Last month, I talked about the most significant Microsoft competency requirements and name changes that will take effect this month to help you understand what changes will affect your organization now or at your next Microsoft Partner Network membership renewal. The changes we are making will streamline, simplify, and refresh our approach, reflecting changing customer needs and market conditions. For partners like ISVs, application providers, and developers, we are introducing a new competency—Application Development—that will recognize partner expertise in developing innovative applications on the Microsoft platform and using Microsoft development tools. Applications can be custom or commercial, on-premises or in the cloud. Also, with this new competency, you’ll have expanded opportunities in emerging cloud-based business models as a result of new products like Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows Azure, and Visual Studio 2012.
For full details about this new competency’s requirements and benefits, download the Application Development Competency guide.
If you are due to renew your competency and membership in the next 90 days, contact the U.S. MPN Experts by chat, email, or phone for assistance.
Migrating into the new Application Development competency
Starting this month, you now need to earn only one competency to demonstrate your application development expertise, instead of the three separate development competencies (Web Development, Software Development, and Independent Software Vendor [ISV]).
- Partners that have earned one of the three current development competencies (ISV, Software Development, or Web Development) will move automatically into the merged Application Development competency and retain their current status (gold or silver) as active competency partners.
- All requirements for the current ISV, Software Development or Web Development competencies remain valid until November 2013 for the new Application Development competency.
Application Development competency benefits
With the Application Development competency, you can differentiate your organization with a customized Application Development Competency logo to market your expertise, and gain access to a whole set of benefits designed to help you win customers, grow your business and improve your margin. The main benefits include:
- Microsoft licenses for customer demonstration, testing, internal training and internal use
- MSDN subscription
- Pre-sales and delivery technical support
- Prioritized exposure in the Pinpoint marketplace
- Free or low cost technical, sales, and business trainings
- Sales, marketing, and demo materials
- SQL Server Solution Incentive Program (Gold only)
Application Development Competency requirements
The Application Development competency can be earned through one of two tracks. All requirements valid for the current ISV, Software Development, or Web Development competencies remain valid for the new Application Development competency until November 2013.
- Application track. This track is for partners that develop commercial applications, and want to position their organization in the marketplace as a software vendor. You can earn the Application Development competency by validating that one of your flagship applications is functionally sound and optimized for the Microsoft platform.
- Certification track. This track is for partners that offer customized development services and want to demonstrate their expertise in developing, implementing and maintaining custom-built applications based on Microsoft technologies.
