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You have been introduced to the levels that can be achieved within
the PartnerWorld program. Skills attainment is one of the areas through
which you earn points toward the Advanced and Premier levels.
The following table identifies all of the key skills, both Sales and
Technical, across all key product and solution areas, for which a
partner firm receives one point toward the Advanced or Premier level
attainment. The minimum skills requirement must be achieved using only
IBM sales and technical skills. Beyond the minimum requirement, any
listed non-IBM skills in the table will also count as one additional
skill point for the Advanced/Premier level calculation.
Note: Business Partners who are authorized by IBM
to market products under selective distribution and who want to verify
contract compliance requirements for those products should refer to the
"product selection criteria" section of the appropriate
product exhibit
to the IBM Business Partner Agreement. These criteria and related
certifications, where they apply, are separate and distinct and may
have different expiration dates from those listed in the table below
for PartnerWorld level calculation.
The "Updated on" entry indicates the date the table was last updated.
Entries in this table can represent a certification or mastery skill.
The "Status" column and "Eligible Skills Name" together indicates three
levels of status of these skills:
- New/Active (or Active) skills: shown with the skills name
hyperlinked (to information about the skill on the www.ibm.com/certify site),
signify that these are the newest skills, and are available to be taken at Prometric test centers.
- Withdrawn skills: shown with no hyperlink, these skills
will qualify for PW skill points (and may qualify for BP programs and brand authorization),
but are no longer available to be taken at a test center.
- Expiring skills: shown with a date in the "Expiration Date" column,
these skills are not available to take, and will no longer count for PW skill points
effective on the date listed.
The table shows whether a named skill is a sales ("S") or technical ("T") skill.
Also noted in the table is information on versions of a named skill. The Skill code
("PW Skill Code") consists of two parts, the Skill's root number ("Cert#") and the skill's
version counter ("Ver"). When you see multiple versions of a skill listed, you will note
that their eight digit number in the "PW Skill Code" column have the same first six digits
in common, but the last two digits differ—indicating that these are consecutively newer
versions of that skill. It is good to remember this numbering convention as the PW Code
is used to identify skills in PPS, and in other BP programs, to refer to the skills
without using their names.
- Versions of the same skill: Where you see two or more skills within
the same brand category (e.g., Power Systems) that have the same numeric "Seq #"
and first six digits of the "PW Skill Code", this indicates multiple versions of
the same skill.
- Seq #: When you see multiple versions of a skill listed using the a, b,
etc under the "Seq #", you will also note that the eight digit number in the
"PW Skill Code" column have the same first six digits in common, but the last
two digits differ—and indicate that these are consecutively newer versions
of that skill.
- Newest version: The highest letter in the Seq# column, and the highest
number in the version counter column ("Ver"), indicates the newest version.
You should always take the newest version of a skill as it will continue to
count the longest for PartnerWorld skill points (and other BP programs that use this table).
- Counting for PartnerWorld skill points: Even if an individual person
holds more than one version of a multi-version skill, only one skill point will be
awarded in the calculation for the firm's Advanced or Premier level.
Periodically, new skills will be added to this table-e.g., certifications for
a newly announced product. Once added, they will immediately be used in
calculating your firm's points toward a new level. Occasionally, when a new
certification is added it may cause an older version of that skill to be removed
from the list. If a skill is to be removed at any point, it will be kept in the
table with an "expiration date" next to it indicating that it will no longer
count toward the firm's Premier/Advanced level after that (expiration) date.
This will give you a window (normally of at least 90 days) to recognize the
fact and replace that skill with its newer version or with another eligible skill.
When a Business Partner takes a test, their results are immediately calculated
and an Examination Score Report is generated prior to the Business Partner
leaving the testing room. For IBM certifications, the test results are
automatically fed to IBM, and kept in the certification database. Test results
with passing scores are evaluated against the certification requirements, and
when all requirements are met (for a given certification) the certification is
awarded and recorded into the database.
For the certifications to be counted towards the Business Partner's
skills attainment, the Business Partner should ensure that the employee's
profile in the PartnerWorld Profile System (PPS) includes the candidate ID
against which the certification has been recorded (the candidate ID can be
found on the Examination Score Report).
In the case of non-IBM accepted certifications the test vendor
does not automatically forward test results to IBM.
The Business Partner is therefore required to declare the certification
to IBM in the PPS system, and then forward to IBM a copy of the Certification
Skill Certificate to receive credit in the certification database. There are
several options available to complete the notification process. You should
always identify your Business Partner firm name, your email ID and list your
IBM certification ID (if you have one). The two steps for you to follow are:
First, you must manually "report" the achieved certification in the PartnerWorld Profile System (PPS). Please click on the following attachment for instructions.
Then, report in PPS.
Second, you must "send proof" of the achieved certification in one of the following ways:
e-mail: bpcert@us.ibm.com... with the scanned certificate attached (fastest and the least cost or delay to you).
or
Fax: 800-242-6329 (in USA), or 770-863-3030 (outside USA)... mark the Fax "attention: BP Certify"
(and include your e-mail address in case we need to correspond further with you).
or
Mail: Professional Certification Program from IBM
IBM Corporation
7100 Highlands Parkway, Mail Drop CO4-04
Smyrna, Ga 30082
USA
(and include your e-mail address in case we need to correspond further with you).
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