- Partnerships
With organizations looking for ways to better collaborate and manage projects across internal teams, the popularity of workflow tools has grown notably.
Cybozu, Inc. is a Tokyo-based software company that has responded to the demand for more efficient workplace collaboration with kintone. Due to its flexibility and efficiency, the cloud-based workflow tool is now used by over 32,500 customers around the world. From startups and large enterprises to government agencies and nonprofits, kintone can be customized by anyone — even if they have no programming knowledge.
Cybozu launched its kintone certification program with Pearson VUE in 2018, with the aims of validating user skills, building a kintone ecosystem, and expanding its future talent pool. With many of Cybozu’s technology partners using kintone, it was important that a range of users had a means to demonstrate their understanding of and proficiency in kintone.
(left) Mr. Fujii, (middle) Ms. Kyan, (right) Mr. Kurabayashi
Certification as the next phase of growth
Introducing new, high-quality certifications was the crucial next phase of the organization’s strategic roadmap for talent development. ‘’It took us over a year to plan one certification. At the beginning, we didn’t have any experience with developing new certifications and faced various challenges, which Pearson VUE would help us to overcome,’’ explained Mr. Kurabayashi.
Mr. Kurabayashi, Cybozu’s kintone certification program team leader
“kintone was growing — both in terms of user adoption and the range of kintone applications being used internally across organizations. However, we had no real way of demonstrating people’s skills or knowledge of kintone,’’ said Mr. Kurabayashi, Cybozu’s kintone certification program team leader. We partnered with Pearson VUE, the global leader in the IT hr certification space, to better structure and formalize our kintone learning journey.”
Cybozu’s kintone certification exams, which currently include “kintone associate” and “kintone specialist,” were launched across Pearson VUE’s Authorized Test Center network in Japan in 2018. With robust security measures in place, Cybozu was able to leverage the strength of the global assessment leader’s local network (which today includes more than 130 sites in Japan). For the first time, kintone users had the opportunity to show they had the application design skills required to improve collaboration and teamwork across their organizations.
Data-driven decisions to make improvements to the program
With decades of experience in launching new certification programs, Pearson VUE supported Cybozu by analyzing exam data and measuring the performance of each exam item. Based on regular reporting, Cybozu could make informed decisions about which exam questions might need to be removed or adjusted. ‘’Pearson VUE helped us to manage our exam data with confidence; to make reliable statistical comparisons, and to use the quantity of data from our certification exams to make continual improvements to our program,’’ said Ms. Kyan, from planning, operations, and kintone certification marketing.
Online proctoring introduced to attract more candidates
With professionals moving to more flexible and hybrid working patterns around the time of the global pandemic, even more people started to see the benefits of kintone — better collaboration, more streamlined working processes, and improved data flow. Interest in the certification program would increase further as alternative ways to test were made possible by Cybozu’s testing partner. In 2021, the company added another testing option for candidates — kintone exams with Pearson VUE’s online proctoring solution, OnVUE.
‘’Since kintone is used across the country, we required not only a test center delivery model, but alternative ways for candidates in more remote locations to test. When you consider the types of people using kintone, expanding into online proctored delivery was a natural progression for our program,’’ said Mr. Kurabayashi. ‘’OnVUE widened participation in our program by increasing access for more test-takers.’’
With Pearson VUE’s support in successfully scaling up test delivery over the next few years, Cybozu attracted thousands of new kintone users and the kintone certification has now become a recognized skill in the recruitment space. It has even been adopted as part of the curriculum for vocational colleges — supporting development of Japan’s digital workforce of the future.
Elevating the candidate’s experience and engaging Cybozu partners
‘’Our kintone certification is now one of the key criteria for Cybozu’s partner assessment program. Many of our partner companies became more motivated to get certified in kintone,’’ explained Ms. Kyan.
As we introduced better evaluation systems and developed new learning support materials, we improved candidates’ overall experience with kintone as well as people’s understanding of the benefits of this tool.
The certification program is now highly regarded across our industry; not just for verifying skills, but as the principal step in ‘learning kintone’,’’ she concluded.
Cybozu collated feedback from candidates to measure the success of its program and to continue making improvements. Many candidates reflected on their increased self-confidence:
“By being evaluated on my kintone skills objectively, my reliability and influence at work has improved. As a result [of taking the kintone certification], I feel my productivity and contribution to my organization has increased.” commented one kintone candidate1
1. 2023 Value of IT Certification Candidate Report (PearsonVUE.com/voc)
*kintone certification exams are developed based on the kintone platform provided in Japan. The kintone certification exams are only currently available in Japan.