Non-profit technology association and certification body CompTIA said it aims to bolster policy advocacy and procurement capabilities with its acquisition of U.S. technology association TechAmerica.
“The merging of CompTIA’s and TechAmerica’s membership bases enables our organizations to pursue the best interests of the ICT sector as a whole, eliminating an artificial barrier that has divided efforts in the past,” said Todd Thibodeaux, president and CEO of CompTIA, in a statement. “Moving forward, CompTIA will champion member-driven business and policy priorities that impact the entire continuum of companies from the small IT service provider to the software developer to the equipment manufacturer to communications service providers.”
He said the union was a perfect fit and saw no overlapping of programs or priorities. Thibodeaux did not disclose how much the deal was costing CompTIA.
CompTIA is a provider of professional certifications for the information technology industry. It also advocates on government policies that affect the IT industry and small and medium-sized IT firms. The association has more than 2,000 members and 2,000 business partners.
TechAmerica is a U.S.-based technology trade association that represents 1,200 companies in the public and commercial sector. It also maintains an advocacy program in Washington D.C.
Thibodeaux said that over the last couple of years, CompTIA has been looking to broaden its scope since, until now, it only represented the IT channel and was not very involved in the enterprise or public sector.
He said policy advocacy will continue under the TechAmerica brand but as part of CompTIA.
Thibodeaux also hopes to pool CompTIA and TechAmerica resources for a stronger procurement presence.
“We’re talking about an entity that’s 200 employees strong, with a big global footprint, so we’ll be able to bring good perspective while maintaining everything that already exists,” he said in an interview with the Washington Business Journal. “We’re heavily involved in government workforce issues, providing certification in federal space, so we want to leverage those relationships, too.”
Premier members of CompTIA and TechAmerica will be able to take advantage of new business networking and intelligence opportunities, a statement from CompTIA said. Premier members can also tap expanded public sector programs. Under CompTIA’s recently announced access model, an additional 7,000 individual registered users will continue to benefit from additional research and content.