Microsoft's Project Athena Tackles IT Skills Training

The IT ranks are dangerously thin. That's why software behemoth Microsoft is investing tens of millions of dollars per year to subsidize technical training and certification testing for its partners as a way to offset a shortage in the IT talent pool.

Enter Project Athena, which marks Microsoft's multiyear effort aimed at raising the technical-skills quotient of its current business partners while also attracting new IT practitioners into the fold. In the first year of what is expected to be a multiyear initiative, Microsoft will spend $30 million on boosting IT skills of its channel, according to Allison Watson, vice president of Microsoft's worldwide partner and small-business group.

A key catalyst for Project Athena is the projected growth in the IT services sector, where business-process consulting increasingly goes hand-in-hand with technical acumen, Watson says.

"The needs of the actual talent of individuals out there has grown much more specific," she says. "You can't just know one type of technology, but you must know the business process behind it."

Take an area like security as an example, she explains. It no longer is simply a specialty of one segment of partners, but now must be baked into the skill sets of almost anyone doing IT implementations for customers.

In terms of training, Microsoft is targeting three areas. It is looking to increase the number of IT architects--its highest-level certification--to 300 this year; it plans to certify 15,000 new IT Professionals (the equivalent of the old Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer designation, but with business consulting expertise); and finally to boost the ranks of its Technology Specialists by 30,000, Watson says.

Currently in North America, there are 120 certified IT architects, 6,000 IT Professionals and 12,000 Technology Specialists in the Microsoft fold, according to the company. To get more partners trained, Microsoft will subsidize the cost of online and classroom training, certification exams and other requirements. Certification costs have long been a sore spot for many solution providers, who do a delicate cost/benefit analysis before committing the dollars to train employees.

In addition to training partners, Microsoft has disclosed plans to increase the size and ranks of its own Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) business. MCS is looking to grow by 20 percent worldwide, according to Rick Devenuti, vice president at Microsoft worldwide services. Devenuti says that 80 percent of MCS engagements involve partners, with the exception of the Enterprise Strategy Consulting service, which is a relationship service that is non-competitive with partner offerings and is not tied to a specific project.

Watson says elevating partner skill sets is one of the cornerstones to increasing their profitability, as well. She plans to roll out more details of Project Athena, including who is eligible, at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in July in Boston.