Cisco announced, today, (March 16^th) that “qualifying students” from Cisco’s 360 CCIE training program would be able to request a waiver for the “Core Knowledge” section of the CCIE Routing and Switching and Voice exams. Sounds good? Well… we think otherwise!
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IPexpert Wants to Help You!

Over the past several months, CCIE candidates have been making public mention (on various lists, forums, etc) that they have purchased CCIE Voice training from Internetwork Expert, but have not received what they paid for. To be honest, we have been happy to have a good number of them give up and come to IPexpert and we have remained quiet about it.

Yesterday, some of those being kept on the hook began speaking out loudly on the Group Study email list. In response, Anthony acknowledged the continued delays and gave assurance of full refunds…

from    Anthony Sequeira <asequeira@internetworkexpert.com>
reply-to    Anthony Sequeira <asequeira@internetworkexpert.com>
to    ccie voice <danmccie@gmail.com>
cc    ccielab@groupstudy.com
date    Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 11:08 PM
subject    Re: Internetwork Expert – Worst Voice CCIE Vendor

Please contact our Customer Service or Sales department with your information and I am sure they will provide you with a full refund. So sorry about the delays. I am sure they are a result of our desire to create some of the best materials available. We always strive to do that.

Anthony J. Sequeira, CCIE #15626, CCSI #23251
Senior CCIE Instructor

I will not be a hypocrite here; I acknowledge that IPexpert has slipped on release dates ourselves in the past. I second Anthony’s assertion that some slippage is permissible, when necessary for the assurance of the best-possible product. However, there comes a time when the customer needs to be served and sometimes that means letting them move on. One of the guys in the ongoing Group Study thread questioned “why a product which was announced in October of 2007 still hasn’t been completely released.”

For a CCIE Voice candidate that is resigned to the idea of waiting for the new blueprint change, perhaps they don’t mind more waiting for the IE products they purchased. However, the guys that are really hurt are the ones hoping to pass on the CURRENT blueprint. It’s a shame that their needs have not been held with the highest priority. :(

An offer from IPexpert…

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OK Gang – I’m guessing we have a few “security geeks” following our blog! ;-)  (I would hope so!)….I read an interesting article (and many blogs) pertaining to Obama’s Blackeberry and it being a security threat to the U.S. Government. I’d like to know your thoughts on this.  I actually find this pretty cool – it appears that we’ve got a president that’s embracing technology.  Looking forward to your thoughts! – Wayne

Well – it’s been a while (about a week) since I’ve posted any update on Cisco’s 360 program.  All-in-all it’s been pretty quiet – no news or chatter.  Personally, I don’t know of a single person (or prospected client) that has purchased or is interested in Cisco’s 360 offering – maybe it’s a huge hit and we don’t know it – maybe not.  If you haven’t seen Brad Reese’s blog on Cisco’s 360 program and IE’s comments – it’s interesting reading – however – I have to admit that I see and agree with Brian’s (both) comments and decision.  I’d like to hear your thoughts on this program – if you had any.  Do you have any interest?  Any of your peers considering it?  Thanks! – Wayne

Well, it appears that there’s a little more movement going on within the Cisco learning partner program and amongst the 360 program learning partner participants.  Just a few weeks ago Cisco announced that they would be launching their 360 CCIE program with an estimated price that approached $20,000 USD.  Shortly after, Netmaster Class updated their website and stated that they were offering Cisco’s 360 program (first to market) at a price-point that seemed to come in significantly lower than $20,000 (which, rumor has it, has caused some major problems amongst learning partners that are now competing in this offering as well as a few of their students that don’t approve of their sales tactics!).  Today – Global Knowledge announced that they were the first CLSP to offer this 360 program worldwide – however, if you read this post from Fast Lane’s website you will see that they (Fast Lane is also a CLSP) announced something similar to this about 3 weeks ago. (Fast Lane announced that they were offering the 360 program here in the U.S., but no mention of this program being available at any of their international locations.)  Also, there doesn’t seem to be any published pricing on the CLSP (Fast Lane or GK’s) websites.  Lastly, Cisco had announced that more information would be coming November 1st – to include pricing and learning partners that will offer this program.  Wouldn’t you know it – November 1st has come and gone and Cisco hasn’t updated their website with this information (Not a surprise to us companies that have worked with Cisco’s learning partner team!).  Hopefully this isn’t a sign of what’s to come as it relates to updates, support and Cisco’s attentiveness (or lack of) as it relates to this “first of its kind blended learning program”.  Does this appear to be unorganized, pre-announced and / or overpriced?….What are your thoughts – we’d like to hear them!  Also, I’m interested in hearing your thoughts pertaining to Cisco’s learning management system.  We considered implementing a PPP “Personal Preparation Path” solution that would allow our students to enter in their lab date (goal) and then have a custom study plan created – all of this being trackable online within their IPexpert login / locker.  Is this something you would like to see or have available?

As always, thanks for reading and happy studying! – Wayne