program guides for these certifications, which are not required but are recommended for those who need to sharpen their skills, are available on the Avaya University Web site. All of the exams are administered at Pearson free comptia security+ exam VUE testing centers.