Our first blog post comes in response to a request I received through Twitter, “Online/BPOS Partners need post-sale technical resources. PAM/SE is great, but busy & we need deeper tech knowledge.” Happy to oblige and respond to this suggested topic.

I reached out to my colleague Alison Catania, who works on our U.S. Partner Strategy team on software-plus-services, and here are her recommendations.

Learning Plan Tool Packages.  There are three packages of recommended training for BPOS with a technical focus.  I took a peek inside each of these to see what’s included, and saw 100-, 200-, and 300-level courses, primarily on-demand Web seminars. Nearly all listed courses are available to partners at no charge.

• BPOS Standard Suite Technical Training
• BPOS Migration and Onboarding Deep Dive
• BPOS Administration and Deployment

Delivery Support. Our Technical Advisory Services (TAS) team helps partners deploy BPOS to their customers. As a benefit of Microsoft Partner Network membership, Gold Certified Partners have 40 hours/year, Certified Partners with the ISV/Software Solutions Competency have 15 hours/year, and partners enrolled in the Microsoft Empower for ISVs program have 10 hours/year of TAS team support. Extended service hours are available for purchase. Contact TAS by e-mail at askptc@microsoft.com, or 1-800-MPN-SOLVE.

Technical Support. 1-866-MSONLINE (441-8425) for all break-fix issues, Partner Care questions, and routing—available to partners acting on behalf of their BPOS customers.

A couple of community-based recommendations from me for technically focused information that turned up in a (Bing) search on TechNet:

• The BPOSitive blog at http://blogs.technet.com/bpositive/. This blog is written by Brett Hill, a technical evangelist on the BPOS product team, and I saw a note there that new technical training, including a deeper dive on Exchange and SharePoint online, will be posted later this month.
• The Microsoft Online Services Team Blog at http://blogs.technet.com/msonline/default.aspx. It also lists new training, and gives you information on how to send them e-mail (they have a “community mailbox” at bposcom@microsoft.com) or follow them on Twitter (http://twitter.com/msonline).
• The new Resource Wiki on the Quickstart for Online Services at https://www.quickstartonlineservices.com/partner/resource/Pages/Wiki.aspx. It’s currently in beta, but it looks promising, and you can ask questions or give feedback about the Wiki—there’s a contact e-mail right on the page.

Have a topic you’d like us to cover in this blog? Leave a comment on this blog, send us an e-mail at partnerQ@microsoft.com, or Tweet us @msuspartner.

Cheers,

Diane Golshan
Sr. Marketing Manager, U.S. Partner Team
Learn more about what I do at Microsoft