When the going get’s tough call a Microsoft Partner

Microsoft often gets a hard time for its security and the confidence customers can have in its product. Recent comments in the press around the benefits of Open Source as a more secure and transparent option misses a critical component in the debate and evaluation criteria – Partnership and Structure.

In my experience proprietary software vendors in their majority foster a more disciplined and proactive approach to protecting the interests and Brand credibility of their product. No company excels at this more than Microsoft. Google, Amazon and Facebook all attempt to spin up Partner/Developer networks, but continue to fail.

The Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) is second to none, and the envy of the IT industry. It is the exemplary channel model that few have been able to equal.

Core to the security and robust confidence customers can have in this ecosystem comes from the depth of thought and breadth of delivery of Microsoft Partner Technical Services (MPN Partner Support). These are a benefit of the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) and exists to help partners to deliver a consistent and reliable service to customers looking to the Microsoft product and service ecosystem for their IT needs and to ensure maximum potential investment return for customers.

MPN Partner Support offers many different types of training to assist its Partners with learning a new technology, deepening skills on an existing product, or providing insight on best practices and real-world scenarios.

These services include:

• MPN Membership Support helps answer MPN membership related questions via its Regional Service Centers.
• Technical Workshops delivered over Live Meeting or on-demand, expand capabilities through training with content created by Microsoft Services.
• Practice Accelerator is a set of reusable tools and best practices, to help Partners identify customer requirements and needs, and deploy solutions more cost effectively.
• Business Critical Phone Support helps resolve technical support challenges and helps to maintain a crucial value add as a trusted advisor to customers.
• Partner Support Community connects Partners with MS experts and other partners to get answers to technical product, developer, presales, and MPN membership questions.
• Technical Presales Assistance helps Partners close more deals through competitive assistance, feature overview advice, and proof-of-concept guidance that saves Partners and customers time and money.
• Advisory Services provides development and deployment guidance to help in the design of solutions that customers’ need.

Microsoft Partners who subscribe to a Microsoft Action Pack Subscription (MAPS) or have achieved a Cloud Competency automatically qualify for at least 5 hours of Partner Advisory Hours.

This is just the tip of the iceberg and persists as a living breathing and evolving Microsoft strategic model of engagement.

I do not pretend that it is perfect, but one thing that refreshes my continued confidence is the willingness to listen and adapt.

In this world of advanced persistent threats never before has it been so important for organisations to have the security of a robust ecosystem to rely on and fall back to when the going get’s tough and for IT companies to have a partner with such commitment and investment at their backs.

If that was not enough the maturity of an independent global trust network in the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP).