NetGain Technologies is doing its part to restore the ailing economy by building the skills of its workforce, helping them gain certifications that help them serve customers and drive business.
The MSP’s workers are part of a remote systems engineers (RSE) team, and here NetGain pressed for more training. The RSE went nearly crazy with these certs, and increased the level of these credentials last year 189 percent. That’s roughly three times what they achieved in 2012.
The primary focus was Cisco, EMC, HP and Microsoft.
Certifications are good, but there has long been a debate as to how good. Many certification mills focus on just cramming for the exam, and don’t teach the larger skills that underlie the tests. Fortunately the industry has driven many of these cram shops out of existence.
The NetGain
NetGain sees these certs as helping build a more skilled workforce that can help drive overall economic growth.
The skills help customers as well.
“Many of our clients would rather pay a little more to solve their IT problems faster. They also like the fact that their money stays in the community,” said Bret Anderson, NetGain Technologies’ vice president of marketing and development.
With the new skills, NetGain employees can better offer Tier 1 and 2 Help Desk service, and solve more difficult problems with less escalation – which takes time and costs money.
This training also gives local tech a greater chance to move forward, and offers local customers better talent to support their needs.
“We’ve learned that people trust local experts,” said CEO Mark Jacobson. “We are able to help our clients solve their technology issues quicker and with more accuracy than low cost providers. This kind of intensive training extends beyond the walls of NetGain Technologies, positively affecting our local communities.”
And NetGain has been on a hiring spree. Last March, NetGain announced a major expansion, hiring 17 new workers to support Technology OneSource managed IT service. The workers include 6 new remote systems engineers.
NetGain Boosts its Own Cert
While individual employees were working on their certifications, the company as a whole was achieving its Service Organization Controls (SOC) 2 certification.
So why should anyone care about SOC 2? A standard promulgated by The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) issued, SOC 2 is an extension of the SSAE 16 certification. Where SSAE revolves around financial controls and compliance, SOC 2 revolves around non-financial controls, such as privacy and confidentiality, availability and security.
SOC 2 is based on four Trust Service Principles, Communications, Policies, Procedures and Modelling, according to SSAE-16.com.
OC 2, a follow-up to SOC 1, is a relatively new accomplishment. SOC 2, at least in part, was in response to the move to SaaS and other hosted services, and the need to secure these new approaches.
Edited by
Ryan Sartor
