Making it Easy to Do Business with VMware
VMware’s “Making It Easier to Do Business with Us” and subsequent initiatives identified and resolved significant user experience issues for VMware’s certification candidates and staff. “VMware has greatly simplified its operation and registration processes, improved our candidate registration experience and candidate view of their certification records and benefits,” said Carey Hardey, VMware’s Senior Manager, Worldwide RACE Operations.
The initial project included implementation of Single-Sign-On between multiple systems including VMware’s internal LMS and VMware’s external certification management system (CertMetrics™ provided by Alpine Testing Solutions). “Prior to this project,” said Carey, “certification candidates experienced a confusing and frustrating multi-step process when starting their certification journey. Since the project was completed, we have eliminated 13% of our certification operations processes, decreased our certification support que by 47%, and reduced our candidate abandonment rate during registration. We have also decreased 100 hours per quarter in manual reporting activities.”
The initiative garnered VMware a finalist spot for an ITCC Innovation Award. But VMware did not rest on its laurels. Hardey and her team looked for additional opportunities to streamline the candidate experience. They found such an opportunity in their benefits operations. Being a world-class certification program, VMware provides their certified professionals with rewards and benefits at each level of the program. “Each of our five benefits levels had its own portal,” said Hardey. “Candidates who earned all five levels of benefits had to log in to five different portals!”
“We knew it was important for us to improve and simplify the candidate experience,” stated Hardey. “We were looking for an automated, one-stop shop that allowed candidates to easily access all of their certification benefits in one location, and that allowed us to monitor and track the results. We implemented the CertMetrics Benefits feature and have been extremely satisfied with the outcome.”
Because it is a feature within CertMetrics, which is part of VMware’s SSO solution, a mere mouse-click allows candidates to access earned rewards based on their level of participation. Gone are the days of finding and accessing five different portals. The user-friendly interface with customized text and tips makes it simple to see and claim available benefits. “The automation of the Benefits feature,” said Hardey, “has allowed us to further streamline the candidate experience and minimize human error. It has also allowed us to add different types of benefits, such as vouchers and gift card codes, that could not be managed or distributed in the previous portals.” Carey also noted an additional value add: improved reporting of metrics related to the benefits program.
“The CertMetrics Benefit functionality has even provided ways to support additional programs, such as digital badges. For example, our VMware Subject Matter Expert (SME) Rewards program allows SMEs to receive different level of benefits at each SME level achieved.”
Based on the value of the Benefits feature, stated Carey, VMware intends to expand its use in the future.
Interested in learning more about CertMetrics and the Benefits feature? Contact support@alpinetesting.com or, if you are a CertMetrics user, contact your Alpine Technical Program Manager for a tour of the CertMetrics Benefits feature and start providing additional benefits to your credentialed candidates! For more information on the Benefits feature, click here.