New Service Makes It Easier and Faster for Customers to Connect and Collaborate with AWS-Certified Third Party Experts

Amazon Web Services Inc., an Amazon.com company, announced the general availability of AWS IQ, a new service that helps customers quickly find, engage, and do business with AWS-Certified third party experts for on-demand project work. AWS IQ offers the tools and workspace for more secure collaboration, streamlined project tracking, and integrated billing. To get started, customers simply log into AWS IQ and describe their project needs in a few sentences. They can then chat with experts to clarify details of the project, compare proposals, review expert profiles, and select the expert that best fits their needs. There are no upfront commitments required to use AWS IQ, and customers pay for completed project milestones through their existing AWS account.

“What excites us most about AWS IQ is the ways in which it will help us scale our business and connect with customers we’d otherwise never have a chance to work with”

Many small and mid-sized businesses have embraced AWS for its secure, flexible, cost-effective, and scalable infrastructure and services. As these customers begin or expand their use of AWS, they sometimes need help executing or thinking through a project, and could benefit from specialized knowledge and experience. Customers can engage third party experts to help them achieve their goals, but finding the right expertise, cost-equation, and fit can be time-consuming. Getting an expert set up with secure access to the customer’s AWS environment can be complex; and even if a customer finds a highly qualified expert that they trust, they still need to deal with administrative chores like project tracking and payment processing.

AWS IQ simplifies the process of finding and connecting with AWS-Certified experts for consultation or project-based work. Customers only need to describe their needs in a few sentences to receive tailored responses directly from experts who can help. They can then evaluate expert profiles, view expert ratings, compare details like rates and relevant AWS Certifications, and make an informed decision without spending time browsing forums or hunting down information across websites. AWS-Certified experts can help get projects started and completed faster with quick consultations or hands-on implementation. Customers can use AWS IQ to find help with a range of topics, like choosing the best architecture for a given workload, diving deep into the capabilities of AWS services, automating the deployment of infrastructure, migrating to AWS, and optimizing their AWS spend. AWS IQ also simplifies the traditionally complex business and technical aspects of working with an external expert. Customers and experts agree to a defined scope of work and budget, and manage the entire process using AWS IQ’s integrated tools for encrypted chat, video conferencing, billing, and more. Once the project is underway, customers can temporarily grant experts project-appropriate access to their AWS environment, monitor activity through AWS CloudTrail logs, and revoke access at any time. Customers approve payment requests as work is completed and are billed directly to their AWS account. With AWS IQ, customers can reduce the legwork and uncertainty involved in finding an AWS-Certified expert, cut down on the administrative overhead required to manage the engagement, and build projects faster.

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“Many of our customers, especially small businesses and entrepreneurs, tell us that they have projects in mind that could really transform their businesses, but they need additional expertise to help them build these projects faster,” said Swami Sivasubramanian, Vice President, AWS. “At the same time, we have an incredible community of knowledgeable and passionate AWS-Certified experts who offer exactly what these customers need to achieve their business goals. We built AWS IQ to serve as a bridge between our customers and experts, enabling them to get to work on new projects faster and easier, and removing many of the hassles and roadblocks that both groups usually encounter when dealing with project-based work.”

For independent experts and Amazon Partner Network (APN) consulting partners, AWS IQ provides a new opportunity to connect directly with the right customers to grow their business. To join AWS IQ, experts must hold an Associate, Professional, or Specialty AWS-Certification and complete an identity check. AWS IQ helps experts find relevant opportunities, communicate with clients, track their projects, and get paid for work completed – all in one place. This means less time hunting for leads or managing invoices, and more time working with customers.

With more than 15 million users, Anaconda provides a popular data science platform and a foundation of modern machine learning. “Through AWS IQ, we found several experts with years of experience in AWS architecture,” Scott Collison, President and Chief Executive Officer, Anaconda. “We were able to evaluate several experts’ project proposals, compare costs, and select the most appropriate expert for our project. After a successful first consultative engagement, we decided to have the expert implement the recommendations directly within our AWS account. AWS IQ shaved weeks off this high priority project and allowed us to deliver value for our customers sooner.”

Empowered to Run trains thoughtful leaders everywhere to run for office successfully and govern effectively. The nonprofit is developing scalable online tools to guide candidates for the 520,000+ state and local offices nationwide. “As a civic tech startup, we need to bootstrap robust, efficient tools – and to build them, we need to be able to tap experts quickly and inexpensively,” said Dr. Steven Sinha, CEO, Empowered To Run. “We used AWS IQ to connect with four friendly AWS-Certified architects and developers in a matter of hours to solve a critical challenge we’ve been wrestling with. Within a few more hours, we were kicking off a defined and scoped project, within budget, plugging an expert directly into our development environment with just a few clicks.”

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Elementryx is a boutique AWS Advanced Consulting Partner with expertise in DevOps and infrastructure as code. “As an AWS Advanced Partner, we love working with customers on complex projects, but we also spend a big portion of our time tracking down leads, getting set up with customers, managing billing, and tracking payments.” said Yosef van Bemmelen, Co-Founder and Head of Business Development, Elementryx. “Because AWS IQ connects us directly with clients and streamlines tricky processes like billing, we can spend less time worrying about back-office tasks and more time doing the work we enjoy, that we’re great at, and that produces direct value for clients.”

Belle Fleur Technologies is an AWS Consulting Partner offering a complete array of solutions for pipelining, storing, enriching, and serving data. “What excites us most about AWS IQ is the ways in which it will help us scale our business and connect with customers we’d otherwise never have a chance to work with,” said Tia Dubuisson, President and Co-Founder, Belle Fleur Technologies. “With AWS IQ, we will be able to provide our solutions to customers across the globe, helping more organizations to leverage AWS services, work more efficiently, and find data driven decisions.”

I/O merchant is a cloud solution provider focusing on AWS cloud strategy and implementation, helping businesses lay a solid cloud foundation. “AWS IQ is the missing link between AWS customers and AWS experts,” said Henrik Balle, Principal and Lead Cloud Enterprise Architect, I/O merchant. “As an AWS expert, AWS IQ will help me better help my customers where they have very targeted needs, are struggling to get started with the cloud, or are wanting to accelerate their cloud presence without committing to new full-time resources.“

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