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<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://blogs.technet.com/utility/FeedStylesheets/rss.xsl" media="screen"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"><channel><title>The Amazing Adventures of Geek Girl : partner</title><link>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/partner/default.aspx</link><description>Tags: partner</description><dc:language>en-US</dc:language><generator>CommunityServer 2.1 SP1 (Build: 61025.2)</generator><item><title>Project and Portfolio Management Readiness Sessions for Microsoft Partners</title><link>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/2009/09/03/project-and-portfolio-management-readiness-sessions-for-microsoft-partners.aspx</link><pubDate>Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:28:34 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:3279018</guid><dc:creator>tara</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/comments/3279018.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/commentrss.aspx?PostID=3279018</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/tara/WindowsLiveWriter/ProjectandPortfolioManagementReadinessSe_1106F/image_2.png"&gt;&lt;img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/tara/WindowsLiveWriter/ProjectandPortfolioManagementReadinessSe_1106F/image_thumb.png" width="365" height="153" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;The Microsoft UK Project and Portfolio Management team have worked tirelessly to organise various readiness sessions, aimed at Microsoft partners. These sessions include sales readiness training, tailored for sales and pre-sales employees, describing the common pain points customers experience and explaining how a project management can help, along with a sales overview of the Microsoft project management solution. There will also be a technical day in early 2010, aimed at developers and architects, which will cover various aspects of the Microsoft project management solution to a very deep technical level. &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;The first of these readiness sessions will be a series of sales readiness Live Meetings (part of the overall partner readiness Live Series), starting &lt;strong&gt;Tuesday 8th September at 4pm&lt;/strong&gt;. Registration links for all of these Live Meetings are listed below. &lt;a href="https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=550183" target="_blank"&gt;Register for the first one now&lt;/a&gt;- there’s not much time to spare!&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Details of all the project management readiness training for partners is listed below. If you have any questions, or would like a pdf copy of this information, please &lt;a href="mailto:tara.hellier@microsoft.com" target="_blank"&gt;contact me directly&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Microsoft Project and Portfolio Management solution &lt;u&gt;       &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/u&gt;(Enterprise Project Management)&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Upcoming Sales and Technical Readiness Events&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Sales Readiness Live Meetings &lt;/b&gt;Tara Hellier&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;8th September 2009 4pm-5.30pm Project and Portfolio Management Sales Refresher &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=550183"&gt;https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=550183&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;A 1.5 hour Live Meeting aimed at sales and pre-sales professionals to help them understand the business benefits of EPM, what customer pain points EPM can solve, how to identify EPM opportunities, gain an overview of the EPM architecture and how it fits in the Microsoft stack, and see an EPM product demonstration.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;15th September 2009 4pm-5pm Project Server Overview &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=550203"&gt;https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=550203&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;A one hour Live Meeting aimed at sales and pre-sales professionals to help them understand the capabilities of Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, enabling them to better sell the EPM solution to their customers.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;29th September 2009 4pm-5pm Portfolio Server Overview&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=549471"&gt;https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=549471&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;A one hour Live Meeting aimed at sales and pre-sales professionals to help them understand the capabilities of Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007, enabling them to better sell the EPM solution to their customers.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;6th October 2009 4pm-5pm Demo Tips and Hot Topics&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=549720"&gt;https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=549720&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;A one hour Live Meeting aimed at sales and pre-sales professionals who need to demonstrate the Microsoft EPM solution as part of their role. We will discuss best practices for demoing the EPM solution, how to set up demo environments and the primary topics customers are usually interested in.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Project Management / EPM Recruitment Day&lt;/b&gt; Kevin Lief&lt;u&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;20&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; October 2009&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Microsoft UK, Thames Valley Park&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Details to be announced closer to event&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Project Server Exam Preparation Course&lt;/b&gt; Ben Howard, MVP&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;2&lt;sup&gt;nd&lt;/sup&gt; – 4&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; November&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;QA office, London&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;A three day course specifically designed to help the delegates to pass Exam number 70-633 ‘Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, Managing Projects’. &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Project Server Exam Cram Day&lt;/b&gt; Ben Howard, MVP&lt;u&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;27&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; November 2009&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Microsoft UK, Thames Valley Park&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;A 1-day ‘exam cram’ Project Server 2007 Certification preparation&amp;#160; to help you get your technical consultants ‘across the line’ and passing the EPM exam number 70-633, i.e. ‘Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, Managing Projects’&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Partner Sales Readiness Day&lt;/b&gt; Tara Hellier&lt;u&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;26&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; November 2009&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Microsoft UK, Thames Valley Park&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;A one day training session, covering some aspects of the Microsoft EPM solution to a lower level, including project selection, project initiation, resource management, time and task progress tracking and collaboration, giving sales and pre-sales professionals more detailed product knowledge, allowing them to match EPM capabilities to customers’ needs.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Sales Readiness Live Meetings &lt;/b&gt;Tara Hellier&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;11th November 2009 (TBC) 4pm-5.30pm Project and Portfolio Management Sales Refresher&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=550183"&gt;https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=550183&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;A 1.5 hour Live Meeting aimed at sales and pre-sales professionals to help them understand the business benefits of EPM, what customer pain points EPM can solve, how to identify EPM opportunities, gain an overview of the EPM architecture and how it fits in the Microsoft stack, and see an EPM product demonstration.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;24th November 2009 4pm-5pm Project Server Overview &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=550203"&gt;https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=550203&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;A one hour Live Meeting aimed at sales and pre-sales professionals to help them understand the capabilities of Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, enabling them to better sell the EPM solution to their customers.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;1st December 2009 4pm-5pm Portfolio Server Overview&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=549471"&gt;https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=549471&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;A one hour Live Meeting aimed at sales and pre-sales professionals to help them understand the capabilities of Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007, enabling them to better sell the EPM solution to their customers.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;8th December 2009 4pm-5pm Demo Tips and Hot Topics&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=549720"&gt;https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=549720&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;A 1 hour Live Meeting aimed at sales and pre-sales professionals who need to demonstrate the Microsoft EPM solution as part of their role. We will discuss best practices for demoing the EPM solution, how to set up demo environments and the primary topics customers are usually interested in.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Annual Partner Technical Day &lt;/b&gt;Bob Walker/Tara Hellier&lt;u&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;January / February 2010&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Microsoft UK, Thames Valley Park&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Details to be announced closer to event&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3279018" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/epm/default.aspx">epm</category><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/partner/default.aspx">partner</category><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/training/default.aspx">training</category></item><item><title>SharePoint Licensing Training Available for Partners</title><link>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/2009/08/26/sharepoint-licensing-training-available-for-partners.aspx</link><pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:07:10 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:3277139</guid><dc:creator>tara</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/comments/3277139.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/commentrss.aspx?PostID=3277139</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/tara/WindowsLiveWriter/SharePointLicensingTrainingAvailableforP_F0BD/image_3.png" width="358" height="83" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Licensing for Microsoft products can be a complicated beast! To aid your understanding of SharePoint licensing, three licensing training sessions are now available – essential viewing for any SharePoint partner!&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=548219" target="_blank"&gt;Selling’s Cool– Selling Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Solutions&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=548230" target="_blank"&gt;Selling’s Cool – Advanced – Selling Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Solutions&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=548227" target="_blank"&gt;Selling’s Cool – Licensing Microsoft SharePoint Technologies&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3277139" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/sharepoint/default.aspx">sharepoint</category><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/partner/default.aspx">partner</category><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/licensing/default.aspx">licensing</category></item><item><title>Upcoming SharePoint Partner Readiness Live Meetings – Register NOW!</title><link>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/2009/08/26/upcoming-sharepoint-partner-readiness-live-meetings-register-now.aspx</link><pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:59:04 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:3277134</guid><dc:creator>tara</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/comments/3277134.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/commentrss.aspx?PostID=3277134</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/Pages/Default.aspx"&gt;&lt;img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/tara/WindowsLiveWriter/UpcomingSharePointPartnerReadinessLiveMe_EECF/image_3.png" width="349" height="131" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;The UK SharePoint partner team have worked long and hard to come up with a series of partner readiness sessions focused around SharePoint. Part of this is a series of sales readiness Live Meetings, known as the Live Series. Each meeting will be one hour long, and will focus on how to effectively sell a particular area of the SharePoint platform. Partners can register for these events now, using the links below. &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=513391" target="_blank"&gt;Live Series – Portals and Collaboration&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=-548329" target="_blank"&gt;Live Series – Document Management and Records Management in SharePoint Server 2007&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=548128" target="_blank"&gt;Live Series – E-forms in SharePoint&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=547630" target="_blank"&gt;Live Series – Search in SharePoint Server 2007&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&amp;amp;ActivityId=548102" target="_blank"&gt;Live Series – SharePoint Workflows&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3277134" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/sharepoint/default.aspx">sharepoint</category><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/partner/default.aspx">partner</category></item><item><title>Are you using the UK SI Partner Toolkit?</title><link>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/2009/08/13/are-you-using-the-uk-si-partner-toolkit.aspx</link><pubDate>Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:57:49 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:3273188</guid><dc:creator>tara</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/comments/3273188.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/commentrss.aspx?PostID=3273188</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/tara/WindowsLiveWriter/AreyouusingtheUKSIPartnerToolkit_FC96/clip_image001_2.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="clip_image001" border="0" alt="clip_image001" src="http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/tara/WindowsLiveWriter/AreyouusingtheUKSIPartnerToolkit_FC96/clip_image001_thumb.jpg" width="467" height="219" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;If not, why not?!&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;At the beginning of 2009, your intrepid team of &lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/2009/08/13/pts-becomes-pta.aspx" target="_blank"&gt;Partner Technology Advisors&lt;/a&gt; worked night and day to create and collate all of the best resources for &lt;strong&gt;SharePoint, Enterprise Project Management, Unified Communications, Business Intelligence, Security and Management&lt;/strong&gt; and&lt;strong&gt; Virtualisation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;We’ve included product positioning presentations, software demos, PowerPoint sales presentations, case studies, competitive insights, training and readiness, solutions and add-ons and much more into one rich media, interactive application.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Partners can use the SI Toolkit to aid in presales and consultative engagement. &lt;strong&gt;It’s available now for partners to download &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.microsofttoolkits.co.uk/toolkits/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Due to the sensitive nature of some of the content, a password is required to enable access and download the toolkit which can be requested via the download site.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;We’re very interested to hear what you think of the SI Toolkit – do you find it useful? What should be changed/ improved? Send your feedback to &lt;a href="mailto:uksipma@microsoft.com"&gt;uksipma@microsoft.com&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href="mailto:tara.hellier@microsoft.com" target="_blank"&gt;directly to me&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3273188" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/sharepoint/default.aspx">sharepoint</category><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/epm/default.aspx">epm</category><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/bpio/default.aspx">bpio</category><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/partner/default.aspx">partner</category><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/si+toolkit/default.aspx">si toolkit</category></item><item><title>PTS becomes PTA</title><link>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/2009/08/13/pts-becomes-pta.aspx</link><pubDate>Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:43:28 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:3273180</guid><dc:creator>tara</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/comments/3273180.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/commentrss.aspx?PostID=3273180</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;On July 1st, Partner Technology Specialists (PTS) officially became known as Partner Technology Advisors (PTA). But don’t panic, other than the job title change, not too much has changed – we’re still committed to exciting and enabling partners to use and deploy Microsoft software to its full potential. &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Just another new Microsoft acronym for you to be aware of! :)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3273180" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/partner/default.aspx">partner</category><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/partner+technology+advisor/default.aspx">partner technology advisor</category></item><item><title>Benefits of being a Microsoft Partner - Registered, Certified and Certified Gold</title><link>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/2009/06/24/benefits-of-being-a-microsoft-partner-registered-certified-and-certified-gold.aspx</link><pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:32:39 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:3258218</guid><dc:creator>tara</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/comments/3258218.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/commentrss.aspx?PostID=3258218</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/Partner" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="62" alt="image" src="http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/tara/WindowsLiveWriter/BenefitsofbeingaMicrosoftPartnerRegister_AFC0/image_3.png" width="349" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;There are numerous &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/program/programoverview/programbenefits/valueofpartnering" target="_blank"&gt;benefits of being a Microsoft partner&lt;/a&gt;, including:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul&gt;   &lt;li&gt;Building networks within Microsoft and with other Microsoft partners&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Access to Microsoft software and in-depth product information&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Promote your offerings on Microsoft.com&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;There are 3 different levels of Microsoft partner: Registered, Certified and Certified Gold. Information about the benefits you get at these different levels and how to get to each level is described below:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/US/program/programoverview/registeredmember" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Registered partners&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;This is the first level of Microsoft partner. As a registered partner, you can access product training, subscribe to the &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40016455" target="_blank"&gt;Microsoft Action Pack&lt;/a&gt; and take advantage of product promotions and offers.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;u&gt;Benefits:&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul&gt;   &lt;li&gt;     &lt;p&gt;Run your business and provide demos to customers with the internal-use software you can receive through the &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40016455"&gt;Microsoft Action Pack Subscription (MAPS)&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;   &lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;     &lt;p&gt;Build credibility with existing or new customers with a direct connection to Microsoft. &lt;/p&gt;   &lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;     &lt;p&gt;Develop your skills with online technical and sales training.&lt;/p&gt;   &lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;     &lt;p&gt;Provide &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40048802"&gt;promotions, product offers&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40048802"&gt;and financing&lt;/a&gt; to your customers.&lt;/p&gt;   &lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;     &lt;p&gt;Increase your business efficiency with customisable sales and marketing materials exclusively focused on small and midsize business needs.&lt;/p&gt;   &lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;     &lt;p&gt;Better predict and prepare for technology advances with timely alerts through &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40058543"&gt;RSS feeds&lt;/a&gt; and the &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40012117"&gt;Registered Member newsletter&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;   &lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;u&gt;How to become a registered partner:&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol&gt;   &lt;li&gt;Create a &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40012119"&gt;Microsoft Windows Live ID&lt;/a&gt; account, if you do not already have one.&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Sign in to the &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40001301"&gt;Partner Membership Centre&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Agree to the Microsoft Partner Program terms and conditions.&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Complete your individual and organization profiles.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p&gt;For further information, download the &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40005166"&gt;Microsoft Partner Program Guide&lt;/a&gt;, review the &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40029312"&gt;Windows Live ID FAQ&lt;/a&gt;, or contact your local &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40011570"&gt;Regional Service Centre&lt;/a&gt; for help.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/US/program/programoverview/certifiedpartner" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Certified Partners&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;This is the second level of Microsoft partner. As a certified partner, you will have access to exclusive content and the certified partner program toolkit and you will receive the certified partner program newsletter.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;u&gt;Benefits:&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul&gt;   &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/US/program/programoverview/40029254" target="_blank"&gt;Internal-Use Licences&lt;/a&gt; Free licences for Microsoft software to use within your organisation. Check &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/US/program/programoverview/40029254" target="_blank"&gt;this list&lt;/a&gt; for licence entitlement.&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40017640"&gt;Partner Learning Centre&lt;/a&gt;      &lt;br /&gt;The Partner Learning Centre is your premier resource for a variety of local classes, online courses, Virtual Labs, independent study resources, and more. Develop your sales, technical, and marketing skills to hone your business efficiency and create advantages in the marketplace.&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40012205"&gt;Certified Partner Logo&lt;/a&gt;      &lt;br /&gt;A key benefit for Certified Partners is the ability to use the Microsoft Certified Partner logo in partner-branded marketing materials. Display your company's strong industry experience in providing services, software, or support for Microsoft technology. And show customers that you're reliable, broadly skilled, and endorsed by Microsoft.&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;&lt;u&gt;Partner Program Toolkits&lt;/u&gt;      &lt;br /&gt;After you enrol as a Certified Partner, you'll receive the Microsoft Partner Program Toolkit for Certified Partners.&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40012211"&gt;Technical Sales Assistance&lt;/a&gt;      &lt;br /&gt;Microsoft Certified Partners have free and unlimited access to Technical Sales Assistance. Staffed by skilled Microsoft support professionals, the Technical Sales Assistance team provides technical, business, and competitive sales assistance. Direct phone and online access helps you speed sales and position Microsoft technologies as the preferred solution for your customers.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;u&gt;How to become a certified partner:&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol&gt;   &lt;li&gt;Complete the Registered partner steps&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Assign key contact roles through the &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40001301"&gt;Partner Membership Centre&lt;/a&gt;. For help, see the &amp;#8220;Program Enrolment and Administration&amp;#8221; section in the &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40005166"&gt;Microsoft Partner Program Guide&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Employ or contract with at least two exclusive &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40023608"&gt;MCPs &lt;/a&gt;or develop at least one &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40011374"&gt;tested solution&lt;/a&gt;. Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCPs) must enter their names in their profiles exactly as they are displayed at the MCP Member Site. The name is case sensitive.&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Earn &lt;strong&gt;50 qualifying &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40012109"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Partner Points&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Associate Partner Points to your organization&amp;#8217;s account in the &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40001301"&gt;Partner Membership Centre&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Earning a &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40021633"&gt;Microsoft Competency&lt;/a&gt; is the easiest way to achieve your desired level in the Microsoft Partner Program. For example, you earn 30 qualifying Partner Points, when you achieve your first Microsoft Competency. As a bonus, you receive 20 additional Partner Points when you earn your first competency.&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Pay the annual Microsoft Partner Program fee.&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;The program membership term runs for 12 months from the date of enrolment and fee payment. For example, if you enrol in January 2008, your program term will run through January 31, 2009. The entire fee, along with applicable taxes, is due at the time of enrolment. You may pay the annual fee by credit card, check, demand draft, or wire transfer. (Payment methods may vary by country.) Contact your local &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40032423"&gt;Regional Service Centre&lt;/a&gt; to get information about the fee for your country.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/US/program/programoverview/goldcertpartner" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Gold Certified Partners&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;This is the third and highest level of Microsoft partner. As a certified gold partner, you will have a very close working relationship with Microsoft and you will have access to the Partner Knowledge Base and receive priority listing in Microsoft directories.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;u&gt;Benefits:&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul&gt;   &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/US/program/programoverview/40029254" target="_blank"&gt;Internal-Use Licences&lt;/a&gt; Free licences for Microsoft software to use within your organisation. Check &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/US/program/programoverview/40029254" target="_blank"&gt;this list&lt;/a&gt; for licence entitlement.&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40006193"&gt;Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Announcement Kit&lt;/a&gt;      &lt;br /&gt;After you've attained Gold Certified Partner status, announcing it with a press release can help you generate new business, increase your credibility with existing customers, and distinguish yourself from your competition. &lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/US/program/programoverview/40006204" target="_blank"&gt;Gold Certified Partner Logo&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;      &lt;br /&gt;A key benefit for Gold Certified Partners is the ability to use the Microsoft Gold Certified Partner logo in partner-branded marketing materials. Display your company's high level of industry experience providing services, software, or support for Microsoft technology. And show customers that you're reliable, thoroughly skilled, and endorsed by Microsoft.&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Access to all certified partner benefits&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;u&gt;How to become a certified gold partner:&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol&gt;   &lt;li&gt;Complete the Registered partner steps&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Assign key contact roles through the &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40001301"&gt;Partner Membership Centre&lt;/a&gt;. For help, see the &amp;#8220;Program Enrolment and Administration&amp;#8221; section in the &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40005166"&gt;Program Guide&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Employ or contract with at least two exclusive &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40023608"&gt;MCPs&lt;/a&gt; or develop at least one &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40011374"&gt;tested solution&lt;/a&gt;. Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCPs) must enter their names in their profiles exactly as they are displayed at the MCP Member Site. The name is case sensitive.&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Attain at least one &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40011230"&gt;Microsoft Competency&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Earn &lt;strong&gt;120 qualifying &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40012109"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Partner Points&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Associate Partner Points to your organization&amp;#8217;s account in the &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40001301"&gt;Partner Membership Centre&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Earning a &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40011230"&gt;Microsoft Competency&lt;/a&gt; is the easiest way to achieve your desired level in the Microsoft Partner Program. For example, you earn 30 qualifying Partner Points, when you achieve your first Microsoft Competency. As a bonus, you receive 20 additional Partner Points, when you earn your first competency. &lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;Pay the annual Microsoft Partner Program fee.&lt;/li&gt;    &lt;li&gt;The program membership term runs for 12 months from the date of enrolment and fee payment. For example, if you enrol in January 2008, your program term will run through January 31, 2009. The entire fee, along with applicable taxes, is due at the time of enrolment. You may pay the annual fee by credit card, check, demand draft, or wire transfer. (Payment methods may vary by country.) Contact your local &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40032423"&gt;Regional Service Centre&lt;/a&gt; to get information about the fee for your country.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;The best place to find out about Partner Program benefits is in the &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/" target="_blank"&gt;Microsoft Partner Portal&lt;/a&gt;. To discuss the benefits of certified and certified gold partner levels, talk to your Microsoft Account Manager or &lt;a href="mailto:tara.hellier@microsoft.com" target="_blank"&gt;email me&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3258218" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/partner/default.aspx">partner</category><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/partner+resources/default.aspx">partner resources</category></item><item><title>Project Management for Microsoft SI Partners - Timesheets</title><link>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/2009/06/15/project-management-for-microsoft-si-partners-timesheets.aspx</link><pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:18:43 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:3255045</guid><dc:creator>tara</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/comments/3255045.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/commentrss.aspx?PostID=3255045</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;As many Microsoft partners (particularly SI partners) organise their customer engagements into short to medium term projects, they may benefit from some of the capabilities provided by the Microsoft &lt;a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/epmsolution/FX101935291033.aspx"&gt;Enterprise Project Management&lt;/a&gt; solution. The purpose of this series of blog posts is to highlight a few key functionality areas of the EPM solution, and demonstrate how using &lt;a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/epmsolution/HA101747981033.aspx"&gt;Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/projectserver/FX100739841033.aspx"&gt;Microsoft Office Project Server 2007&lt;/a&gt; may help SI partners organise their own projects more effectively. This ultimately leads to greater ability to complete more projects within required timescales and budgets, allowing the partner to complete more successful customer engagements.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Microsoft Certified and Gold Certified partners can make use of their Internal-Use Licence allocation (use &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/US/40029254"&gt;this reference on the Partner Portal&lt;/a&gt; to check how many server, CAL and client product licences you are entitled to) to deploy the EPM solution (&lt;a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/projectserver/FX100739841033.aspx"&gt;Microsoft Office Project Server 2007&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/portfolioserver/FX101674151033.aspx"&gt;Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/epmsolution/HA101747981033.aspx"&gt;Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007&lt;/a&gt;). &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;If you would like any more information or advice on how Microsoft partners could use the EPM solution internally, please feel free to &lt;a href="mailto:tara.hellier@microsoft.com"&gt;email me&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;This third video shows how the timesheet functionality within the EPM solution can be used to allow team members to report the time they have spent on a customer engagement, removing some of the administration for project managers. As well as recording time spent on customer engagement tasks, team members can also submit 'Administrative time' requests, for example when they have been off sick or have booked vacation time.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;iframe style="width: 500px; height: 375px" src="http://silverlight.services.live.com/invoke/81686/EPM%20for%20SI%20Partners%20-%20Timesheets/iframe.html" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3255045" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/epm/default.aspx">epm</category><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/partner/default.aspx">partner</category></item><item><title>Project Management for Microsoft SI Partners - Project Workspaces</title><link>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/2009/06/15/project-management-for-microsoft-si-partners-project-workspaces.aspx</link><pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:13:56 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:3255032</guid><dc:creator>tara</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/comments/3255032.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/commentrss.aspx?PostID=3255032</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;As many Microsoft partners (particularly SI partners) organise their customer engagements into short to medium term projects, they may benefit from some of the capabilities provided by the Microsoft &lt;a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/epmsolution/FX101935291033.aspx"&gt;Enterprise Project Management&lt;/a&gt; solution. The purpose of this series of blog posts is to highlight a few key functionality areas of the EPM solution, and demonstrate how using &lt;a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/epmsolution/HA101747981033.aspx"&gt;Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/projectserver/FX100739841033.aspx"&gt;Microsoft Office Project Server 2007&lt;/a&gt; may help SI partners organise their own projects more effectively. This ultimately leads to greater ability to complete more projects within required timescales and budgets, allowing the partner to complete more successful customer engagements.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Microsoft Certified and Gold Certified partners can make use of their Internal-Use Licence allocation (use &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/US/40029254"&gt;this reference on the Partner Portal&lt;/a&gt; to check how many server, CAL and client product licences you are entitled to) to deploy the EPM solution (&lt;a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/projectserver/FX100739841033.aspx"&gt;Microsoft Office Project Server 2007&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/portfolioserver/FX101674151033.aspx"&gt;Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/epmsolution/HA101747981033.aspx"&gt;Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007&lt;/a&gt;). &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;If you would like any more information or advice on how Microsoft partners could use the EPM solution internally, please feel free to &lt;a href="mailto:tara.hellier@microsoft.com"&gt;email me&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;This second video shows how Project Workspaces can be used to provide a SharePoint team site for everyone working on a particular customer engagement. The Project Workspace acts as a specific location for team members to communicate, share documents, highlight any issues or risks with this customer engagement The Project Workspace can be automatically created by Project Server, including granting all team members permissions to access and contribute, and can be configured, customised and pre-populated with documents as required.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;iframe style="width: 500px; height: 375px" src="http://silverlight.services.live.com/invoke/81686/EPM%20for%20SI%20Partners%20-%20Project%20Workspaces/iframe.html" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3255032" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/epm/default.aspx">epm</category><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/partner/default.aspx">partner</category></item><item><title>Project Management for Microsoft SI Partners - Resource Allocation and Visibility</title><link>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/2009/06/12/project-management-for-microsoft-si-partners-resource-allocation-and-visibility.aspx</link><pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:02:48 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:3254062</guid><dc:creator>tara</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/comments/3254062.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/commentrss.aspx?PostID=3254062</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;As many Microsoft partners (particularly SI partners) organise their customer engagements into short to medium term projects, they may benefit from some of the capabilities provided by the Microsoft &lt;a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/epmsolution/FX101935291033.aspx" target="_blank"&gt;Enterprise Project Management&lt;/a&gt; solution. The purpose of this series of blog posts is to highlight a few key functionality areas of the EPM solution, and demonstrate how using &lt;a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/epmsolution/HA101747981033.aspx" target="_blank"&gt;Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/projectserver/FX100739841033.aspx" target="_blank"&gt;Microsoft Office Project Server 2007&lt;/a&gt; may help SI partners organise their own projects more effectively. This ultimately leads to greater ability to complete more projects within required timescales and budgets, allowing the partner to complete more successful customer engagements.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Microsoft Certified and Gold Certified partners can make use of their Internal-Use Licence allocation (use &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/US/40029254" target="_blank"&gt;this reference on the Partner Portal&lt;/a&gt; to check how many server, CAL and client product licences you are entitled to) to deploy the EPM solution (&lt;a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/projectserver/FX100739841033.aspx" target="_blank"&gt;Microsoft Office Project Server 2007&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/portfolioserver/FX101674151033.aspx" target="_blank"&gt;Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/epmsolution/HA101747981033.aspx" target="_blank"&gt;Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007&lt;/a&gt;). &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;If you would like any more information or advice on how Microsoft partners could use the EPM solution internally, please feel free to &lt;a href="mailto:tara.hellier@microsoft.com" target="_blank"&gt;email me&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;This first video shows how the EPM solution can be used to store a central resource pool of employees. By combining this with saving project plans in one central location on Project Server, a partner could have visibility over resource allocation throughout the organisation. This allows the partner to make informed resource allocation decisions, whilst having visibility into allocation demand from other projects. The EPM solution combined with SharePoint also enables visual reporting of resource allocation and capacity over the entire organisation.&amp;#160; &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;iframe style="width: 500px; height: 375px" src="http://silverlight.services.live.com/invoke/81686/EPM%20for%20SI%20Partners%20-%20Resource%20Management/iframe.html" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3254062" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/epm/default.aspx">epm</category><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/partner/default.aspx">partner</category></item><item><title>Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 - Registration Open Now!</title><link>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/2009/04/09/worldwide-partner-conference-2009-registration-open-now.aspx</link><pubDate>Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:53:50 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:3224441</guid><dc:creator>tara</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/comments/3224441.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/commentrss.aspx?PostID=3224441</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/wpc" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="143" alt="clip_image002" src="http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/tara/WindowsLiveWriter/WorldwidePartnerConference2009Registrati_C33F/clip_image002_3.jpg" width="366" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;   &lt;br /&gt;Get ready to join the Microsoft Partner team at this year&amp;#8217;s Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in &lt;b&gt;New Orleans, Louisiana&lt;/b&gt;, in July. It&amp;#8217;s your only opportunity to meet over 7000 partners from more than 140 countries, in a collaborative environment that&amp;#8217;s focused around networking. &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;The WPC provides you with an ideal forum to access the largest partner network in the world, making connections to spark new ideas, and create partnerships that drive your business forward. You&amp;#8217;ll also discover resources and information to fuel innovation, drive sales opportunities, and engage with Microsoft executives to understand how we can help you succeed in today&amp;#8217;s climate.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Registration is now open!&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;This year's four-day conference will be held &lt;b&gt;13-16 July&lt;/b&gt; in New Orleans at the Ernst N. Morial Convention Centre, with additional pre-event activities on 12 July. Last year's conference attracted an all-time record number of attendees &amp;#8211; including over 480 UK partners &amp;#8211; so get ready to secure your place early, for only $1795. (If you attended last year, you can take advantage of the $1395 special &amp;#8216;alumni&amp;#8217; rate by registering between &lt;b&gt;19 March-2 April&lt;/b&gt;*.)&amp;#160; &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Register today and make sure you don't miss your chance to connect with Microsoft leaders, network with other partners, and experience the value of partnering with Microsoft &amp;#8211; all in person.&amp;#160; To extend your networking opportunities, the UK team will be staying in the &lt;b&gt;Astor Crowne Plaza&lt;/b&gt;, so select this hotel when you register.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;   &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/tara/WindowsLiveWriter/WorldwidePartnerConference2009Registrati_C33F/clip_image003_3.gif"&gt;&lt;img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="14" alt="clip_image003" src="http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/tara/WindowsLiveWriter/WorldwidePartnerConference2009Registrati_C33F/clip_image003_thumb.gif" width="24" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Visit the &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/wpc"&gt;Worldwide Partner Conference site&lt;/a&gt; to find out more&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/tara/WindowsLiveWriter/WorldwidePartnerConference2009Registrati_C33F/clip_image003%5B1%5D.gif"&gt;&lt;img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="14" alt="clip_image003[1]" src="http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/tara/WindowsLiveWriter/WorldwidePartnerConference2009Registrati_C33F/clip_image003%5B1%5D_thumb.gif" width="24" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Join the WPC discussion on the UK &lt;a href="http://www.microsoftpartnernetwork.com/"&gt;Microsoft Partner Network&lt;/a&gt; where you can meet other Partners who have attended WPC before, or are planning to attend this year&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;We look forward to seeing you in New Orleans!&lt;/b&gt;    &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/wpc" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="37" alt="clip_image004" src="http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/tara/WindowsLiveWriter/WorldwidePartnerConference2009Registrati_C33F/clip_image004_3.gif" width="188" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/tara/WindowsLiveWriter/WorldwidePartnerConference2009Registrati_C33F/clip_image006_2.gif"&gt;&lt;img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="5" alt="clip_image006" src="http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/tara/WindowsLiveWriter/WorldwidePartnerConference2009Registrati_C33F/clip_image006_thumb.gif" width="70" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/tara/WindowsLiveWriter/WorldwidePartnerConference2009Registrati_C33F/clip_image007_2.gif"&gt;&lt;img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="5" alt="clip_image007" src="http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/tara/WindowsLiveWriter/WorldwidePartnerConference2009Registrati_C33F/clip_image007_thumb.gif" width="14" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3224441" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/worldwide+partner+conference+2009/default.aspx">worldwide partner conference 2009</category><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/partner/default.aspx">partner</category></item><item><title>Information and Resources for new (and established!) Partners</title><link>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/2009/03/18/information-and-resources-for-new-and-established-partners.aspx</link><pubDate>Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:11:16 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d5e57398-b9ef-4490-9955-07cbb4e4a80d:3214598</guid><dc:creator>tara</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><comments>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/comments/3214598.aspx</comments><wfw:commentRss>http://blogs.technet.com/tara/commentrss.aspx?PostID=3214598</wfw:commentRss><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/tara/WindowsLiveWriter/InformationandResourcesfornewandestablis_9D36/image_2.png"&gt;&lt;img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="68" alt="image" src="http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/tara/WindowsLiveWriter/InformationandResourcesfornewandestablis_9D36/image_thumb.png" width="360" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;We all know that there are just too many resources and too much information available from Microsoft - endless streams of websites, online and classroom training, Microsoft employees... It can be a real challenge trying to find the correct, relevant information!&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;To try and solve this, &lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/JessMeats" target="_blank"&gt;Jessica Meats&lt;/a&gt; (a fellow Partner Technology Specialist), &lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/hayley/" target="_blank"&gt;Hayley Rixon&lt;/a&gt; (a Solution Channel Development Manager) and myself have sifted through the masses of information and resources available to partners, and selected what we think is the most useful. We've also defined the roles of the various Microsoft employees small and mid-market partners are likely to contact, to try and give partners a better understanding of whom in Microsoft to engage for sales, marketing or technical advice.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Originally, the information was consolidated&amp;#160; for new SharePoint partners, looking to find SharePoint training and gain their certification; however there's plenty of information on the list which would be useful for established SharePoint partners, and even other Microsoft partners who have nothing to do with SharePoint!&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;I encourage you to have a quick scan through the list below, and if you spot a resource you're not familiar with, use the information available to find out more about how you could utilise it to become even more successful!&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;This information will also be published on the &lt;a href="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/2009/03/11/solution-partner-rss-feed.aspx" target="_blank"&gt;Solution Partner RSS feed&lt;/a&gt;- make sure you've subscribed!&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Microsoft Employee Resources&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Solution Channel Development Managers&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;A Solution channel development manager (SCDM) focuses on working with partners to create and develop new practices or solution areas within their business as required to support the current Microsoft Growth areas. SCDM&amp;#8217;s are focused on driving two key solution areas of Business Productivity and Core Infrastructure (BPIO and CoreIO). This includes working with both existing Microsoft partners looking to grow their business into new areas (such as Exchange Partners expanding into Security, or Sharepoint Partners moving into BI) and working with new partners (such as partners selling non Microsoft technologies who want to build a Microsoft practice).&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;SCDM&amp;#8217;s co-ordinate and work very closely with the training, marketing and technical teams to help build partners&amp;#8217; capability as well as working with Sales and Account Management teams to ensure helping drive pipeline, close deals, grow the partner profile, helping achieving growth and share for both Microsoft and the partner. &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Partner Technology Specialists&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Partner Technology Specialists provide technical&amp;#160; presales support for Microsoft partners. This support can range from email or telephone conversations,&amp;#160; face-to-face meetings and technology demonstrations to actively working with partners to close deals. Partner Technology Specialists can provide assistance for partners adopting a new Microsoft technology, such as SharePoint, into their customer solution offering, through to partners who are already established in a particular technology area but require details on new product features or product integration information. &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Speak to your Microsoft Account Manager about engaging Partner Technology Specialists.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Technical Sales Assistance (formally TPTS)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Technical Sales Assistance provides free telephone presales technical support for Certified and Gold partners as part of your Microsoft Partner Program benefits.&amp;#160; The Technical Sales Assistance is available during normal working hours giving you direct phone access to a Microsoft Technical Presales Specialist. Technical Sales Assistance provides unlimited technical, business and competitive sales assistance.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;The advice provided by the Technical Sales Assistance service can assist in accelerating your sales cycles and help you deliver the best solutions to your customer, first time.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Why should I use the Technical Sales Assistance?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#183; &lt;i&gt;Direct access to Microsoft Technical Presales Specialists&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#183; &lt;i&gt;Receive technical support &amp;amp; information in competitive sales situations, including discussion guides and third party research materials, battle cards, and escalation to COMPHOT.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#183; &lt;i&gt;Proof of concept information&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#183; &lt;i&gt;Understand product capabilities &amp;amp; features&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#183; &lt;i&gt;Access to configuration and compatibility guidance&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#183; &lt;i&gt;Technical licensing assistance&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#183; &lt;i&gt;TCO &amp;amp; ROI advice&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;To contact TSA, email &lt;a href="mailto:uktsa@microsoft.com"&gt;uktsa@microsoft.com&lt;/a&gt; or telephone 0870 60 70 700 and select option 3.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Online Resources&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Partner Portal&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Partner Portal is accessible exclusively by Microsoft partners, and contains useful information about the Microsoft partner eco-system, Microsoft products, role and product specific training, sales and marketing advice, licensing information and available support. Access the Partner Portal here &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner"&gt;http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Sales Demos&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Demo Showcase is a collection of click-through sales demos and virtual machines that can be used to demonstrate the value of Microsoft solutions to your customers. Instead of focusing on products, these demos focus on business scenarios and show how Microsoft technology can be used to solve real problems. The Demo Showcase files can be found here: &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/salesmarketingsection/smsalesdemos"&gt;https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/salesmarketingsection/smsalesdemos&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/i&gt; &lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Microsoft Partner Network&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;The MPN is a business networking platform designed to facilitate UK partner to partner connection, knowledge and information exchange. Sign in with a Windows Live ID, complete your profile and start connecting. &lt;a href="http://www.microsoftpartnernetwork.com/"&gt;http://www.microsoftpartnernetwork.com/&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Training and Specialisation Resources&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Partner Learning Centre&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Partner Learning Centre is accessible through the Partner Portal, and provides access to hundreds of Microsoft training courses, including classroom training, web seminars&amp;#160; and online tutorials. Search for training offerings specific to your competency/specialisation, technology, or professional development subject focus areas: &lt;a href="https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/home.aspx"&gt;https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/home.aspx&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Learning paths &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Microsoft Learning Paths provide links to training resources relevant to gaining skills in a particular Microsoft technology. Use the Learning Paths to help you select the most appropriate and useful training from the hundreds of available training courses. &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;The SharePoint Learning Path for sales roles is available here: &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/learningpaths/?id=microsoftsharepointsales"&gt;http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/learningpaths/?id=microsoftsharepointsales&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;The SharePoint Learning Path for technical roles is available here: &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/learningpaths/?id=microsoftsharepointsolutions"&gt;http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/learningpaths/?id=microsoftsharepointsolutions&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Upcoming SharePoint Training&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Details of upcoming SharePoint training listed in the Partner Learning Centre can be found here: &lt;a href="https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/search.aspx?ssid=EC4392E86BA448BC92F6219528C27491&amp;amp;IsPLCSS=1"&gt;https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/search.aspx?ssid=EC4392E86BA448BC92F6219528C27491&amp;amp;IsPLCSS=1&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;In particular, there are two SharePoint demo sessions taking place at Microsoft Thames Valley Park, Reading office. For exact details, visit &lt;/i&gt;&lt;a href="https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?systemid=263278&amp;amp;EventTypeID=2&amp;amp;page=/plc/search.aspx"&gt;https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?systemid=263278&amp;amp;EventTypeID=2&amp;amp;page=/plc/search.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;For information on general training events for all Microsoft technologies, visit &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/trainingevents"&gt;https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/trainingevents&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Information Worker Competency&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Gaining a Microsoft competency offers benefits such as additional software licences, the opportunity to display the competency logo, as well as access to resources like industry research, valuable marketing and sales materials and more. The Information Worker competency is the specific competency associated with SharePoint. A&lt;/i&gt;&lt;i&gt;ccording to a 2006 &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/40027238"&gt;IDC study&lt;/a&gt;, partners with the Information Worker Solutions competency out-perform other non-competent knowledge worker partners on 12 of 14 key performance indicators. Specifically, this research found that compared to the Knowledge Worker Benchmark, IW competent partners have:&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#183; &lt;i&gt;Significantly shorter sales cycles and implementation times, benefiting from Microsoft's ability to connect them with high-yield prospects and Microsoft technical resources.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#183; &lt;i&gt;Service capacity utilisation rates that exceed the benchmark by 10 percentage points. They keep their technical resources billable more of the time and therefore are able to do more with fewer resources.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#183; &lt;i&gt;More productive relationships with their customers. Their number of deals per customer is over 1.5 times that of the benchmark.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#183; &lt;i&gt;Revenue growth averaging 18 per cent, significantly higher than (more than double) the growth of the benchmark companies.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;For more information on this competency, review the IW Competency page on the Partner Portal &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/program/competencies/40012658"&gt;https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/program/competencies/40012658&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Details of how to achieve this competency can also be found on the Partner Portal &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/program/competencies/40023114"&gt;https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/program/competencies/40023114&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Finance Incentives for your Customers&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;MS Financing&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Microsoft Financing provides an affordable and predictable way to acquire the IT solution that your business needs to help cut costs and increase efficiencies. Microsoft Financing can be used to finance a complete range of technology needs, including software, services, partner products, and hardware. Our solution partners work with you to define your technology-related business needs and objectives, set up a payment structure that can work with your budget, and help you maintain important cash flow. &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Microsoft Financing offers qualified customers immediate access to funds, so that you can purchase and deploy the IT solution that you need. There is no down payment required, and terms range from two to five years&amp;#8212;making it easy to match your payments to realized IT benefits immediately. &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Find more information about the different financing deals available on the Microsoft Financing website: &lt;a href="http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/financing/default.mspx"&gt;http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/financing/default.mspx&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;For more information on many of the benefits described above, as well as additional support available to Microsoft partners at Registered, Certified and Gold partner level, refer to the support overview available on the Partner Portal: &lt;a href="https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/supportsecurity"&gt;https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/supportsecurity&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src="http://blogs.technet.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=3214598" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/sharepoint/default.aspx">sharepoint</category><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/specialisation/default.aspx">specialisation</category><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/partner+learning+paths/default.aspx">partner learning paths</category><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/partner/default.aspx">partner</category><category domain="http://blogs.technet.com/tara/archive/tags/partner+resources/default.aspx">partner resources</category></item></channel></rss>