Individuals and firms can now build business around the open source office suite LibreOffice. The Document Foundation has announced the LibreOffice Certification Program, to foster the provision of professional services around LibreOffice and help the growth of the ecosystem of LibreOffice.

"The Certification Program will recognize the competence of individuals capable of developing and supporting LibreOffice, provide integration services around the suite, offer training and maintenance, and migrating enterprises deployments from proprietary to free software," says Italo Vignoli, Member of the Board of Directors of The Document Foundation.

Italo further adds,, "TDF Certification is an opportunity for sponsors, TDF members and third parties, to build a business around LibreOffice, to help companies of any kind and size to get the most out of the best free office suite ever."

The Certification Program will be overseen by the Board of Directors, through a Certification Committee coordinated by Italo Vignoli and composed by 10 people: Olivier Hallot and Charles Schulz for the Board of Directors; Sophie Gautier and Cor Nouws for the Membership Committee; Stephan Bergmann, Jan Holesovsky,  Tim Janik and Björn Michaelsen for the developer's community; Lothar Becker and Jacqueline Rahemipour for third parties.

The first certified developers and third parties will be announced in May during LinuxTag (Berlin, May 23-26), when the Certification Committee will meet for the first time. After the meeting, TDF will announce the roadmap for certification, including pre-requisites for third parties not involved in the project, and the first dates for trainings and exams.