Launch Central for U.S. Partners : training

Office 2010 Betas and U.S. Partner Resources

dianeja — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:57:04 GMT

On November 18, the availability of Office 2010 betas was announced at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC09), and soon after that, we updated the U.S. partner portal home page to provide you with links to the betas as well as to other partner resources for Office 2010.

The betas give you the opportunity to experience the Microsoft Office 2010 suites, Microsoft Project 2010, Microsoft Visio 2010, and Microsoft SharePoint 2010 for yourself, and to give us feedback about how you think we can refine the products before they are released to manufacturing. Your input helped us make Windows 7 a great product, and we hope you’ll continue to help us deliver the best possible experience to our customers (which includes you) with our Office 2010 products.

After you’ve downloaded the betas, take a moment to become a fan of the Microsoft Office 2010 Partner Challenge on Facebook. The Challenge is a fun way for you to test your knowledge of Microsoft Office 2010, take on other Microsoft partners, and get a chance to win some great giveaways. Along the way, we’ll also keep you informed about the partner resources, such as training, sales and marketing materials, and more as we move towards the launch in 2010.

Resources

2010 Partner Beta Center: https://partner.microsoft.com/US/40124112

Partner Opportunities and Information: https://partner.microsoft.com/US/40113273 (hint: like the content here or have a suggestion about what else we should include? Click the feedback link at the bottom of the page; it’s anonymous and helps us make the partner experience better!)

Office 2010 Sales Training on the Learning Plan Tool: http://www.microsoftlearningplans.com/PackageDetails.aspx?packageId=464

Enjoy the betas!

The BPOS Opportunity (and how to get your BPOS internal-use licenses)

dianeja — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:58:24 GMT

The Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) has been in market for several months now, so it might seem strange to talk about it in the Launch Central blog. But we think many partners still don’t know about the great business opportunity you have with Microsoft Online Services, and I’d like to highlight some resources and information that can help.

BPOS Reloaded Multi-City Tour. There’s still time to attend one of these live 2.5-hour events, which are offered at no cost to Microsoft Partner Network members. Read what the U.S. Partner Learning team said about these in their blog. Their post includes the list of cities (events are coming up in TX, KS, OH, IL, FL, GA, MI, NJ, PA, DC).
U.S. Online Services Events, Training & Offers. This partner portal page is comprehensive, and lists in-person and virtual courses, partner offers and incentives.
Up to 250 BPOS Internal-Use Licenses for BPOS Resellers. You can’t sell what you don’t know. Enroll to resell Microsoft Online Services, and qualify for internal-use license benefits.
Microsoft Online Services RSS Feed. Stay on top of the partner resources and information about Microsoft Online Services.

Looking for a particular resource about Microsoft Online Services or BPOS and nothing above fits the bill? Send us an e-mail at grpvine@microsoft.com or direct a tweet to @msuspartner.

Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) Activation Seminar

dianeja — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:32:05 GMT

You are invited to attend a seminar to learn why and how to sell Microsoft Online Services suite of services. This 100-level seminar is designed for Microsoft partners interested in understanding more about Microsoft Online Services and the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).

In this 2 ½ hour seminar, you will learn how the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) fits into Microsoft’s Software-plus-
Services cloud computing vision and see the products in action, plus:

Understand how you can profit by becoming a BPOS reseller;
Discover how to target customer traits and handle their objections.

Register today to attend this seminar in a city near you, with dates throughout October and into November. Once you have signed in to the Partner Learning Center, choose the “Register” button in the top left hand corner to view all cities and dates. All seminars are hosted at a Microsoft facility and run from 1:30pm to 4:00pm. You may have the chance to win a great prize for attending!

Windows 7 Loadfests for Microsoft Partners Across the USA

dianeja — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:23:00 GMT

The Windows 7 Loadfests are your opportunity to install Windows 7 on your own PC (registered attendees receive a free copy of the RTM version, before the General Availability date), plus learn about the improvements made for increased usability and better management in a corporate environment. You'll walk away with presentations on the Windows 7 business value as well as all the materials needed to host your very own Windows 7 Launch event for your company or customers.

Windows 7 Resources for U.S. Partners

dianeja — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:38:00 GMT

In today's The Learning Curve newsletter, our training-focused communication to U.S. members of the Microsoft Partner Program, we included some tasty information about Windows 7, in preparation for the Release Candidate, which will be available on 4/30 to TechNet and MSDN subscribers and broadly available on May 5, per the Windows 7 Team Blog. Here are some other things you can do to prepare:

May 7 - Attend our Virtual Partner Readiness Day. At this free virtual event, partners will have the opportunity to learn about Windows 7 from Microsoft executives and product experts and can take advantage of the readiness and marketing tools available to help prepare them for Windows 7 business opportunities. Register to attend on the Partner Learning Center.
Windows 7 Training Opportunities

Featured Training
Partnercast: Windows 7 in 7 Minutes -- Enterprise Demo (Sales, 7 minutes)
Partnercast: Desktop Optimization and Windows Vista (Sales, 11 minutes)
The Road to Windows 7: Part 1 (Sales, 1 hour)
The Road to Windows 7: Part 2 (Sales, 1 hour)
Windows 7: Application Compatibility (Technical, 1 hour)

Find more training on Windows 7 on the U.S. Learning Plan Tool: Windows 7 Sales Training and Windows 7 Technical Training.

Windows Server 2008 Business Accelerator

dianeja — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:43:00 GMT

The "Server Business Accelerator" is a series of on-demand training (for sales people) and webcasts (for technical people) that can help you learn about the new features of Windows Server 2008. On-demand courses include "Windows Server 2008 Product and Sales Overview" and "Windows Server 2008 Transactional Selling", while webcasts include "Windows Server 2008 Virtualization Overview using Hyper-V" and "Windows Server 2008 Reignites the Web Server Opportunity", plus two other webcasts. Completion of these trainings and webcasts before the end of June 2008 offers you the opportunity to receive up to $75 to use in the OEM Salescenter (http://www.oemsalescenter.com), which offers a variety of sales and marketing materials and tools, from display systems to promotional items. Visit the Accelerator site for the terms and conditions of the offer.

Cheers!

Diane Golshan, Sr. Marketing Manager, US Partner Group