Recent Study of the "Return on Investment" for IBM Certification (July 1999), Indicated Positive Business Results such as improved:

• Revenue (Profitability)
• Efficiency (Productivity)
• Customer Satisfaction (Credibility)

Study Included approximately 200 Business Partner Participants (cross disciplines & cross platforms )

Disciplines Selling hardware Selling software Selling e-business solutions Architecting/Designing Implementing Providing technical support Developing applications

Platforms IBM Lotus Tivoli Servers Software Application Dev

Investment in Certification Yields Positive Return on Investment

PROFITABILITY: Majority of respondents indicated certification has a positive effect on sales volumes, profitability, and ability to close a sale

Revenue
...increased your ability to close a sale?"	64%
...increased sales volume?"	59%

PRODUCTIVITY: Majority of respondents indicated that certification reduces the time it takes to perform various tasks

CREDIBILITY: Majority of respondents indicated that certification has a positive effect on customer satisfaction

Customer Satisfaction
...increased your company's customer satisfaction indicators?"	60%
...increased the number of customer referrals?"	60%