Don’t get me wrong I believe there is a good deal of value in the certification process as well as some bragging rights but I have yet to have a customer ask if my business was a certified manage service provider.
That being said there are many certification programs popping up out there so what should you do? In my opinion a good certification program can provide value to your business but the service / business processes that you need to outperform your competition need to be an ongoing work. At Everon we started working on identifying, documenting, and constantly refining and improving our service delivery processes over 5 years ago and today we spend more time with what is working and not working than in the past.
Any provider that thinks they can write out a book of processes without making it part of the culture to constantly follow and improve these process is in for a rude awakening when they get their butts kicked by a competitor.
I received an email earlier from the folks at Ant Farm, if you have not worked with them they are fantastic. They bring a level of knowledge to service delivery and product development process that is rare. Check out their free upcoming webinar.
I pasted the email below as it is talking about MSP certification and their opinion, which happens to be similar to mine, that you have to use certification as the impetus for building enduring business value for it to be worth the time or the paper it is written on.
Josh
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Remember the end of the Wizard of Oz when the scarecrow receives his diploma? The wizard explains that the scarecrow, the cowardly lion, and the tin man had the qualities they had been searching for (in the scarecrow’s case, intelligence) all along. They just needed validation, or “certification”, by others.
The recent announcement by MSP Partners of their Managed Services Accreditation Exam, following on the heels of the certification program sponsored by MSP Alliance, has the blogs a-buzz discussing the values of certification for MSPs.
Most visible among the touted benefits is the potential distinction that certification offers to prospective clients – validation by a competent source that the MSP has the infrastructure and business processes necessary to provide continuing high-value services to their client.
However, the benefits of certification potentially go much deeper than this. Companies that have participated in tenured certification programs over a period of years will tell you that the enduring value is derived only partially from the credibility that certification brings. The real value from certification is that it makes your business better!
Effort that you put into the initial certification can rust with time. If you haven’t institutionalized the business capabilities and processes driven by the initial certification, you will find yourself reinventing the wheel preparing for each re-certification. At some point you will ask yourself if the effort is worth it.
On the other hand, if you use certification as the driving factor to design and implement robust service delivery processes, and to continually improve them, the certification event becomes recognition of what you already have – sound business capabilities that bring value to both your clients and to your business.
In fact, institutionalizing your service process capabilities actually makes re-certification easier with each passing year. Simply include the “hooks” for certification (such as metrics definition or customer satisfaction programs), into the processes that you follow daily, and point to them when it comes time for the certification audit.
Are you becoming certified with “straw man” processes, or will certification be the impetus for building enduring business value?
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Ant Farm Inc website – check them out if you have the desire to see what your service delivery could be
