Microsoft Partner Network Refresh ALERT!

Welcome to Monday morning, as if there will not be enough on a Microsoft Partners agenda with all the exciting new technology coming out of the Microsoft warehouses, without having to worry about housekeeping issues.

With the great wave of innovation coming out of Redmond comes some tweaks to the Partner Competencies that ALL Microsoft partners need to pay attention to and review their status on the Microsoft Partner Portal. There was a refresh across the Microsoft partner Portal that will have implications on your Partner status and benefits.

Whilst I cannot qualify across all Regions, which were caught up in the refresh I suspect all since it goes to the heart of the Competencies. But the following headline items should be reviewed by Partners:

Competency Status

• Competency consolidation could mean you now are no longer Gold or have a different mix. For example Web Development no longer exists it is part of Application development, and Portals and Collaboration has been merged with Content management. A big one being the ISV Competency now merged with Application Development.
• Competency requirements have changed within some of the competencies which could mean a Gold or Silver status change. For example the Microsoft Accredited Advertising Professional Exam requirement for Digital marketing, amongst others.
• Qualified MCP assignments may no longer be optimal, or some may be unassigned against Gold so you could be missing out.
• Customer References may no longer be optimally assigned to competencies so again you could be missing out.

Read more about the new shape of the competencies in Julie Bennani (General Manager, Microsoft Partner Network, WPG) Blog http://www.digitalwpc.com/GetInvolved/MSPartnerPerspectives/JulieBennani/Pages/MPN-Evolution-Areas-for-FY13.aspx#fbid=zXpRj2f4gTu

Partner Benefits & Branding

• MSDN privileges revoked and need to be reassigned as a result of the changes above.
• Review your internal use rights to ensure you are still compliant as a result of the changes above.
• Requirement to renew MPN branding on sites and marketing collateral to reflect changes.
• Communicate the changes to your team so you are all up to date and singing from the same hymn sheet and do not appear out of sync with what your customers will be hearing and reading from Microsoft.

Read more at Karl Noakes (General Manager, Partner Channel Marketing) Blog http://www.digitalwpc.com/GetInvolved/MSPartnerPerspectives/KarlNoakes/Pages/Home.aspx#fbid=zXpRj2f4gTu

This list is by no means exhaustive in detail, each Partner will need to validate their own unique blend of Competencies.

Get your new Partner Logo from the Microsoft Partner Logo builder site at https://mspartner.microsoft.com/en/uk/Pages/Sales%20and%20Marketing/logo.aspx

A good resource to keep an eye on are the Microsoft Partner team bogs at http://www.digitalwpc.com/GetInvolved/MSPartnerPerspectives/Pages/Home.aspx#fbid=zXpRj2f4gTu

After a couple of years of transitional program structural change, rapid branding to the identity and competency maturing of the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) we can only hope this latest change will see some stability for a while. It is a costly exercise rebranding and managing this, not to mention the complications it injects in communications with customers and the market understanding of our channel. We can but hope!