There is a growing demand for Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) certification. One recent piece of evidence of this is a news report in The (Belleville, Ontario, Canada) Intelligencer that Loyalist College is planning to invest near $500,000 CDN into the Loyalist certification management system (LCS) that runs ITIL certifications and examinations.

Belleville, Ontario is a small city located some 120 miles east of Toronto. It is home to several technology offices and facilities among them Avaya (formerly Nortel (News - Alert)), and contact centers and a large regional hospital. Also, Canada’s largest air force base, CFB Trenton is located in the next –door city of Quinte West.

Loyalist College serves central Ontario; it also offers global programs like LCS ITIL that has been running since 2001. LCS is an independent examination institute accredited through APM (News - Alert) Group for the U.K.’s Office of Government Commerce, ITIL’s sponsor, to provide certification exams.

The newspaper reported Feb.23 that Tamara Kleinschmidt, Loyalist College’s finance, corporate services and governance committee chair, informed the college’s board that $485,000 would be pumped into upgrading the Loyalist LCS.

“Kleinschmidt said following a capital project review Loyalist officials discovered that projected net revenue generated by the certification services would be higher than predicted,” said the newspaper.” The additional income led to a $750,000 adjustment to the Loyalist business plan, with the proceeds being transferred to the reserves.”

“Staff immediately took advantage of the funds by requesting an additional amendment to the capital plan to establish a project at the cost of $485,000 for necessary updates to the certification management system which is "key to the LCS's overall performance," she said.

Kleinschmidt said the funds will facilitate "improvements that will see us well into the future."

“Allan Ross, vice-president, corporate services and chief financial officer said the investment was paramount to Loyalist maintaining its position as one of the premier providers of such services.

"It's very competitive market and for the college to continue getting that revenue we have to compete with other companies throughout the world," he said.”

“He said the old system is in need of updates that are key to being competitive and maintaining pace with the increasing demands of training companies that regularly request information about which of those companies' clients have been certified through LCS.”

RCCSP Professional Education Alliance offers a wide range of up-to-date ITIL courses offered in cities across the continent and also virtually. For example the ITIL v3 Foundation Training & Certification schedule is now available in 40 cities in the first half of 2011. IT professionals pursuing ITIL certification can now mix and match the classes, selecting the dates and times of their convenience. One of the RCCSP Professional Education Alliance’s training partners, B Virtual (News - Alert), is a Loyalist LCS-accredited Authorized Training Organization.