Microsoft Announces New Partner Enhancements

Mike Mars of TS2 talked about the changes to the Microsoft Partner program: Microsoft Announces New Partner Enhancements! As you can see below, these are the most significant enhancements to the program since its inception approximately 18 months ago.

What does this actually mean for a lot of us? More ways to reach a competency, more ways to promote your business by showing all the areas you have experience with (remember, 3 happy customers in each competency area willing to fill out a survey and answer a call from Microsoft == Competency). If you’re not excited about the talk of competencies because you do not want to deal with employees: Have you earned your Microsoft Small Busiess Specialist certification?

Microsoft Announces New Partner Enhancements!

The Microsoft Partner Program is rolling out new program enhancements to help you extend your market reach, increase operational efficiency, and realize maximum business potential.
This announcement represents the most significant enhancements to the program since its inception approximately 18 months ago. Many of the new benefits are available today, and the rest will become available early this fall. In addition, we’ve centralized processes, expanded into global support, added four new Microsoft Competencies, streamlined and simplified the Partner Points model, and made many all-around enhancements to the tools and infrastructure to make it easier to do business. Download the complete announcement for additional details.

Turn Expertise into Opportunity: Achieve a Competency
Achieving a Microsoft Competency enables you to promote your expertise and differentiate your organization from the competition. Attaining a competency provides access to additional benefits and value-added resources to help drive business results.

Save Up to 30% on Microsoft Certification Exams Worldwide
To help Gold Certified and Certified Partners become qualified to attain Microsoft Competencies, Microsoft is offering certification exam savings on Partner Competency Exams (PCEs) and Microsoft Business Solutions and Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) exams for a limited time. Learn more.

Overview of What’s New
We’ve centralized processes, expanded into global support, added four new Microsoft Competencies, streamlined and simplified the Partner Points model, and made many all-around enhancements to the tools and infrastructure. The following are highlights of what is new.

Four New Competencies
* Custom Development Solutions Competency
* Licensing Solutions Competency
* Mobility Solutions Competency
* OEM Hardware Solutions Competency

Changes to Existing Competencies
* The Business Intelligence Competency will be renamed Data Management Solutions with Database Management and Business Intelligence as the underlying specializations
* The Integrated E-Business Solutions Competency will be renamed Business Process and Integration

New Opportunities for Small Business
* The Small Business Specialist designation
* The Microsoft Professional Accountants’ Network (U.S. Only)

Improved Membership Management
* Partner Membership Center
* Simplified navigation, unified anniversary dates, and points expiration
* Streamlined enrollment and renewal process
* Automatic enrollment into competencies (if requirements are met)
* New support for global businesses

New Ways to Earn Partner Points
* Software License sales
* Small Business Specialist designation
* Pool Partner Points across multiple locations