One of the hottest trends in the business world revolves around what has become known as Business Process Management (BPM), a way to extend the power of the computer to reengineer business practices. One company – Pegasystems – has developed business process management software that automates their customers’ business processes and practices to achieve time and cost savings.

The company delivers courses such as introductory, intermediate, and advanced courses on Pegasystems’ proprietary software and a number of others at its Cambridge, Massachusetts headquarters and at offices in the United Kingdom. In addition, Pegasystems’ personnel will teach software courses at a company site for an additional fee.

Customers aren’t required to take classes to become certified, according to certification manager Niamh Fiona O’Byrne. People who feel they already know the software can just come and take the exam and, if they pass, they achieve certification. “We suggest that they download our sample questions and blueprint located at www.pega.com/certification which helps them decide about whether they want to attempt the exam,” she said.

“You can set up a very simple baseline exam within a day on Questionmark if you just follow the wizard she said. “It very much is, ‘What You See Is What You Get.’ I also like the Wizard for when you get started and want to ask questions.” She added that those taking the exam have reported that they like the interface and find it easy to navigate.

Since the exams are high stakes, students take them in a proctored environment at company headquarters and training centers. Each enrollee receives a logon name and password and then has 90 minutes to complete 70 questions. Those who pass can then put the valued Pegasystems logo on their business card and receive a certificate acknowledging they have met the software makers’ benchmark for implementing the product.

While all the customers who are certified take the exam in a secure setting, Pegasystems uses Perception to deliver sales certification exams remotely. Since this is a low stakes exam that’s designed to make sure that those on the sales force have absorbed what they’ve been taught about the company’s product, salespeople can take it from their home computers or on the road. Questionmark runs the tests on its server and O’Byrne reported that they have had “very satisfactory.” Now Pegasystems plans to expand its usage by loading more exams on Perception.