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Acer America
Acer America Corp. is a computer manufacturer of business and consumer PCs, notebooks, ultrabooks, projectors, servers, and storage products.

Location

333 West San Carlos Street
San Jose, California 95110
United States

WWW: acer.com

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April 2, 2014 |

CompTIA Rolls Out New Open Access Model

The new model offers a free engagement level for individuals, additional benefits for premier members, and a redesigned website.

For the first time in its 32-year history, CompTIA, the non-profit association for the IT industry, is offering a no-cost engagement option for individuals, giving them access to channel education, industry research, news, and tools for helping channel partners conduct business. It’s part of CompTIA’s new open access model announced at the Annual Member Meeting (AMM) in San Diego today.

The open access model has been more than a year in the making, says Nancy Hammervik, senior vice president, industry relations, CompTIA, and has three major components: a no-cost level of engagement for “registered” users; a “premier” membership tier with exclusive business tools and priority access to content, plus other member privileges; and a redesigned, mobile-friendly website.

Opening up a no-cost level of engagement for individual registered users “maps to our mission of driving IT forward,” saysHammervik. “It’s a time of great transition in the channel, more than any other time.” A lot of IT providers know they need to transition their business models, but require help, she says. With its wealth of industry insight, research, Quick Start guides, and more, she says, “we were doing the industry and ourselves a disservice in only serving the 2,000 members we have.”

After getting board approval, CompTIA worked with its member leadership to develop the open access model. While new registered users may over time decide to become premier members (which is a corporate, not individual, membership), Hammervik says the intent is “honestly more about consumption of our content and impact on the industry than [driving] membership and dues. We have all this great content—in some cases it was the best kept secret, but we want to be the best kept resource.”

Hammervik says CompTIA has been doing a “soft launch” during the past few months of the registered user level, providing some content on its home page in front of the firewall and asking visitors if they want to engage. She says more than 5,000 have said yes.

Starting now, registered users will have access to FastTrack learning modules and Quick Start guides, plus IT industry research. Channel-specific research will be reserved for premier members for the first three months, then open to registered users. They will also be allowed to participate in CompTIA communities and low-fee events for solution providers, vendors, and distributors, as well as have access to CompTIA Trustmarks, a business credential designed to qualify and differentiate organizations.

As of April 1, 2014, all current CompTIA members will hold premier membership status and receive full benefits, including:

  • Priority access to all CompTIA training and education materials, as well as to CompTIA research
  • Exclusive access to business tools and services
  • Unlimited, complimentary CompTIA event registrations
  • Eligibility for community and council leadership roles and association voting rights
  • Fifty-percent-off Trustmark vouchers and discounts on additional CompTIA certifications
  • Vendor and distributor premier members receive targeted channel education and training development resources at no additional cost, including CompTIA instructors at their events, as well as booths at CompTIA ChannelCon and the EMEA conference.

Hammervik says the cost of dues will not change. Annual dues for solution providers are $250; vendor and distributor pricing ranges from $625 to $5,000; associate companies that offer professional services to IT channel firms pay $1,000.

Premier members can expect additional benefits going forward, Hammervik says. For instance, at AMM CompTIA announced a signup to beta test a new legal services offering for premier members that will help them assess legal risks, assist with contract building, and more.

Finally, the redesigned platform and website will go live in June, Hammervik says.

For more details about CompTIA’s new open access model, or to become a CompTIA registered user or premier member, visit https://www.comptia.org/members.aspx.


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