Madrid: New Certification Program In Development

In the previous post I talked about the "un-conferences " we are thinking of holding. While that is a big and exciting thing, a more fundamental shift is occurring with development of a new GRAPA certification program. Specialist certificates will now be awarded for two to three day trainings in specific functions and technologies such as post-paid, pre-paid, interconnect, roaming, churn management, margin assurance, new product development assurance, 3G and WiMAX. We have talked to a lot of people and found that though they want certification, it is difficult to pack it all into one time frame. Revenue Assurance Professionals are busy people after all!

So in response we are going to segment things down so GRAPA members can get certificates in shorter spurts, yet move towards full certification over time.One of those existing full certifications is the Certified Master of Revenue Assurance Management (CM-RAM), and we will be unveiling others for those who specialize in Forensics, Operations, Revenue Optimization, Revenue Maximization, Fraud Management and IT. These different Master Certifications allow us to recognize and help support professionals in the many different specialized areas in which they work.

This change in certification structure is a huge challenge for us, but people we have talked to seem very excited about the approach. In the near future we will also offer a major new churn curriculum, as well as certifications for Internal Auditors and Regulator Compliance, to be taught over several days. We will be offering these new courses and certification trainings around the conference event.

And if we were not convinced already about this change, being here in Madrid and hearing our attendees talk about assuring next generation technologies  like 3G would be enough to change our minds.