Unleaded Group Development Chief Ian Kullhem Rates Magento Certified Developer Status

Ian Kullhem, Director of Development & IT for Unleaded Group and the longest tenured employee of the website design and development firm, has joined an elite group of ecommerce development experts to be designated a Magento Certified Developer after completing a rigorous examination process. Called “The Ultimate Magento Credential,” the certification testing program from the world’s leading ecommerce solution provider, Magento eCommerce Platform for Growth, was launched early this year and to date only a handful of developers nationwide have qualified for the prestigious certification.
Kullhem, 29, joins fellow Unleaded Group Magento expert Byung “Brain” Lee, lead programmer for the company, in this elite group of certified developers. Lee completed his certification in March.

The Magento platform, a feature-rich and enterprise-level Internet shopping solution, is now the backbone to more than 110,000 ecommerce online stores worldwide. Unleaded Group, among the first in the world and one of a handful of website design and development firms in the West to be designated a Magento Gold Solution Partner, has built over 150 ecommerce stores on behalf of clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to mom-and-pop operations.

At base an open-source technology, Magento also features an Enterprise Edition of the popular software that is fully supported through the company’s extensive development, consulting and training divisions, as well as through an Advisory Board of “developer gurus with the input of experts from the global Magento ecosystem.” The firm, under the aegis of its Magento University, launched the Certified Developer process and exams in early 2012 geared toward professional Magento Developers who want “to differentiate themselves from the competition with the ultimate Magento credential.”

The Magento Certified Developer process, which is open only to expert developers who have demonstrated high competency in the solution through successfully developing several ecommerce sites on behalf of clients, encompasses a 90-minute exam of 70 multiple choice questions. The exam was developed by the staff and community of Magento and is administered throughout the country at Prometric Testing Centers. The test measures such competencies as:

•     Structure of catalog, indexes, promotions, price generation logic
•     Architecture of checkout, payment/shipment methods, sales/order processing
•     Advanced core knowledge — forms/grids full functionality, API, widgets, etc.

Kullhem joined the website design and development arm of Unleaded Group, Unleaded Software, in April 2007 as a developer and the first employee added by the original three partners. At first he worked on traditional corporate websites, a proprietary custom ecommerce solution developed by the company, and in building and integrating websites around the popular CMS platform ExpressionEngine. However, by August of that year he was among the very first developers in the country to tackle Magento when it was released in a public Beta version, and he has remained among the leaders in the Magento developer community ever since.

A 2001 graduate of Littleton (CO) High School, Kullhem studied at both Colorado State University and Red Rocks Community College. He launched his career at 16 in customer service with retailer Circuit City and then continued as a developer with E-toys Direct following his college studies. But in truth he cut his technological teeth as early as kindergarten when, with the help of his father, a computer specialist with NCR, he built his first website.

Since then it’s been a life centered on computers and the Internet, starting with HTML at an early age and now including an unparalleled excellence in CSS, website development, and customized third-party applications such as proprietary Blogs and Magento modules. Like many seasoned developers, his hobbies include “computers and video games.”
“It’s a great thing in life when you discover your passion so young,” says Kullhem. “I knew as a child I wanted to be a developer and the rapid change and challenges presented by the Internet has only fueled that passion even more every day.”
For more information on Magento visit http://www.magento.com, and for specific information on the new Magento Certified Developer program.
News Source:

http://www.seattlepi.com/business/press-releases/article/Exceed-Online-Wins-Prestigious-Magento-Partner-3545542.php

This Conference Highlights imagine Magento Momentum

       Today at the Magento Imagine eCommerce 2012 conference, Magento, a leading eCommerce platform and a division of X.commerce, Inc., an eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) company, highlighted momentum made since its last conference in helping customers spur business results and announced new product features and updates.
Over the past year, the Magento community has doubled in size to 808,000 registered members and with X.commerce, there are a total of 1.1 million members in its developer community. Magento is sustaining growth through its continued investment across its full product suite, including its Enterprise Edition and its open-ecosystem solutions to its cloud-based Magento Go offering.
“From the beginning Magento has been leading the charge in empowering merchants to do what they do best: engage with their customers in unique ways and sell more products,” said Roy Rubin, general manager of Magento and chief product and customer officer of X.commerce. “Now as part of X.commerce and a member of the eBay Inc. family, not only will we accelerate our momentum but help drive the next phase of the commerce evolution.”
The growth of the Magento community has also driven the growth of Magento Connect, one of the world’s largest eCommerce application marketplaces. With more than 5,600 extensions now offered in Magento Connect – reflecting growth of 73 percent – any merchant can now customize, enhance and extend almost any area of their Magento store. Additionally, Magento saw 71 percent growth in its Solution Partner network to reach almost 400 solution partners around the world.
“As part of eBay Inc., our collective mission is to enable commerce,” said Matthew Mengerink, vice president and general manager of X.commerce. “With Magento, our goal for X.commerce remains focused on helping merchants of any size thrive in the new commerce era by inspiring, empowering and connecting them in ways they never thought possible before. We are excited to be taking another major step toward that goal this week at Imagine eCommerce 2012.”
At Imagine eCommerce 2012, Magento unveiled several important advances that deliver exceptional scalability, flexibility and value to merchants and developers:

• New capabilities now available on the latest Magento Community (version 1.7) and Magento Enterprise (version 1.12) software include native HTML5 for Magento Mobile, more robust visitor segmentation, sophisticated rules-based relations, automated generation of coupon codes, support for multiple wish lists, as well as an expansion of the integration of PayPal Payments, to name a few. These technology updates give merchants and developers more tools to deliver customized and seamless shopping experiences.
• Magento customers are now also able to take advantage of new integrations to the X.commerce fabric, which provides a single integration point for Magento customers to offer end-to-end commerce capabilities while minimizing technical complexities and costs. Newly announced partners Avalara, eDialog Express, Fanplayr, Kabbage, Lexity, M2E Pro and TheFind, open exciting new capabilities for merchants’ Magento-powered sites.

Magento and X.commerce are committed to creating a thriving open ecosystem for customers and partners, empowering all participants to take advantage of an unprecedented choice of technologies needed for end-to-end commerce – shopping carts, payment services, inventory management, marketplace integration, SEO, tax guidance and more, all in one location.

Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/business/Imagine+eCommerce+Conference+Highlights+Magento+Momentum/6509953/story.html#ixzz1u2UvTa4K