The value of technical training

Over the past five years, there's been a strong move towards technology distributors becoming more involved in the value-add process, in many cases providing focused high-end technical skills to customers on the reseller's behalf and therein, bridging the gap in knowledge that has resulted from the ever-quickening pace at which the IT market is moving.

"While this model has been massively successful, of late customers seem more comfortable with the reseller being the major source of value-added services," says Helen Vermij, storage product manager at Storgate. "They are of the opinion that it allows them dedicated attention and greater peace of mind in terms of gaining access to services when they need them.

"While Storgate has continued to make its skills base available to resellers that need to bridge this gap," she adds, "Storgate are proud to announce the availability of a high-end Veritas training programme that will assist resellers in gaining the skills required to service their customer base comfortably."

This programme is focused on giving resellers access to Symantec (nee-Veritas) Backup-Exec training at both an administrator and a more advanced level.

"What's more," she states, "Storgate, in conjunction with Symantec (Veritas) Education, is currently the only active training facility for Backup Exec in South Africa. Add to this, the fact that Storgate has the only two certified Backup-Exec trainers, one of whom was the first certified Backup Exec professional in the country and it's clear that nobody is better positioned to provide resellers with the knowledge required than ourselves. "

Vermij says Storgate's training programme also adds massive value outside of the Backup Exec realm, by providing resellers with the contextual knowledge that allows them to use their certification in the field.

"More resellers are taking into account the value and sense of personal growth among employees who have certification such as this. At the same time these resellers recognise that gaining knowledge and insight into this market space allows them to troubleshoot issues themselves before contacting the distributor for assistance, thereby offering their customers a higher level of service.

"Certifications such as the one Storgate offers also allow resellers to move up the food chain," she says, "enabling them to draw up firm service level agreements, both to provide the services required and to effect a skills transfer to their customers' internal IT staff. "

With regards to the format used for the training programme, Vermij says Storgate has chosen practically focused instructor-led courses over any other method. This more interactive approach ensures greater knowledge retention and allows resellers to place the knowledge they've gained into the context of their own business.

"The courses stretch over three days and an additional two days for the administrator and advanced curriculum respectively. Once this training programme has been completed, the reseller needs to make arrangements with Veritas to write the examination," she says.

Vermij says in Storgate's experience, training and skills development are becoming more critical to the success of resellers and their customers, particularly in the storage market.

"Generally administrators learn much of what they know from their predecessors. That means there's massive potential for the mistakes of the past and the possibly inappropriate methodologies used by previous administrators to be replicated.

"Our course takes away the possibility for these problems to occur by covering the best practise methodologies and theories that the market has developed. This means that we don't just focus on the product, but on essential skills like disaster recovery and information lifecycle management," she concludes.