Two years after Ricoh Singapore successfully teamed with CompTIA to enhance its global brand in office automation equipment through certification, the site is at it again with a new workforce challenge.
The Enterprise Business Solutions Group is seeking CompTIA Project+ certification after the entire group (known at the time as Technology and Solutions Group) was awarded the CompTIA Certified Document Imaging Architect (CDIA+) credential in the spring of 2010.
Bruce Murphy, Ricoh Singapore’s Strategic Marketing Manager, said this week that with the success from CompTIA CDIA+, the plan was for the entire group to be certified in CompTIA Project+ within the next three months.
Ricoh Singapore initially sought out CompTIA in 2009 after recognizing that an enhanced skill set for its staff would translate to better service for its customer base.
“We needed a consistent and objective way to evaluate our competencies,” said Murphy. “The rigorous certification process of CompTIA CDIA+ has provided us with that benchmark by requiring demonstrated competence in document management.”
Diving fully into the challenge, Murphy himself developed and conducted an in-house program that blended education with internal projects. Participants had to pass more than 50 product and solutions assessments conducted through the Ricoh Asia Pacific Learning Management System as a certification prerequisite.
Lawrence Chua, a Senior Manager with the group, found programs such as CompTIA CDIA+, with its foundation rooted in best practices, a “wakeup call” for any industry professional, including his group which had relied quite a bit on their own understanding of providing services to customers.
“The CompTIA certification program brought us back to proper guidelines of how document management solutions should be planned and deployed,” said Chua, whose Ricoh tenure dates back seven years.
The certification payoff for Ricoh Singapore? Pre-sales consultants have acknowledged added structure in their roles and confidence in their customer interactions. Site management was so pleased as to mandate CompTIA CDIA+ certification for all pre-sales staff going forward, according to Murphy.
And CompTIA Project+ is only the latest step, he noted. Site plans also include the CompTIA Green IT Certificate, though that initiative is currently limited to just Chua and Murphy. In addition, the group is evaluating the CompTIA IT for Sales Certificate program.
