Microsoft Set To Add Small Business "Competency" To MPN Program

The company is expected to launch the small business competency in June. The company already offers a midmarket solution provider competency.

The number of VARs that will seek silver-level or gold-level certification in the competency could be in the thousands within 12 to 18 months of its launch and in the tens of thousands over several years, said Julie Bennani, general manager of Microsoft's worldwide partner group, in an interview.

[Related: Microsoft Partners Working Harder, Paying More For Gold Status ]

"This is a core area a lot of VARs will activate themselves in," Bennani said. "We expect this to be among the largest competencies in terms of numbers."

The small business competency is being designed for partners that serve customers with 100 or fewer employees. "Small businesses tend to look for local partnerships," Bennani said. "This is super-strategic and critical for us."

Microsoft is still working on the criteria details for the new competency. But Bennani said technical components would include expertise with Microsoft products such as Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Small Business Server and Microsoft Office 365 – the latter the company's cloud application suite. Cloud services in general will be a major component of the competency given their popularity among small companies.

On the personnel side required skills for technicians and system architects will focus on IT provisioning, configuration and deployment, rather than deep development skills. On the sales side there will be heavy emphasis on being able to work with small customers to develop business solutions.

As with other competencies, Microsoft will be offering promotional discounts on silver certification fees for six months after the competency is launched.

Microsoft overhauled its partner program in November 2010 in a move to get channel partners to develop competencies around specific Microsoft products and add more value and services to their offerings. Today MPN has about 30 competencies, from application integration to Web development.