New Microsoft Partner Competencies & Requirements

If you were at any of the Microsoft partner events in the last couple of years,  you would know that  Microsoft has been in the process of revamping the Microsoft Partner Program and its ecosystem.  The changes officially started this past July when they renamed the Microsoft Partner Program to Microsoft Partner Network (MPN), partly in line with their effort to reflect and re-emphasize their reliance on the partner network.   They also announced the new partner program requirements, and the revision of the competencies sets.

As far as the requirements, Microsoft is asking that in order to maintain the competency status current:

  • Be an active member of the Microsoft Partner Network;
  • Meet the appropriate individual or software certification requirements per competency;
  • Meet the minimum sales bar as appropriate; and
  • Submit at least 3 customer references of recent (12-months) completed work performed per competency

For the new competency rollout and the mapping to the old ones, as of this writing,  only 3 out of the 29 competencies announced  have been rolled out.  Desktop Platform, Virtualization,  Server Management and Systems Management.

The complete list (along with estimated launch dates)  follows:

New Solution Competency Formerly known as Launch date
Application Integration SOA and Business Process Mid-2010
Application Lifecycle Management not applicable (n/a) Mid-2010
Authorized Distributor n/a Mid-2010
Business Intelligence Business Intelligence Platform,
Performance Management,
Data Visualization
Mid-2010
Content Management Enterprise Content Management and Forms Mid-2010
Customer Relationship Management Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mid-2010
Data Platform Data Management Mid-2010
Desktop Platform Windows Desktop Deployment,
Office Deployment
Oct 2009 – DesktopMid-2010 – Office
Digital home n/a Mid-2010
Enterprise Resource Planning Microsoft Dynamics AX,
Microsoft Dynamics C5,
Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics NAV,

Microsoft Dynamics POS,

Microsoft Dynamics SL

Mid-2010
Hosting Platform   Mid-2010
Identity Security Identity and Secure Access,
Infrastructure Security
Mid-2010
ISV/Software ISV/ Software Mid-2010
Learning Learning Mid-2010
Medium Business Solution Provider Networking Infrastructure Mid-2010
Mobility Mobility Mid-2010
OEM Hardware Device manufacturing,
System Building
Mid-2010
Portals and Collaboration Office Solution Development, Portals and Collaboration Mid-2010
Project and Portfolio Management Enterprise project Management Mid-2010
Search Search Mid-2010
Server Platform Active Directory,
Storage Solutions
Oct 2009
Small Business Small Business Specialist Mid-2010
Software Asset management Software Asset Management Mid-2010
Software Development Application Infrastructure Development,
Smart Client Development
Mid-2010
Systems Management System management Oct 2009
Unified Communications IM/Presence,
Messaging,
Voice
Mid-2010
Virtualization n/a July 2009
Volume Licensing License Delivery Mid-2010
Web Development Web Development Mid-2010

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