AXELOS introduced the ITIL Practitioner certification in early 2016. While other courses of ITIL mainly focus on “What is ITIL,” the ITIL Practitioner is designed to teach “How to adopt and adapt ITIL.” It is a welcome step as it seeks to address the concern related to “How to get started with ITIL.”

The ITIL Practitioner shows you how to adopt and adapt ITIL best practices into your organization and make ITIL come to life. It helps you get beyond the best practices and see how to use them to streamline your organization and save money.

The ITIL Practitioner course has included several modern concepts, interactive tools, and templates, and most importantly the people aspect of ITSM implementations through key modules such as Organization Change Management (OCM) and Communication.

The ITIL Practitioner exam requires thorough study and understanding.  You will be expected to have read the book and to understand how to adopt and adapt what you learned.  For the first time in the history of ITIL, there is a provision for open book format for the ITIL Practitioner certification exam.  You are allowed to mark up the pages and know where to find information so it may help you during the exam.  While this sounds as though it makes the exam easier, it is actually the opposite.  You really need to know the book inside and out before you take the exam.  You must be able to find what you need quickly and use it to select the correct answer.  This is a very different exam and you will need to plan differently to pass.

Why is the Exam is Open Book?

The ITIL Practitioner course deals mainly with the concepts that support the deployment of ITSM principles. The exam requires the students to adopt, adapt and apply ITIL best practices. The official course material consists of tools and templates such as KPI Balance Checklist, Communication campaign checklist, Business case, etc. which are used for various purposes. You need to have a working knowledge of these tools in order to correctly implement them in real-world situations. Thus, ITIL Practitioner certification exam is designed to assess your ability to apply the ITSM principles. A majority of the questions in the exam are related to different situations where understanding the context is more important than memorizing concepts. Thus, an open book format enables students to focus on contextual applications of the concepts without spending time in remembering the principles.

Here is a quick guide to help you prepare for the exam:

1.) Remember to Prioritize the Concepts

In this type of exam, your interpretation of the concepts is crucial. However, you need to study the concepts thoroughly and memorize some of them so that you don’t need to refer the book to answer every question. You will not have adequate time to do so. Thus, you need to prioritize the concepts that you should memorize. For instance, read and understand the case studies given in the book so that you don’t waste your time reading the cases during the exam.

2.) Form a study group

Study groups work well for any studies. It is particularly helpful in the preparation of ITIL Practitioner certification exam. By discussing ideas and sample questions with others, you will have a better understanding of the applicability of the concepts in different contexts. The study conversations with friends may also help you recall the ideas during the exam. The discussions also assist in making right assumptions while solving some questions.

3.) Use the book in the mock tests

If you are planning to use the book in the exam, then practice the mock tests in the similar fashion. By doing so, you will have a better understanding of how to search for the information in the book quickly and what preparation you need to make to score well in the final exam. In short, it will be of immense help in strategizing your certification exam.

4.) Mark key information in the official book

Bear in mind that only official handbook along with tabulation of its content is allowed in the exam. Since you have 135 minutes to answer 40 questions, you can’t spend significant time in searching for relevant information in the book. Thus, you should mark key ideas and tabulate them neatly so that you can find the relevant concepts quickly.

5.) Learn Time Management

Try to solve those questions first that don’t require any help from the book. Some of the questions might be very confusing and take a lot of time to solve them correctly even with the support of the book. Answer them towards the end of the exam. You must manage your time effectively so that you don’t miss many easy questions in the quest of solving a few tough ones or spending too much time on searching information in the book.

6.) Maintain Examination Temperament

Maintaining exam temperament and handling pressure effectively is the key to success in an open book exam format like this. There could be many questions which are vaguely worded and require you to make assumptions. It may be frustrating at times, to read and reread the questions and make assumptions when you are under pressure. You need to be calm, read the questions objectively and maintain your cool while tackling such issues.

7.) Write The Exam when you are Confident

Unlike traditional classroom programs, GogoTraining offers a self-paced learning environment where you have the flexibility to learn the essential concepts required for ITIL Practitioner certification at a time and place of your choice. Take advantage of the flexibility and write the exam when you are fully understood all the concepts. You will also have access to to the instructor to ask all the questions regarding exam preparation.

 Conclusion

Although ITIL Practitioner certification is not a prerequisite for ITIL Intermediate Level qualifications, it carries three credits towards ITIL Expert certification. Moreover, it is an excellent course because you learn how to adopt and adapt ITIL best practices which will make you a key employee, one that everyone wants to have on their team.  A carefully planned approach, thorough study and some practice you can easily get comfortable with open book format and score well in the exam.

IT professionals need to upgrade their skills constantly to stay relevant for the long term. Top performers understand the importance of continuous learning. Therefore, they actively seek knowledge and get certified in various fields to accelerate their professional growth.

Many IT professionals choose an online course to gain certification. GogoTraining has been certifying IT Asset Management professionals in Certified Software Asset Management (CSAM), Certified Mobile Asset Management (CMAM) and Certified Hardware Asset Management (CHAMP) for more than 10 years and offers superior training from industry professionals who are masters of their functional areas.

In this article, we will analyze the main advantages of learning IT Asset Management (ITAM) skills:

1 – High Demand

In past few years, organizations have substantially increased their spending on IT Assets. For most businesses, the investment in IT assets is their second biggest expenditure. Moreover, significant compliance and regulatory risks are associated with the usage of the assets. Therefore, most of them need dedicated professionals to manage these assets efficiently. This has led to a massive surge in the demand for IT Asset managers. Limited availability of certified ITAM professionals has resulted in a huge gap in the demand and supply of ITAM professionals. Thus, a certification in IT Asset Management will open the doors to unlimited opportunities for IT professionals.

2 – Global Recognition

Professionals with IT Asset Management skills are required for firms of all sizes across the world.  A certification in IT Asset Management will bring global recognition.

This is because a qualified Asset Management professional knows the nuances of contract management, vendor management, effective reporting, tools implementations, and operations management. Thus, they have the option of moving to other areas of IT management. They can even become Software Category Managers or Process Framework specialists. This kind of exposure helps ITAM professionals to interact flawlessly with global IT leaders.

Very few IT disciplines provide such an intense cross-functional exposure which turns managers of today into global leaders of tomorrow.  

3- Prerequisite for Many Top IT Roles

For many IT roles, especially in Fortune 500 companies, knowledge of IT Asset Management is a precondition. It means even if the candidates are qualified enough to apply for a job, they may not be eligible for the interview if they don’t have the basic knowledge of IT Asset Management.

An analysis of job advertisements by large multinational IT firms reveals that most of them have made IAITAM certifications mandatory. Thus, the demand for IAITAM certifications is growing rapidly.  Knowledge of IT Asset Management is necessary to grow professionally in large IT firms.

4 – Host of Unexplored Career Opportunities

ITAM experts can navigate a career path which very few can imagine.

They start their career as analysts using standard tools to collect raw data and normalize it according to the vendor reporting standards. Then they generate the compliance summary report by reconciling the normalized data with contract entitlements.

In some companies, the dedicated Asset Management teams takes care of global contracts and provides license consulting services. Many companies have made SAM (Software Asset Management) a part of their consulting practices. They help clients in optimizing IT investments and also make them renewal & audit ready. They also become Subject Matter Experts of large publishers like Oracle and Microsoft. Later, they start deploying these licenses and provide consulting services in IT Asset Management and its auditing.  These consultants also have the option to become implementation specialists and work for tools providers.

Many IT Asset managers become Vendor Managers, Sales Leaders, and Contract Negotiators, etc. Many others move to Service Management.

A  few of these professionals choose to become auditors and either participate in auditing activities at customers’ premises on behalf of publishers or work directly with publishers.

It is evident that IT Asset Management has something for everyone. Whether you are a technical person, a salesman, a business oriented person or a compliance guy; you will have immense opportunities to showcase your skills and move forward in your career like a boss.

5 – Excellent Compensation

Given the length and breadth of roles of ITAM professionals, they are entitled to command a better salary than their peers. A survey by “Salary.com” indicates that “IT Asset Managers earned a median wage of $102,571 in December 2016.” This figure is estimated to grow further for next few years. Since most of the ITAM professionals come from diverse backgrounds, their compensation depends on their work experience. However, most of the IT professionals see a growth in their salary and designation in the long term after learning IT Asset Management skills.

Bottom line

Investment in IT Asset Management learning and certification can pay you rich dividends over time. From asset management analyst to IT Strategists and Intellectual Property Management, you can explore several fields in IT which are unexplored and waiting to be capitalized. In the time when most of the IT jobs are at risk due to increased automation at the workplace, IT Asset Management can be a life saver for many IT professionals. Thus, learning IT Asset Management and acquiring a relevant certification can prove to be one the best career decisions of your life.  

If you are interested in learning how to get certified as an IT Asset Manager, GogoTraining.com  has everything you need.  Let us know how we can help you succeed!

IT Security is one of those often spoken about but not always executed well topics. How aware are you of the breaches going on? Here’s a just a few from the long list for 2012:

• Over 1,400,000 IDs were compromised in US based public health databases alone (in 2012 to date). These were linked to their social security numbers.
• Over six million passwords were stolen in a hack of the professional networking site linkedin.com.
• Hours ahead of its planned protest against certain incidents of internet censorship in India , hacker collective Anonymous attacked and brought down the website run by Computer Emergency Response Team India (CERT-I n), the country’s premier agency dealing with cyber security contingencies.
• Hackers Target Police, City of Chicago Websites before the NATO summit (supposedly when security would be high!) temporarily crippling them.
• The website of the Afghan Taliban was repeatedly taken down for the third time in less than a year crippled the main website of the Afghan Taliban, with a Taliban spokesman on Friday blaming Western intelligence agencies amid an intensifying cyber war with the insurgents. The unidentified hackers broke into the Taliban’s El Emara.

So what are we in store for in 2013? Here are the top areas to consider in IT security for 2013.

1. The Cloud – questions of security are more complicated because of oversight and qualifications. With the Cloud being so new, assessments of providers don’t offer years of data yet.
2. Consumerization – with many companies moving to mobile devices, the management of different security profiles, a range of levels of trust with users and devices, and a diverse set of end points is a complex and diverse task.

Source: Gartner Group report, OpenSpace.com

As part of our March Madness Program we are giving away a course to every 100th person to Register for a Free Account. All you have to do is create a Free Account and tell us which course you would like to win.  This promotion will run through March 2012.  Don’t hesitate, Sign Up for Free TODAY!

Based on a NetworkWorld November 2011 survey, the answer is YES.  Of the 700 network professionals surveyed 60% said certification led to a new job; 50% said they earned more pay, 40% said their pay increased by more than 10% and 29% said that getting certified led to a promotion.

The other fact that came out in the survey is that EXPERIENCE is mandatory.  Taking courses and passing exams alone will not do the trick. I’ve been in the field of technical training for 22 years and think that certifications help employers and perspective employers asses candidates.  If you are employed and up for a pay raise and can show certifications among your accomplishments that may boost your bottom-line.  If you are competing for a job and show certification in key areas, that may boost your chances when compared to the other candidates.

My bottom-line where training is concerned is to make sure that whatever is being taught that learning actually takes place.  If you decide to get certified make sure you pick a training partner that uses instructors that work and teach in their field.  Make sure the courses teach by example and include hands-on labs so you get to work with the technology and implement what you are learning.  Make sure your training provider offers after class support.  This is especially important if you are taking a live classroom course.

If you have any questions or I can help in any way, you can reach me at 1.877,546.4446 x707 or by email at marianne@gogotraining.com.

View full article:  http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/111411-it-certifications-lead-to-higher-pay-252852.html

A survey last year by Manpower indicated 84% of those currently employed (at the time) were interested in pursuing opportunities with a new employer.  This showed a few things: a climb in confidence among the general public, a clear interest in personal improvement, and a desire to make a move even if only for the sake of some motion.

It also showed a lot of us are either on the move or wanting to be.  Where it comes to IT professionals, there are some positions where that kind of motion is difficult to do without causing a lot of interruption and consternation with one’s former employer.  Many companies are tied around a handful or even one IT resource who “knows where everything is” and whose knowledge are so unique that nobody can really take it over.

Here are a few tips for IT professionals who know they are in a unique position but want to leave without leaving the old business hanging.

Do an assessment meeting.  Get your boss and a few people who make sense in the company or department into a room and get honest.  Enumerate all the areas that will need to be handled on a daily, weekly, monthly and ad hoc basis.  For that list, indicate what sort of skills, knowledge and tools are necessary and give an idea of how much time investment to expect for doing said tasks by someone of average knowledge.  Start the conversation that needs to happen, the one where the company starts making decisions on who will take over what, how that will happen, and when.

 This does a few great things for you.  First, it covers your rear end by showing you are up front.  Second, it lets you get everything out in the open so everyone learns and understands all the moving pieces involved; people like that and it will reflect positively on you.  Third, in doing this you are being proactive about making a graceful handoff.  This is something that will NOT go unnoticed by your current employer and will also enhance your image.

Document what you know. After the meeting, write everything down and email it out to everyone after the meeting.  Following on that, spend some time thinking about each of the major points and start documenting what you know.  What should you write down?  Exactly what you wish you could be told or handed if you just arrived and were responsible for handling that piece.  Don’t try to write technical documentation or else you’ll get bogged down in devilish details that serve nobody.  Allow yourself some creative license.  If it really is important to say “That server needs to be rebooted every once in a while until we replace it,” then write it down.  That 4-second sentence could save your company tons of time and money.

When you are finished documenting, make sure it is all in an orderly fashion.  Form it as a report that can be handed from to the new person or persons.  Give it to your boss in hardcopy and put a soft copy on your primary machine and the company network as well.  Then it can be easily found.

Brush up what you need to. Through the course of having that assessment meeting and then documenting all sorts of things, you will come up with a short list of things that you basically should take care of before you leave.  Open ends, loose strings and other things that needed addressing but didn’t have the time for during the normal course of things.  This is the time to do those things.  You don’t have to tell anyone what those things are if you are worried about looking less than fastidious, but just get them done and when someone asks what you’re working on just tell them you’re getting everything in shape for the next person to take over.  That’s all they need to know and they will like hearing it.

Leave your info and be available.  Leave it with your boss and also that person you sit next to or speak with the most that you know will need to ask you questions after you’re gone.  Be sure to answer those questions, even if it costs you lunch hours at your new job and dinner time at home.  The questions will only last for a week or two then tail off.  If they don’t, after a few weeks tell your old employer perhaps it would be better to hire a contractor (or offer your own services at a reasonable rate if your schedule will allow it).  Either way, making yourself available during this time is critical in preserving all the good will you’ve built up during your time with the old employer.  That kind of thing can be obliterated by a few unanswered phone calls and emails after you leave even if you were an outstanding employee for five or more years before you left.

Transitioning from one job to another is difficult enough for people in non-technical jobs.  As an IT professional, you hold keys to kingdoms that are critical to the company and your very reputation and job reference from them will depend on how gracefully you bow out.

***

Want some quick and easy IT training to sharpen your skills or add a new one?  Check out the GogoTraining IT training course catalog.  Get courses taught by real industry experts in an online, self-paced and VERY affordable format.

Do you have IPv6 training or experience on your resume?  If so, you’re probably already getting a lot of calls for work and will continue to get them through this year (and probably beyond).

The world transition from IPv4 to IPv6 is heating up the market for those with IPv6 on their resume, either trained or experienced.  Deadlines are coming closer for organizations in the public and private sector alike.  The Federal government in the U.S. is required to be updated to IPv6 on all websites by or before September 2012.  Private-sector businesses need to update to the new protocol or they will start being unavailable to the newest devices that are shipping with IPv6 addressing.

Networking engineers and software developers with IPv6 training, such as that found in TCP/IP In Action with David Zimny will benefit greatly, especially those currently out of work or looking to re-enter their primary career field.  Having knowledge of the protocol is rapidly moving from “should know for when the time comes” to being the industry standard.

If you could use a ticket to get hired and having this protocol would make sense on your resume, get IPv6 training today with TCP/IP In Action.  It’s affordable, easy and taught by industry-expert David Zimny (so you know you’re getting excellent coverage).

There is a myth persisting where it comes to data center jobs.  Those willing to understand the true landscape stand to gain a great deal in the job market.

The myth is that data center jobs are going away as enterprises move to the Cloud.  It isn’t true.  Gartner analyst Dave Cappuccio sets us straight in pointing out that “when virtual infrastructures are using SAN’s, and Fiber Channel is running over Ethernet, who has responsibility for the overall storage environment; the network team, storage team, virtualization team, or server team?  All of the above.”

New recruits able to meet the demands of tomorrow’s data centers are needed.  Dr. Mickey Zandi points out that while “data center hiring isn’t in crisis yet, it’s already difficult to find qualified people.”  Consolidation of systems such as storage, network and computing save the data centers money but increase the qualification needed from employees. 

 Zandi recommends companies invest in the training needed to deal with these more advanced environments.  He points out that certifications will increase in importance, such as cloud-related certifications from Cisco, EMC and VMWare, and he recommends that workers do more training, research and learn other domains.

Learn more about IT certification paths for key technologies.

The U.K. Office of Government Commerce (OGC) began phasing out v2 publications and qualifications for ITIL in June of 2010.  The formal movement from v2 to v3 continues through June 30, 2011 when the availability of the Manager’s Bridging qualification ends.  At that point, ITIL will be offered strictly in the v3 format of qualification.

Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), the professional best practice definition for IT service management, is a valuable addition to anyone who is responsible for information technology service management.  There are four exam levels: Foundation, Intermediate, Expert and Master. 

Get ITIL Foundation and Intermediate training courses from GogoTraining, offering outstanding instruction from industry experts such as Neal Rowland, Sue Southern, and Helen Morris.

Have you updated to v3 yet?  Have you obtained your ITIL certification?

If there was ever a time to do an awareness check on your situation and make sure your career – and employment – is in the “safe and moving forward” zone, it is now. 

“In this economy” has become the preamble to all sorts of reminders of good advice on how to survive and thrive.  Let this be another one!  With that said, here’s four ways to keep your job and maybe even do a little advancing this year:

Dust off your communication skills.  It’s time to start speaking up in those horrifying status meetings.  A sure sign of being overlooked by management is to glaze over like a donut in the back of the room while they drone on about what features are being pushed to phase two.  Ask questions, make suggestions, and bring new ideas.  It matters less what you say and more that you try.  Trying gets noticed, and the noticed get remembered.

Improve your visibility.  Meet and converse regularly with the key decision makers in your department.  Ask your boss how else you can help.  Keep your ears out for opportunities to pitch in on other projects.  Keep the project manager updated on your status.  Be positive in all interactions while you’re at it.

Ask for feedback – and use it.  Ask your project manager and/or boss how you’re doing.  Ask what can be improved or what skill sets your department needs to sharpen or gain.  If you’re not sure how to obtain those skills, ask for training.  Even if you are sure, ask for training.  If you get feedback of a personal nature, do your best to make the changes suggested (or implied).  Overall, it is important to show that you are acting on feedback instead of just soliciting it.

Continually educate yourself.  Start by making sure you are staying current in you field.  It could be as simple as attending the right conference and taking a few online courses each year to stay up on trends and keep sharp on new industry developments.

Next, look to add to your skills.  A great way to add texture to your skill set is by obtaining project management skills.  The new protocol in IT as of 2011 is to diminish costs and increase efficiency, and producers who are trained in project management are sure bets on how to do that.  Why?  Because chances are high that a project could be taken on by as little as one to three people and there aren’t enough project managers to be had for such small teams.  If you’re a hardware or development geek who was just handed a two-week or two-month project to work on you need to be your own project manager – and you better know how to do it well.

GogoTraining can help with a catalog of over 140 outstanding IT training courses and a free library of podcasts regarding IT topics (with over 500 entries).  Some particularly hot areas include:

• Our brand-new Android Development Training Program.
• ITIL training courses.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification exam prep courses.
• Oracle training courses including Data Guard, Grid Control and Application Express.
• Our list of IT certification paths and included courses.