PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
Virtually all of us are reliant upon technology, whether in our business life or in our personal world. And yet there is no reliable, standard way for us to assess the professional skills of the enterprises that we trust to advise, supply, support, maintain and repair our digital needs. While some people in our channel may have some academic or technical qualifications, or may have participated in vendor training, there is no straightforward way of recognising this.
How can an enterprise be sure that all the people from the supplier or support companies that might be involved in its purchasing or support issues are up to the mark, or that they have insurance cover in the event of a catastrophic problem? The answer is they can’t. In fact, many independent resellers do not even have the basic protection of some standard terms and conditions.
Furthermore, there are, at present, few useful ways in which employers in our channel may reliably assess job applicants, or give them a clear professional development path. And there are no barriers to entry – anyone can set themselves up as a provider of advice, products or solutions, irrespective of their technology or business skills.
All it needs is for a large-scale scandal to develop around some sales or support issue or other (I’ll leave the lurid headlines to your imagination) and we’ll start to hear demands for ‘Government regulation of this cowboy industry’.
A true vendor-neutral industry standard accreditation for end-user facing individuals and their employers is overdue, as is mandatory professional indemnity assurance. And once we have this we need to promote it as hard as we can to our customers. They must be made aware of the benefits of dealing with a properly qualified and accredited individual or company, and the risks inherent in failing to do so.
And why am I writing about this right now? Quite simply, resellers who attended the TCA Conference on February 25th will have heard about our drive to establish the TCA Academy as a means of co-ordinating the myriad of professional and academic qualifications and accreditations. We’re also making professional indemnity insurance available to all of our resellers who operate acceptable terms and conditions. In case you hadn’t noticed, the TCA’s strapline is ‘Building Professionalism in the Digital Technology Channel’. It’s about time.
