Today at ISC Solutions Axis Communications announced that it will be launching a professional certification program for its partners — the Axis Certification Program.

“What we want to do with this program is to enable our partners to validate their knowledge, increase their credibility and ultimately provide a better overall experience for their customers, which are our customers as well,” said James Marcella, Axis Communications’ director, technical services.

Having a designation from Axis is “going to hopefully provide a more consistent level of service and expectations from the market in general,” he added.

In order to obtain the Axis Certified Professional designation, integrators will need to pass a 60-question exam that will cover, among other things, their knowledge of Axis products, product installation, aspects of system design, and general technology as it relates to IP surveillance. The best way to prepare for the exam, Marcella said, is through the Axis Communications Academy, which is a comprehensive offering of classroom training, online web-based training, webinars, tutorials and guides — all of which can be found on the Axis web site at http://www.axis.com/academy/index.htm.

The certification program will commence in January 2011, giving installation-channel partners time to prepare for the exam.

“We expect that people will have to study and prepare for this exam in order to pass it,” Marcella told ISC Solutions e-NEWS. “I do expect that somebody who has been involved in the industry for the last four or five years and has been working with IP-based solutions would probably be able to pass it with a refresher course.” He added that Axis will offer a one-day refresher course to help certification-seekers brush up.

Then, when they are ready to test, they can go to any one of the third-party testing facilities hosted by Prometric, which will proctor the closed-book exam. The cost to take the exam will be $150, Marcella said.

He emphasized that the Axis Certified Professional is “above and beyond” the certificate of completion that channel partners receive for completing Axis’ three-day course or another advanced class and taking a 20-question, open-book test.

“What we’re really trying to create is something similar to other major certifications found in the IT market, like the Microsoft certification,” said Domenic Locapo, PR specialist at Axis Communications. “We want at the end of the day for end users to ask, ‘Are you an Axis Certified Professional?’ We envision people putting this logo on their business cards, similar to ASIS and Microsoft certifications.”

To learn more about the Axis Certification Program, visit www.axis.com/certification.