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IBM, Lotus, Netscape, Novell and Sun Microsystems Announce Plans for Internet Training and Certification Consortium Leading Internet Vendors Plan to Deliver Multi-vendor Global Standard For Internet Education OREM, Utah -- December 17, 1996 -- IBM, Lotus, Netscape Communications, Novell and Sun Microsystems announced plans for the formation of a worldwide Internet training and certification consortium. These vendor companies envision providing customers and Internet service professionals with an efficient, integrated approach to Internet and intranet training and certification. The goal of the Consortium will be to create a multi-vendor global standard for Internet training and certification that maps to job tasks borne out of Internet and intranet technologies. The program will be designed for technical support professionals and channel partners worldwide and will be complementary to participating vendors' existing training and certification programs. Participating vendor and industry research show that reducing the redundancy in vendors' courses will help organizations to realize immediate value -- both through better utilization of their employees' time in learning job-critical skills, and through the accelerated acquisition of varied support skills necessary for complex, multi-vendor environments. "One of the greatest barriers to capitalizing on the commercial opportunity of the Internet has been the lack of skills and knowledge in the marketplace," said Bob Kazarian, president of Charles River Strategies in Wellesley, Mass. "This certification and training initiative provides a clear multi-vendor standard and customer value." Kazarian added, "Participating vendors understand their interdependence in recognition of an $80 billion (US) Internet services, software and product revenue opportunity through 1998. This program is driven by the needs of current and future customers for trained, qualified individuals whom they can rely upon to support their critical business activities, and the growing need of their business partners to eliminate redundancy." Organizations and individuals seeking training and certification will benefit from the combined strengths and cooperation of the participating companies. The vendor companies plan to invite and welcome other industry players to join in this collaborative effort. Members of the Consortium plan to appoint a third-party company to administer the Internet training and certification program, which will be rolled out in 1997. The Consortium will initially be focused on commerce, connectivity, enterprise messaging, security and solution development.
For More Information To learn more about IBM's Internet Specialty education, visit http://www.internet.ibm.com/partner. For more information about BESTeam, IBM's channel partner program, visit http://www.software.ibm.com/sw-sell/best.html or call 1-800-426-1822, option 6 then option 1 in the U.S. and 1-800-IBM-CALL in Canada. Information about IBM education and training offerings can be found at: http://www.training.ibm.com/ibmedu. For more information about Lotus Education, visit http://www.lotus.com/laec. For more information about the Lotus Business Partners Program, visit http://www.lotus.com/partners. For additional information on Netscape's Educational Services program, visit http://home.netscape.com/assist/tech_ed/index.html. For more information on the Novell Certified Internet Professional program and supporting courseware offerings, visit http://www.netboss.com. For more information on the Master CNE and associated courseware, visit http://education.novell.com/certification/mcneindx.htm [now www.novell.com/education/certinfo/mcne/]. Users within North America can also call Novell at 1-800-233-EDUC. Users outside North America can call 1-801-222-7800. For additional information on Sun Microsystems Educational Services program, visit http://www.sun.com/sunservice/suned. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Lotus is a registered trademark of Lotus Development Corporation. Netscape is a trademark of Netscape Communications Corporation. Novell is a registered trademark. Master CNE and Novell Certified Internet Professional are registered service marks of Novell, Inc., in the United States and other countries. Sun, the Sun logo, SunService, and Sun Microsystems, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
Press Contacts:
Eric Sall
Jody Kramer
Jennifer Johnson
Shirley Quastler |
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