Each month, your first-Friday delivery of the U.S. partner newsletter, emailed to you as a benefit of your Microsoft Partner Network membership, contains a list of our recommendations for U.S. SMB partners located in the West Region. We also use this list to update our West Region page on the U.S. partner portal.

These recommendations were in the U.S. partner newsletter delivered Friday, January 6. This week’s role-based training recommendations are for Windows Small Business Server 2011 and Windows Azure.

Happy New Year! If one of your resolutions for 2012 is to grow your business, we have some recommendations for resources from Microsoft that can help.

• Join our January West Region Partner Call on Friday, January 20, at 10:00AM Pacific Time to learn how to get ready for new business deals and opportunities.
• If you have attained a silver or gold competency, your benefits include Technical Presales Assistance, a service that can help you close more deals, faster. For deals over $3K, competency partner access to this service is free, and you can use Partner Advisory Hours for deals under $3K.
• Connect with local business organizations like Chambers of Commerce and local trade and industry associations to deliver events focused on helping their members make informed technology decisions.
• Register for the next webcast in the Time to Thrive series, from Microsoft Sales Specialist. On Wednesday, January 11, Kendra Lee, author of Selling Against the Goal, will help you hit your 2012 sales target with confidence.
• Check out the Reseller Promotions page to learn about the offers in market now for partners, including the Turn On Lync Voice Promotion and 3for5 Intune Offer.
• Learn how to use Microsoft Pinpoint, our online partner directory, to your best advantage, by watching our Pinpoint Pointers presentation series.

You can read all the content delivered in each issue of the U.S. partner newsletter on the U.S. Partner Team blog. The next newsletter will be delivered to U.S. partners on Friday, January 20.