NterOne Announces NCI: A Cisco Partner Program and Training Management Application that Simplifies the Cisco Partner Relationship

NCI (NterOne Certification Intelligence) is the first software development project released by NterOne.  The product currently focuses on Cisco training and helping Cisco Partners manage their relationships with Cisco. Today, NterOne CEO Anthony Hamilton said, “There are already plans to expand the product by adding other technology leaders such as Microsoft and VMware. Eventually, all the major technology companies will be added to NCI.”

NCI is a multi-platform application supported by PC, Mac, Android and IOS devices.  The basic software plan will be available at no charge to end-users at their favorite app store. 

NCI helps engineers build customized Cisco centric training plans to attain career success through individual career certifications, (CCNA, CCNP or CCIE) technology specializations, and product training (UCS, Nexus, ASA, etc.) These individualized training plans culminate as a master training plan at the company level.

With NCI, Cisco Partners can manage their vendors’ relationships with Cisco to ensure that they are always in compliance with Specializations and Certifications (Gold, Premier, Select or Multi National and Global).  

The NCI application can be used to calculate annual training budgets. It can show the status of anyone’s training plan in real time.  Notifications are e-mailed at various timeframes to the engineer and to various individuals in the organization prior to the expiration of a currently active certification or exam. These notifications prevent the unwelcome surprise of an expired key exam or certification, which could cost the Cisco Partner thousands of dollars in valuable discounts.

Once notifications of expiring certifications and exams are automatically e-mailed by NCI, NterOne will work with partners and engineers to schedule training at times that cause minimal disruption to their schedules.  In addition to managing current Cisco Specializations and Certifications at the partner level, the application can also be used as a planning tool to assign backup engineers to fill key roles in the Cisco Partner relationship. 

The NCI application also has a mapping feature, so larger partners can visualize where their engineers are physically located. This feature will help in assigning engineers to local projects, thus streamlining travel expenses.

Another timesaving feature is that Partner Administrators or Training Managers are only a few clicks away from getting an overall picture of their entire talent pool. For example, suppose that the Training Manager is looking at “Engineer A” and sees that “Engineer A” has a CCNP Collaboration Certification. With one click, the Training Manager can see who else has their CCNP Collaboration Certification. This feature also works in reverse:  If you are looking at the CCNA Data Center Certification in NCI, you can see all of the engineers who also have that same certificate. The expiration dates of all exams and certifications that an engineer has are also listed so the Manager can not only see who has passed a certain exam or has a specific certification, they can see when that certification will expire.

Time and the ability to instantly verify are the biggest advantages NCI offers to the Cisco Partner, according to Bob Conner, NCI Product Manager. “Our application gives the Partner more time to sell and less time managing all the paperwork required to manage the partner relationship with Cisco,” Conner said. “It also allows the partner to make sure all of their engineers have trained on the latest Cisco technologies.”

NterOne CFO Kirk Hundley said, “Initial response has been very good during the beta phase of the project. Now that we have released the application, NterOne can fulfill a need that no one in the market currently addresses.”

For an NCI demo and to see how the application can help improve your bottom line, please contact Bob Conner at (330) 680-5733 or Bob@NterOne.com.

About NterOne: 

NterOne is a global training and consulting company focusing on live online training, self-paced e-learning, private onsite training, and software focused on the training industry. The company is headquartered in Reston, VA, and to reduce the company’s overall carbon footprint, the company mainly operates virtually by allowing its employees to work out of their home offices. NterOne is a Cisco Learning Partner, a VMware Authorized Training Center, and operates its own Data Center in North Carolina. The company’s key technology focus areas are Virtualization, Data Center, Routing and Switching, Voice, Collaboration, Optical, Wireless, and Security.

NterOne is a registered trademark of NterOne Corporation in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.