The Cisco CCNP Collaboration certification is indented for individuals who need to gain skills and work with collaboration solutions. This designation refers to the professional level and implies passing 2 exams: a core exam and a concentration exam. Before enrolling in the process of earning this professional-level certification, you need to have 3-5 years of experience in implementing collaboration solutions.
Exam 350-801 (CLCOR) is the core exam that you are to take. It is also called as Implementing and Operating Cisco Collaboration Core Technologies. The exam lasts for 2 hours and will cost you $400. Since it covers the topics that include infrastructure & design, call control, QoS, collaboration apps, Cisco IOS XE gateway & media resources, protocols, codecs, and endpoints, you are to have profound knowledge of using core collaboration technologies. Along with the CCNP Collaboration certification, this exam leads to the Cisco Certified Specialist – Collaboration accreditation, and is considered to be the first step on the way of obtaining the CCIE Collaboration designation.
To dive deep in the skills tested in the 350-801 core exam, you need to consider the fact that its content consists of 6 parts. The first one will check your skills in infrastructure and design. To be more precise, your skills to describe the key design elements, the purpose of Edge devices, the usage of network components implemented in the Cisco Collaboration solutions will be evaluated. Your ability to troubleshoot the network components and elucidate how they support the Cisco solutions will also be assessed.
The second topic examines your skills in working with codecs, endpoints, and protocols. In this part, you should demonstrate your skills to troubleshoot some elements of a SIP conversation, such as SDP and DTMF, choose the suitable collaboration codecs in the given task, implement SIP endpoints, and troubleshoot collaboration endpoints.
The third topic examines your skills in dealing with Cisco IOS XE Gateway along with Media Resources. That’s why your proficiency in configuring voice gateway components, configuring and troubleshooting ISDN PRI and BRI, checking the MGCP, and defining the appropriate media resources within a given task should be of top priority.
The fourth domain is devoted to call control. This requires skills in using toll fraud prevention on Cisco Unified CM, describing the Cisco Unified Communications Manager digit analysis process and Mobile & Remote Access. In addition, this part requires that you possess skills to work with globalized call routing in Cisco Unified CM.
The fifth part covers your competence in describing issues that lead to poor voice and video quality, the QoS requirements for them. Ability to describe the class models for providing QoS, DiffServ values, and QoS trust boundaries should also be demonstrated. To add more, your skill to check and configure LLQ will be tested as well.
The sixth topic concerns collaboration apps. In this section, you have to know how to configure Cisco Unity Connection mailbox & MWI, along with options related to Cisco Unity Connection SIP integration. You will need to be able to describe Cisco Unity Connection call handlers, Cisco Unified IM&P protocols and deployment. Besides, your ability to work with Cisco Jabber on premises will be beneficial.
After you succeed in taking the 350-801 exam, you need to choose one concentration exam, from the 5 offered by the vendor to become a certified professional. These evaluations include 300-810 (about using Cisco Collaboration apps), 300-815 (about Cisco Advanced Call Control and Mobility Services), 300-820 (about Cisco Collaboration and Edge Solutions), 300-825 (about Cisco Collaboration conferencing), and 300-835 (about automation for Cisco Collaboration solutions). Each of the mentioned exams will bring you a specialist level accreditation. Thus, the 300-810 exam will earn you the Cisco Certified Specialist - Collaboration Applications Implementation certification, the 300-835 - the Cisco Certified DevNet Specialist - Collaboration Automation and Programmability designation.
Having the Cisco CCNP Collaboration certification will help you to get about $107,293 per year.