ISETT accredits Synergy Computing's Cognos training courses

Synergy Computing's business intelligence training courses have become one of the first in SA to be accredited under the government's skills development programme.

This ISETT (Information Systems, Electronics and Telecommunications Technologies) SETA (Sector - Education and Training Authority) accreditation means that companies that send staff on approved Synergy courses will be able to readily claim back a significant portion of their skills development levy.

"Under this programme, businesses pay a monthly skills development levy (SDL) based on a percentage of their payroll. In the near future, they will only be able to reclaim a large portion of their SDL if their employees attend SETA-accredited courses," says Andrew Connold, managing director, Synergy Computing.

The company, which has training facilities in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, specialises in the development, implementation and support of business intelligence (BI) solutions based on world-leading Cognos tools.

Last year (2002), Synergy became the first Cognos solutions provider in SA to receive Cognos Consultant certification designed to ensure solution providers, such as Synergy, have the right level of in-house technical expertise to ensure customers receive solutions optimised to their business needs and training by certified personnel.

"We see the ISETT accreditation as recognition of the high level of skills we have brought to the BI market in SA - skills that, in fact, are also recognised by Cognos in that we also provide Cognos training in other parts of Africa," adds Connold.

"In the past, companies have tended to focus BI training on the key users deemed to be the ones who will derive the greatest benefit from access to key business data.

"But it's been proven that BI benefits can be realised throughout the organisation especially with the increasing use of business performance management practices that depend on BI reporting and analysis facilities such as scorecarding," adds Connold.

Vera Chaplin, Services Manager at Synergy Computing and responsible for the development of BI courses, also believes that accreditation will result in increased BI training volumes.

"It's something we have been preparing for over the past year by enhancing and building up our own in-house training skills and expertise. We now have training consultants who have attained Cognos training certification, of whom one has attained Cognos Gold Instructor level," she says.

Cognos trainer certification, which is aimed at improving the standard of Cognos training in the country, has become a prerequisite for any Cognos partner before customer training can be given on a Cognos product. "I think the intensive training our instructors went through to achieve Cognos certification puts us in very good stead to meet ISETT's high standards for accreditation," she adds.