Hi Jeff, on paper yes this all looks a really good investment. However the sad reality is a lot of the contact centre people at customers (or even partners) just don't have the bandwidth to be able to go through all the courses the learning subscription has before it expires. Some that I have contact with may be lucky to have a couple of hours a week spare for this type of thing. So they end up forced to focus just on the learning subscription courses relevant to specific projects or work underway. Plus as good as an investment $3500 may seem, for the smaller contact centres that may well consume a large portion of their total annual training budget. If they opt to learn on the job or via resource centre then $500+ per exam can equally start to add up - especially if there's more than one person in the company they'd like to get certified. So the $3500 is paid out but ultimately only one or two courses from the entire catalogue end up being completed.
While the instructor led training does also seem good, in my own experience that wasn't overly much more than someone walking through the same material that's available to self-study and then breaking out while the learner does the labs. Generally you're also tied to the availability of those ILT instructors across time zones. It can also be frustrating if someone happens to come across an instructor who's not actually practically worked in live orgs before. Thankfully my own ILT guy had been around the block :)
For me personally the access to the lab orgs and exam vouchers was probably the most valuable part of the learning subscription. I was able to then use the lab orgs to carry out "exercises" more relevant to my particular business deployment/use case. That helped me understand the content much more.
As others have said here, I believe there's still room to review the standalone per-exam cost and look at whether or not the learning subscription pay-wall is actually holding back some people from diving into the great beyond ;) As Ryan's suggested, maybe some a-la-carte option - possibly multiple subscription levels? Role/function based like other content is?
Do we know how frequently the beyond content is reviewed against actual state/roadmap/releases?
Original Message:
Sent: 01-24-2025 13:24
From: Jeff Ritter
Subject: Request: Reduce prices for certification exams
Thank you all for the discussion and feedback! I have already passed the feedback along to our team regarding the cost for recert exams. Regarding the question about Genesys Cloud certs, they are valid for two years.
I also wanted to provide a little clarity around the Genesys Cloud Technical Learning Subscription as well as the included certification vouchers. One of the things that makes the Genesys learning subscriptions unique from other software companies is that it was originally created to enable existing Genesys customers and partners to become more knowledgable on the Genesys platform without having to pay the a-la-carte, per-day cost for individual courses (pre-2019). In other words, the original goal at launch was primarily training and enablement followed by certification. Since then, as you're all aware, the Genesys platform has evolved significantly and the desire for more training on more features has grown along with it. And, in that time we've also added many new Genesys Cloud certifications to meet growing demand for those seeking additional platform expertise.
A few of the key values of a Genesys Cloud learning subscription are the virtual, instructor-led training, the access to a lab environment, exam vouchers for all certifications, and year-long access to a growing library of almost 300 Genesys Cloud courses (ILT, self-study, and eLearning modalities) and 9 certifications (for context, we launched with just three courses and one certification in 2019). Having worked for a Microsoft ERP implementation partner previously, I know we never had access to live, human instructors - it was all [outdated] eLearning. As it stands today, Genesys customers and partners who get the most from their learning subscriptions are consuming the instructor-led training and also using the self-study and eLearning courses as references and/or in preparation for certification.
That said, I know each org and user may have unique needs and reasons for taking training and pursuing certification. If you'd like to discuss in more detail, please reach out to me via DM and we can set up some time to chat.
Thanks again!
------------------------------
Jeff Ritter
Beyond, Customer Success
Original Message:
Sent: 01-23-2025 17:35
From: Paul McGurn
Subject: Request: Reduce prices for certification exams
Genesys Beyond is likely the equivalent of the Engage Passport bit, but the street price on that is $3500/user/year, which is well outside the price range of someone not hooked up with a wallet-rich company, for value it'd add to the person's career/marketability.
For someone like me that is self-taught, I'm not willing to fork over $500-2500 to blast through certification exams, especially when they don't even document (that I could find) how long these accreditations even last. Are they forever? (doubt). Are they annual (price gouging would bey my reaction to that)
Hoping someone in Genesys can comment on this. It just feels like they are leaving a wide opportunity for people to specialize in their tech and evangelize, outside the simple partner relationship track they appear to be targeting. Not every CCNA/CCNP/CCIE is hooked up with some Gold or Platinum Cisco Partner.
I work for a MSP, and because they are not already "Genesys shop", getting budget for the exorbitant rates Genesys wants for this stuff is not likely when compared to more practical pricing on certs from Microsoft, Cisco, and Amazon (assuming they have one for Connect). So Genesys ends up pricing themselves out of partner opportunities by default, rather than taking the "make training and certs cheap, to build your partner bench and evangelist population" approach most larger corps are doing.
------------------------------
Paul McGurn
Manager, Telecom & DevOps
GoTo
Original Message:
Sent: 01-23-2025 14:52
From: Vaun McCarthy
Subject: Request: Reduce prices for certification exams
If you're coming at this from a customer perspective as opposed to a partner yes I'd agree with you here Paul. Depending though on your organisation size and footprint, there may be room for discussions with Genesys on this in your individual case. As partners there is a slightly different exam available that's considerably cheaper but that's only for the core GCP exam. If you're wanting to also sit the expert/sme type exams (WFM etc) then it all starts to add up.
The learning subscription on paper sounds like a good idea, but the reality is a lot of people struggle to find the time to actually go through all of the courses, and so end up focussing on just the key implementation/admin stuff so never really manage to get the full value out of it. What I recommend to people who've got the subscription is to at least get all the exam vouchers requested before the subscription expires. That gives them a somewhat extended window to sit other exams.
The exam price of around $500 seems to be on par with what I remember the Engage exams costing years ago so maybe Genesys have yet to move a bit with the times when you compare like you have with other industry/vendor certs. Given most of these have to be renewed every 2 years, and with some partners the number of certified people forms part of their partner level recognition, it's sometimes an expensive ask for some smaller organisations.
------------------------------
Vaun McCarthy
Original Message:
Sent: 01-23-2025 12:13
From: Paul McGurn
Subject: Request: Reduce prices for certification exams
I'd like to request Genesys reconsider its pricing model for certification exams. Genesys currently charges $500 per exam. This is pretty exorbitant when compared to other tech companies for certifications. This gates certification beyond the means of folks that don't work for companies willing to pay these high fees on their behalf, locking out entire swaths of integrators and enthusiasts unwilling to pay that much money out of pocket for this just to receive a Credly logo for their email signature.
- GCP exam, $500, has to be renewed? (can't easily find any info on renewal requirements)
- Webassessor says $500, Genesys Beyond FAQ says $580, so even that's inconsistent
- Microsoft Advanced Cert exam, $165, renewals are free
- Cisco comparable CCNA exam, $300
If Genesys sticks by this price point, I'd like to understand why it feels justified in charging 3+ times as much as a comparable certification exam. Yes, I'm aware cert exams are included in a Beyond subscription, but not everyone needs or wants to dump $3500/year (list price) to get access to training and cert exams when they are already confident in passing those exams without the training.
#Certification
------------------------------
Paul McGurn
Senior Manager, Telecom & DevOps
GoTo
------------------------------