Cognos, a performance management (PM) and business intelligence (BI) vendor, has launched its training academy, the Cognos Academy, in South Africa.
The academy will provide Cognos partners and BI professionals with the opportunity to develop specialist Cognos 8 BI skills and obtain international certification, expanding on their existing competencies by obtaining a broader range of skills.
Cognos Academy is also geared to assist existing customers with enhanced product knowledge around the Cognos 8 BI product set, allowing for the transfer of skills.
Says Christo Nel, services solution manager at Cognos SA: "There is a significant lack of BI skills in the local market and this is made even more apparent by the growing uptake of BI in enterprise. Numerous BI professionals are being lured overseas due to the higher adoption of BI and PM in international markets and the lucrative earnings potential. Local organisations, realising the lack of necessary skills for BI implementations, are now beginning to create BI competency centres within their companies. Cognos Academy will assist to drive the growth of BI skills in the local market, alleviating the problem somewhat."
Cognos Academy is providing Cognos 8 BI certification based on three roles: that of the BI author that designs reports and dashboards; the BI modeller that builds and designs metadata models and OLAP cubes; and the BI administrator that installs, configures, secures, optimises and manages Cognos within the organisation. Completion of all three certifications will qualify professionals to further extend their skills with a senior BI qualification, elevating them to a senior consulting level.
Nel continues: "Cognos Academy will not only benefit professionals that seek to pursue a career in the field of BI but also provide organisations with the advantage of employing better equipped and skilled resources, thus setting a higher standard for BI skills locally."
The training comprises classroom sessions or self study material made available through an e-learning programme. This offers learners a choice regarding how they will complete their studies. Cognos has partnered with Thomson Prometric as the facilitator of the certification exams.
Concludes Nel: "BI professionals that complete the Cognos Academy training certification will have more credibility as they are trained to blend Cognos 8 BI product knowledge with proven methodologies. This will allow customers, partners and consultants to increase their self sufficiency, maximise efficiency and productivity and obtain added value, as well as a fast return on investment.
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