Home | Skip to Content | Skip to Search | Skip to Navigation | Skip to Footer |
Worldwide [change] |Register |About Cisco
Guest

Hierarchical Navigation

Partner Central

Role Requirements
Role Requirements Lab Equipment

Role sharing allows a single individual to fulfill similar roles across 2 or more specializations, based upon the specialization and the role. Cisco has reduced the number of unique individuals required across Express, Advanced, and Master Specializations, however, the total number of individuals required to achieve each certification level remains unchanged. A single qualified individual may fill only the AM role in up to a total of 4 specializations. A single qualified individual may fill only the SE role in up to a total of 2 specializations. A single qualified individual may fill only the FE role in up to a total of 2 specializations. Individuals may not cross-populate between the AM, SE and FE roles. SMB, CRM Express and VPN-Firewall specializations are not limited by the above allocation rules.

To achieve an Advanced Unified Communications Specialization, partners must fulfill each of the following defined job roles:

  1. Account Manager
  2. Systems Engineer
  3. Field Engineer

In addition to the above unique individual role requirements, the following four Cisco Qualified Specialist badges are required:

  1. Cisco Rich Media Communications Specialist
  2. Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Specialist
  3. Cisco Unity Design Specialist
  4. Cisco Unity Support Specialist

Any individual(s) who holds the above Cisco Qualified Specialist badges can meet this requirement, regardless of whether or not they are filling the required job roles (AM, SE or FE). The online application only checks that someone from the company holds these badges. These roles are not allocated.

Technology is continually evolving and therefore, Cisco specialization requirements are subject to change. Please refer to this site often to ensure that you meet all program requirements before you submit your specialization application.

View the Return on Investment for this specialization.

Refer to the Specialization Role Requirements Comparison Chart to view how exams relate to each Cisco specialization and roles.

Cisco Advanced Unified Communications Specialization requirements are as follows:

Account Manager
Responsible for Advanced Unified Communications sales methodology and customer engagement.

Required Prerequisite:

  • Cisco Sales Expert (#646-203)
    NOTE: Exam #646-203 will retire on May 24, 2008. That exam may be used to meet the CSE requirement for this role until that date, after which it will no longer be accepted. The replacement for this exam is #646-204. Candidates for this role are encouraged to pass #646-204 instead of #646-203 beginning January 11, 2008.

    or
  • Cisco Sales Expert (#646-204)

Required Exams:

Note: The Lifecycle Services exam has become part of the required exam set to achieve the Cisco Advanced IP Communications Sales Specialist certification effective May 16 2008. As a result, the exam will no longer be displayed here as an independent exam, but may be found on the Cisco Advanced IP Communications Sales Specialist page. This does not change the overall number of required exams to qualify for this role.
View Learning Map (Requires PEC login)

[Return to Top]

Systems Engineer
Presales engineer; responsible for Unified Communications solution planning and design.

Required Prerequisite:

Required Certification:

Note: The Lifecycle Services exam has become part of the required exam set to achieve the Cisco IP Telephony Design Specialist certification effective May 16 2008. As a result, the exam will no longer be displayed here as an independent exam, but may be found on the Cisco IP Telephony Design Specialist page. This does not change the overall number of required exams to qualify for this role.
View Learning Map (Requires PEC login)

[Return to Top]

Field Engineer
Post-sales engineer; responsible for Unified Communications solution implementation and operation.

Required Prerequisite:

Required Certification:

Recommended Training:
View Learning Map (Requires PEC login)

[Return to Top]

Required training below can be fulfilled by the individuals for each role in the specialization or by anyone on staff at the partner company for these additional four requirements:

Cisco Unified Contact Center Express Specialist:
Post-sales engineer responsible for Unified Contact Center Express solutions.

Required Certification:
View Learning Map (Requires PEC login)
Cisco Unity Design Specialist:
Presales engineer can install, configure, operate, and maintain a Cisco Unity system in both standalone voicemail and unified messaging environments, and possesses the knowledge and expertise necessary to create a variety of sustainable Cisco Unity design solutions tailored to specific customer requirements.

Required Certification:
View Learning Map (Requires PEC login)
Cisco Unity Support Specialist:
Can install, configure, operate, and maintain a Cisco Unity system in both standalone voicemail and unified messaging environments.

Required Certification:


Note: As of February 13, 2008, the MCSE-Exchange 2000-2003 industry certification pre-requisite requirement has been removed from the Cisco Unity Support Specialist role within the Advanced Unified Communications Specialization.
View Learning Map (Requires PEC login)
Cisco Rich Media Communications Specialist:
Engineer who can successfully design, implement, and support integrated voice, video, and Web collaboration in a converged network.

Required Certification:
View Learning Map (Requires PEC login)

[Return to Top]

Note: Partners can only hold a single specialization in a given technology. For example:

  • A partner cannot hold a Express Unified Communications Specialization and an Advanced Unified Communications Specialization
  • If a partner achieves the Advanced Unified Communications Specialization before their current IPC Specialization expires, the older specialization will be rendered invalid

Related Tools

Related Links