Fred Pullen's Blog

Fulfilling Your Certified or Gold Certified Partner Program Requirements

I recently came across these tips for Certified and Gold Certified Partners.  These steps can help you more quickly fulfill the reenrollment requirements and enable your company to earn the Certified or Gold Certified level.

1. Make sure you have Global Administrative rights to manage your company’s account status in the Partner Membership Center online at www.microsoft.com/partner.
1. If you don’t, the current Primary or Executive Contact within your company will need to sign into the Partner Membership Center and assign you these rights so that you can update your account status.
2. Remember that you must complete an individual profile (15 minutes) and successfully associate yourself to your company’s account in order to be assigned these rights.
2. Make sure all your technical folks are associated to your company.  This includes MCPs, MCADs, MCSEs, etc.  You can earn 1-3 partner points for each  individual, for a maximum of 40 qualifying points to be used toward your account.
1. If given permission, a contracted individual may also choose to associate themselves, and their Microsoft Certified Professional credentials, to your company’s account in order to assist your company in qualifying for a competency.
2. Invite these folks to associate by using the Partner Membership Center to send an invite email.  You can review a short online training video to help you navigate the Partner Membership Center quickly. 
3. The “Achievements and Assets” tab of the Partner Membership Center will help you determine which competency your company is closest to achieving, based on the skills of the technical staff you have on board.  This will happen automatically once these folks have profiled and associated themselves to your company.  (Takes 3 days for the MS Learning system to synch to the Partner Program database.)
3. To earn the 50 required Partner Points and reenroll as a Certified Partner, the fastest path to do so is to earn a competency.
1. Start by determining which of the 13 competencies most closely matches your company’s business model.  Begin at https://partner.microsoft.com/US/competency/competencyoverview/ and then review the requirements to see which is the best fit.
2. Your first competency will earn you at least 50 points:   30 qualifying points for the competency and another 20 bonus points, essentially making that competency worth 50 points.
4. If you are “going for Gold”, then you’ll need to earn two competencies and also earn an additional 20 Partner Points in order to have a total of 120 Qualifying Partner Points.
1. Customer references are another great way to earn points.  For every customer reference that is submitted, your company earns 2 points for a maximum of 20 qualifying points.
2. For other ways to earn points, please visit the Partner Point Estimator.
5. Once you have completed your requirements you need to do the following:  
1. Review and sign the Microsoft Partner Program Legal Agreement.
2. Update your Microsoft Partner Program profile.
3. Choose the monthly box shipments you want your office(s) to receive.
4. Pay the annual fee.
6. If you have any questions along the way, please contact the Partner Program team at 1-800-765-7768 Monday through Friday.

Posted Thursday, March 30, 2006 11:33 AM by fpullen | with no comments

TS2 Site Down / SBS Blog Roller

Sorry, the TS2 Community Site was down for about five hours this morning.  Apparently our ISP was having some problems with the server.  The good news is that they're in the process of upgrading to SQL Server 2005 running on Windows Server 2003, so hopefully we won't have any more unscheduled outages!

The other good news is that I've got the Blog Roller working, so check out that tab if you haven't already.  We're linking to other SBS blogs, so you only need to check one place to get all the latest SBS news.  You can even pull the RSS feed.  If you think your blog should be there and it's not, please let me know!

Posted Monday, March 27, 2006 1:34 PM by fpullen | with no comments

Looking for a step-by-step guide on how to deploy “push” email?

Jason Langridge of the Windows Mobile team wrote a white paper on deploying mobile messaging using the Messaging & Security Feature Pack and Exchange Server 2003 SP2.  In particular, it has some great information on how to use certificates and SSL to ensure your email is secure.  If you’re rolling out the MSFP, this is a must-read!

Link to Jason’s blog post here, and the white paper can be found here.

Posted Friday, March 24, 2006 11:43 AM by fpullen | with no comments

Highlights of the April 2006 Microsoft Action Pack Quarterly Update Kit

The Microsoft Action Pack Subscription is a benefit that’s available to Registered Members of the Microsoft Partner Program who promote Microsoft software or provide solutions based on Microsoft software and technologies to their customers. In the United States, it is available in two subscription types: Standard and Plus. With your annual subscription, you will receive four quarterly shipments that contain new software releases and updated sales and marketing materials.

As a Registered Member, you also receive access to exclusive content, the Microsoft Registered Member newsletter, a single point of contact for Partner Program support, and much more. Not a Registered Member yet? Enroll today.

WHAT'S NEW 

Technical Demo Toolkit, Volume 5

(English, Worldwide)

The Technical Demo Toolkit facilitates quick and easy set up of a complete demonstration environment for any of several complex scenarios to successfully demonstrate to your customers the advantages of Microsoft technology and solutions.

Custom Developer Solutions Toolkit – Content Updates

(English, Worldwide)

Custom Development Solutions provides compelling, up-to-date resources to increase visibility with customers and boost demand for business—developing value-added, custom solutions on the Microsoft platform.

Microsoft Professional Accountants’ Network Toolkit – Content Updates

(English, US Only)

The content update contains detailed information on MPAN program benefits, and other resources of interest to Accounting Professionals. Be sure to keep the MPAN Toolkit handy, as you’ll receive quarterly updates to ensure you’re always up-to-date.

Small Business Sales and Marketing Toolkit – Content Updates

(English, Worldwide)

The content update contains the resources you need to build and extend your service offerings, so you can take advantage of an incredible range of opportunities in the small business market—regardless of your current level of engagement in this space.

System Builder ToolKit – Content Updates

We are excited to provide the valuable software and tools you’ll reach for time and time again as you grow your System Builder business. As our valued partner you are receiving the latest software releases and marketing materials available. Get ready to explore the new tools we’ve included just for you.

 New Software

·          Microsoft CRM 3.0 – all languages

·          Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition – localized versions

·          Microsoft Visual Basic® 2005 Express Edition – localized versions

·          Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition – localized versions

·          Windows Server Standard 2003 R2 – all languages

·          Virtual Server 2005 Std R2 – all languages

Current Software        

·          Microsoft® Business Contact Manager 2.0

·          Microsoft Business Contact Manager Update for Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 Service Pack 1(US only)

·          Microsoft® Business Solutions CRM Professional

·          Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2

·          Microsoft® ISA Server 2004, including Service Pack 1   

·          Microsoft® MapPoint® 2004 Standard Edition (North America only)

·          Microsoft® Office FrontPage® 2003

·          Microsoft® Office InfoPath™ 2003

·         Microsoft® Live Communication Server 2005

·          Microsoft® Office Professional Edition 2003

·          Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 Service Pack 2

·          Microsoft® Office Project Professional 2003

·          Microsoft® Office Project Server 2003

·          Microsoft® Office Sharepoint™ Portal Server 2003

·          Microsoft® Office Visio® Professional 2003

·         Microsoft® OneNote 2003

·          Microsoft® Operations Manager Workgroup 2005

·          Microsoft® SQL Server Reporting Services Standard Edition

·         Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition

·          System Builder OEM Software

• Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2006 Multilanguage version

·          Microsoft® Virtual PC 2004

·          Microsoft Visual Basic® 2005 Express Edition – English

• Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition – English

·          Microsoft® Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, including Service Pack 1

·          Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 Web Edition

·          Microsoft® Windows Sharepoint™ Services Standard 2003

·          Microsoft® Windows® Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition, including Service Pack 1

·          Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional Edition

·         Microsoft® Windows XP SP2

• Microsoft Windows® XP Professional x64 Edition

SHIPMENT SCHEDULE

North America and LATAM – April 3rd, 2 day air (Welcome Kit only) or ground (USPS for Quarterly Update Kits)

Europe, Middle East, & Africa – April 3rd, various shipping methods

South Pacific, South East Asia, India Sub Continent & Far East – April 3rd, 2 day air or ground

NOTE: For international shipments, please consider time for shipments to clear local customs and in-region shipping.

Posted Tuesday, March 21, 2006 9:54 AM by fpullen | 2 comment(s)

Announcing TS2's SQL Server 2005 Webcast Series!

Starting today, March 15th, the TS2 team is offering a SQL Server 2005 webcast each and every Wednesday through June!  Today we're offering two introductory sales webcasts, an overview and a deep-dive.

I'm  presenting the SQL Server 2005 sales overview at 12PM PST, and this is a 100-level presentation.  If you're completely new to SQL Server 2005, please tune in!  A lot of partners ask me how they can get their people ramped up on Microsoft solutions, so this is a great first step.  You can sign up and get more information here.  If you can't make it, this webcast will be made available on-demand within a few days.  (I'll update this post when I have a link.)

The second webcast today is the first of a three-part series that's a deep-dive on selling SQL Server 2005.  This is a 200-level presentation, and will go into a lot more detail than the overview course.  Neal Wadhwani will present this at 4PM PST for the next three Wednesdays, though I'll be on the call as well to field questions.  Click this link to sign up for the course today, which will also be available on-demand in a few days.

What of our other webcasts in the coming weeks?  TechNet and MSDN have some great technical webcasts, so the TS2 team has been asked to present on the business value of SQL Server.  We'll have webcasts specifically around Business Intelligence and Line Of Business opportunities, as well as ones designed for various partner types.  If you're trying to decide whether to build a business around SQL Server 2005, we have a webcast for you!

Click here for a complete list of TS2 webcasts, including the SQL Server series.  We hope to see you there!

Posted Wednesday, March 15, 2006 2:53 AM by admin | with no comments

The $10,000 "Made In Express" Contest!

Do you like to use technology to build cool and useful stuff?  Do you think you could do it with Visual Studio Express and/or SQL Server Express?  Would you like $10,000 cash?  Well, then we have a contest for you!  Learn more at www.MadeInExpressContest.com. 

Posted Wednesday, March 15, 2006 1:22 AM by fpullen | with no comments

Welcome to TS2Community 2.0!

We've upgraded the TS2 Community Site to Community Server 2.0 this weekend!  Not only does this improve the look/feel of the site today, but this also puts us in a great position for the future.  CS 2.0 supports blogrolls, podcasts, and much, MUCH more! 

Please let me know if there are any issues with the site, or conversely how much you like it. 

Enjoy!

Posted Monday, March 13, 2006 4:07 AM by fpullen | with no comments