The Business Case For ELearning [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

A Program That Rewards Learning

The nature of the Cisco Partner Specialization program (discussed in Chapter 10, "Certifications as a Branding Tool: Sponsoring a Certification Program") places a premium on skills and learning. The Cisco Partner Specialization is a program that helps Cisco reseller organizations acquire expertise in specific lines of products and services through learning, exams, and certifications. The program relies heavily on meeting learning goals. Developing career-certified individuals, obtaining specialization points, and pursuing extra credits are all possible through an effort to continually increase organizational learning and maintain a higher level of knowledge than the competition. The policies help to generate an ongoing demand for lifelong learning in Cisco partner channels among 25,000 companies employing more than 500,000 individuals globally in more than 130 countries. Based on their skills, partners accumulate points, which eventually determine their discount rates with Cisco. With discount rates at stake, the motivation among partners to assimilate knowledge creates an inherent demand for learning. If such a demand is not adequately addressed through a complementary learning program, the lack of learning opportunities can easily turn into low satisfaction toward Cisco among channel members. (For more on this, see Chapter 10.)