Best Business Certifications of 2023

Business professionals often change positions to gain a better salary, more desirable benefits and new opportunities and attaining business certifications is a great step to take toward that change.

Defining a “business certification” can be difficult. To narrow the field, we reviewed general business and management credentials, customer resource management (CRM), supply chain, sales and purchasing certifications. Most of the certifications we selected are vendor-agnostic — not tied to a specific system or application — and we researched several credentials from SAP, SAS and similar companies that specialize in business applications.

The Project Management Institute (PMI) has been around since 1969, helping business workers develop careers in project management, mainly through professional development and certifications.

The CAPM is ideal for up-and-coming project managers. You need to show proof of a high school diploma, GED or global equivalent. The single test has 150 questions, costs $225 for PMI members or $300 for nonmembers and is available through Pearson VUE. By the time you take the exam, you need to have attained 23 hours of project management education. The certification is valid for five years, and you must retake the test to maintain the credential.

PMI has other certifications aimed at the business community, such as the Project Management-related credentials: Professional (PMP), PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA), Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP), Program Management Professional (PgMP) and PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP).

If you’re interested in analyzing business needs and coming up with solutions, take a look at the CBAP by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). The CBAP is an advanced certification aimed at managers and leaders with more than five years of business analysis experience. More precisely, you need at least 7,500 hours of business analysis experience over the last decade and 900 of those hours must directly relate to four of the six BABOK Guide knowledge areas. On top of that, you need at least 35 hours of professional development credits (earned over the last four years), plus two references.

The CBAP test has 120 multiple-choice questions, based on scenarios and case studies and is available through PSI. The test costs $350 for IIBA members or $505 for nonmembers and a $145 application fee is required. To maintain the CBAP, credential holders must earn at least 60 continuing development units within three years of achieving certification.

The IIBA offers related credentials, such as the Entry Certificate in Business Analysis (ECBA), Certificate of Capability in Business Analysis (CCBA), Agile Analysis Certification (IIBA-AAC) and Certification in Business Data Analytics (IIBA-CBDA).

>> Learn More:  5 Best Human Resources and Talent Acquisition Certifications

APICS is all about supply chain management. As part of its goal to develop qualified operators, supervisors and leaders, it offers the Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) and a few other certifications. The CSCP covers supply chain concepts and technology, plus strategies for end-to-end operations, from supplier to company to consumer.

To earn the CSCP, you need a bachelor’s degree or equivalent, at least one other approved certification and at least three years of related business experience. You also need to pass an test that costs $1,365 to $1,900, depending on your APICS membership status.

The PMP from PMI is among the most recognized and sought-after certifications for both business and IT. The requirements are stiff. Option one requires a high school diploma, associate degree or global equivalent; 60 months experience leading projects; and 35 hours of project management education. Option two is a four-year degree, 36 months leading projects and 35 hours of project management education.

You must pass a 180-question test to earn the PMP, which is available through Pearson VUE. The test costs $405 for PMI members and $575 for nonmembers. You maintain the PMP certification by earning 60 professional development units every three years. 

Are you SAP savvy? SAP, a European multinational software program, stands for “systems, applications and products.” The software is used by companies around the world to manage business operations and customer relationships across several lines of business, including human resources, marketing, sales, manufacturing and supply chain. [Read our guide to marketing certifications.]

The SAP Certified Application Associate – CRM recognizes a consultant’s skills in understanding and using SAP CRM software, including how it integrates with other SAP solutions like NetWeaver. SAP recommends that candidates have a combination of experience and training before sitting for the certification exam; training courses are available if needed. The test has 80 questions and costs between $208 and $519, depending on how many attempts you want. You can take the test through the SAP Certification Hub.

If you’ve ever worked with or considered using a customer relationship management (CRM) platform, you’ve likely heard of Salesforce. From help desk and lead management to sales and customer service, Salesforce is an all-in-one CRM platform that scales with a business’ needs as it grows. The platform has become so popular since its launch in 1999 that it’s considered an industry leader and one of the best CRM solutions available. 

If you’re looking to leverage the platform at an administrative level, Salesforce offers a certification program to increase your knowledge of the platform. The program requires you to take several classes and workshops before completing a proctored credential exam. The classes and test typically cost a few thousand dollars.

Salesforce suggests that anyone seeking this certification should already have a decent handle on the platform, since the certification seeks to build upon their understanding of existing features and functions. Once you complete this program, the company also offers the Advanced Administrator certification to further your knowledge of the platform.

HubSpot is a CRM platform that helps businesses handle their marketing, sales and help desk needs. While the platform covers various specialties, the HubSpot Inbound Marketing certification teaches how to use content creation, social media and other inbound marketing methods to your advantage. 

This is a free certification course consisting of seven lessons, complete with 24 videos and seven quizzes, which takes almost five hours to complete.  

Oracle is a leading cloud database software company that helps apply the nebulous digital concept to numerous business functions. More than 2.2 million people have earned their OCP credentials and our initial research found more than 1,000 job openings for the designation.

With numerous certification paths spanning the platform’s cloud-based and on-premises software and hardware solutions, Oracle offers free learning courses in a wide range of specialties. Once you’re ready for an exam, you must purchase a voucher at prices ranging from $95 to $245. These vouchers are good for six months, giving you enough time to hone your skills with the Oracle platform before committing to a test.

The American Purchasing Society is the membership organization behind the Certified Purchasing Professional (CPP), Certified Professional Purchasing Manager (CPPM), Certified Green Purchasing Professional (CGPP), Certified Professional in Distribution and Warehousing (CPDW) and Certified Professional Purchasing Consultant (CPPC) programs.

If your career involves the creation, use, retrieval and disposal of business records, check out the Institute of Certified Records Managers (ICRM), Certified Records Analyst (CRA) and Certified Records Manager (CRM) programs.

On the global front, the Institute of Management Consultants offers the Certified Management Consultant (CMC) certification and NASBITE’s Certified Global Business Professional (CGBP) focuses on global business management and marketing, supply chain management and trade finance. [Check out these accounting and finance certifications.]

Finally, the Business Relationship Management Institute has two certifications: the Business Relationship Management Professional (BRMP) and Certified Business Relationship Manager (CBRM).

Kim Lindros and Andrew Martins contributed to this article. Some source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.

Commvault announces Metallic: Salesforce Backup, Recovery & Sandbox Seeding – Unlimited Storage on Salesforce AppExchange

Metallic: Salesforce Backup, Recovery & Sandbox Seeding – Unlimited Storage is currently available on AppExchange.

Commvault (NASDAQ: CVLT) today announced it has launched Metallic: Salesforce Backup, Recovery & Sandbox Seeding – Unlimited Storage on Salesforce AppExchange, providing customers with dedicated protection for their Salesforce cloud data, expanding on native capabilities to offer extended retention, data isolation, sandbox masking and seeding, rapid recovery tools and more. Metallic: Salesforce Backup, Recovery & Sandbox Seeding – Unlimited Storage offers broad-ranging coverage across Salesforce Sales Cloud, Financial Services Cloud, Service Cloud and Health Cloud to help safeguard data from deletion, corruption and ransomware attacks.

Metallic: Salesforce Backup, Recovery & Sandbox Seeding – Unlimited Storage is currently available on AppExchange at https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N4V00000HDcS6UAL&tab=e

With a multi-layered security approach, Metallic: Salesforce Backup, Recovery & Sandbox Seeding – Unlimited Storage provides enterprise-grade protection, including robust security standards and built-in zero-trust access controls for production and sandbox environments. In addition, it features ease of management with a single pane of glass approach, enabling businesses to comprehensively protect their Salesforce data alongside their other critical workloads.

“Availability on AppExchange leverages Salesforce’s central marketplace to create a fast and direct method for Salesforce developers and admins to access solutions that secure, protect and defend their environments in the face of cyber threats,” said Param Kumarasamy, Vice-President of Product Management, Commvault. “Our solution provides the critical tools that protect these environments, as well as a wide breadth of workloads, helping customers reduce downtime and rapidly recover from attack while leveraging advanced, hardened and proactive security controls.”

“Salesforce plays a critical role in our day-to-day operations and the potential of losing that data was too high a risk for us. We needed a solution that went beyond the standard data management package to take us to the next level of protection,” said Jason Kehl, Senior Vice-President of Engineering & Data Science, Vectra. “This app was the answer. With a single platform design that makes it seamless to manage not only our Salesforce data, but all workloads across our infrastructure, as well as the highest level of security offered by any cloud-based data management solution, we can rest assured that our data is in good hands. The addition of Metallic on AppExchange means that Salesforce has thoroughly tested and approved the solution, providing another layer of confidence.”

“Metallic: Salesforce Backup, Recovery & Sandbox Seeding – Unlimited Storage is a welcome addition to AppExchange, as it accelerates business transformation for customers by delivering hardened security, robust coverage and comprehensive control, all through a single, simplistic platform in a data protection as a service environment,” said David Lee, Vice-President of Product Management, AppExchange. “AppExchange is constantly evolving to connect customers with the right apps and experts for their business needs.”

Metallic: Salesforce Backup, Recovery & Sandbox Seeding – Unlimited Storage enables customers to learn more about this solution, watch demo videos, obtain product-specific resources, read reviews, register for a free 30-day trial and more. Users can also request additional information on Metallic solutions.