Victoria-based services provider, Total Network Support (TNS), has joined Cisco's Select SMB partner ranks.

TNS director, Oliver Lindsaar, said the new certification allowed it to provide better service and support for clients. The Select certification is part of Cisco's channel program and recognises partners catering to the SMB market.

He said TNS was a broad support organisation which required skills across a variety of products.

"Cisco is one of our core products. This [certification] really differentiates us from other resellers that are not certified," he said.

To gain the certification, TNS staff completed the necessary training and examination process. Lindsaar defined the SMB space as 5-250 seats.

"It's been a whole company effort to get our skills up to the levels required to become a certified partner," Lindsaar said. "We have fairly strong incentive schemes for our staff to get certified."

The Select certification will give TNS access to demonstration equipment and training as well as incentive programs and will see it added to the vendor's partner locator list. It can also access specialised business and technical training for SMB customers.

"Qualifications count for a lot but they don't necessarily mean you know the product, so you still need to have the experience and knowledge," Lindsaar said. "Clients prefer to deal with certified partners and it's recognition by Cisco that we do know what were talking about."