The International Communications Industries Association, Inc.® (ICIA®) and the International Communications Industries Foundation (ICIF) have announced that the ICIA Certified Member Program will become the Certified AudioVisual Solutions Provider (CAVSP)Program.
The move to CAVSP ties in with the AVolution Industry Awareness Campaign and its focus on professional AV solutions providers (AVSPs).
“We are grateful for the guidance of both ICIA and ICIF Boards of Governors as well as that of the Certification Subcommittee of the Professional Education and Training Committee on this important initiative,” said Randal A. Lemke, Ph.D., ICIA’s executive director. “Now there is a clear path for companies to achieve a competitive advantage when selling their services. Through the AVolution Awareness Campaign, they will agree to ten Standards of Excellence. Once they have done that, there are three levels for company certification, depending on the number of staff who have achieved certification.”
The new CAVSP Program will feature new logos (seals) for basic, silver and gold certified members. The seal indicates that companies or departments within organizations have achieved a level of certification among staff, a status that CAVSP companies can use to promote themselves to technology managers and business clients. Individual certification is known as the Certified Technology Specialist (CTS) program, and consists of general certification as well as specialized certification in design, installation, rentals or sales.
Companies eligible for CAVSP status include businesses that manufacture, sell, integrate, design, provide consultation on or rent AV equipment, systems and services. To achieve CAVSP status, the company must participate in AVolution by agreeing to 10 Standards of Excellence. Once a company has joined the campaign, it can apply for the appropriate level of certification.
Existing ICIA Certified Member Companies will be grandfathered into the CAVSP Program at the basic (general) level for one year to allow them time to increase their certification numbers to meet the new criteria. If these companies wish to apply for a higher (silver or gold) level at the beginning of the new program, there is no application fee.
An organization may apply for a higher level CAVSP certification at any time. The application for CAVSP certification will be available online beginning August 2003. It will require a listing of employees with CTS and specialized CTS status; the number of applicable employees in the specific job categories at a particular location; a signed copy of the organization’s AVolution Standards of Excellence indicating participation in the industry awareness campaign; and a fee of $200 for ICIA members and $500 for non-ICIA members.
General CAVSP certification recognizes that 25 percent of all sales, customer service and technical staff at a company location or in a department have and maintain general or specialized ICIA certification.
Silver certification recognizes that 50 percent of staff have and maintain ICIA certifications (or 25 percent general and 10 percent specialized certifications).
Gold certification recognizes 75 percent of staff have and maintain ICIA certifications (or 50 percent general and 15 percent specialized certifications).
The CAVSP certification is awarded for a period of three years. The participating organization is required to reapply at the end of three years. Certification is awarded on a location-by-location basis and does not extend to an entire organization unless all locations qualify based on the published criteria.
More information on ICIA’s certification program and educational courses is available at www.infocomm.org. More information on the AV Industry’s AVolution Awareness Campaign is available at www.avolution.info.
The International Communications Industries Association, Inc.® (ICIA®) is the premier trade association for the professional audiovisual communications industry. ICIA is the founder of InfoComm, the conference and trade exposition for audiovisual communications professionals who come to learn about the latest technologies and available services as well as new and alternative applications. ICIA serves its worldwide membership as the pre-eminent provider of education, training and certification.