• Chart: New Certifications and Exams

As new versions of Exchange, Office, and Windows hit the market at the end of 2006, Microsoft is also rolling out new technical certifications, partner competencies, and training resources to support the new products. The new resources will help customers evaluate and deploy the updated products and give partners the tools they need to sell and deploy them. New certifications will also help partners identify their expertise more clearly to customers. However, customers and partners will have to wait several months before many of the training resources are available.

New Certifications and Credentials

In 2005, Microsoft significantly revised the structure of its certification program, moving from general certifications, such as the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer certification, to a system based on four types of credentials—technology specialists, IT professionals, professional developers, and architects—within which the company offers numerous certifications.

Certifications for technology specialists typically require candidates to pass a single exam and are related to specific Microsoft products. For example, one new certification covers configuration of Vista. Certifications for IT professionals and professional developers, on the other hand, require passing at least two exams and are related to common roles. Among the new professional-level certifications, for example, are a new Vista consumer support certification and a new business intelligence certification for developers.

Although Microsoft will not retire most older certifications immediately, new credentials and certifications will follow the new model and will generally be tied closely to major product releases. For example, the first certifications released under the new program related primarily to Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005, which were released in fall 2005; most of the new certifications announced in Nov. 2006 relate to the new versions of Communications Server, Exchange, Office, Project, and SharePoint. Filling out the list of new certifications are offerings for Windows Mobile 5.0 configuration and development, SQL Server 2005 business intelligence, and Windows Server 2003 hosting.

One of Microsoft's most popular technology specialist certifications, the Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician (MCDST) certification, is being upgraded for the Vista era. In addition, Microsoft is introducing two higher-level, IT professional certifications to which MCDSTs may advance—one for enterprise support technicians and another for consumer support technicians. (Although many new certifications have the term "technician" in their title, they are in fact IT professional—level certifications, not technology specialist—level certifications.) Current MCDSTs can upgrade to one of the new IT professional—level certifications by taking a single exam.

(For a list of new certifications announced in Nov. 2006, see the chart "New Certifications and Exams".)

New Partner Competencies

Microsoft certifications are part of the requirements for organizations that want to attain the Certified or Gold Certified levels of the Microsoft Partner Program, which offer greater benefits from Microsoft, such as access to a partner manager, better training and support, access to additional marketing resources, and more free software. These levels require a competency (for which partners can select a related specialization), and the new exams and certifications will help organizations achieve those specializations and competencies.

The new specializations in the Information Worker competency include the following:

• The Data Visualization Specialization identifies firms that offer products and services that do visual analysis of data using products such as MapPoint, Virtual Earth, and Visio
• The Performance Management Specialization demonstrates that a partner can integrate business planning, analysis, and monitoring functions into a single application based on the Office 2007 system
• The Unified Communications Specialization requires expertise in solutions that integrate e-mail, instant messaging (IM), voice, data, video, and Web-conferencing technologies, using Exchange Server 2007 and Communications Server 2007.

New specializations in the Advanced Infrastructure competency include the following:

• The Search Specialization recognizes partners who can customize Microsoft search technologies for desktops, enterprises, and the Internet
• The Windows Desktop Deployment Specialization requires expertise in centralized and automated Vista deployment.

Final requirements and courseware for these specializations are still under development, but partners can sign up now for Early Start or QuickStart programs that give them access to briefings, communications, training, and exams that will be required to achieve the specializations.

At its Partner Readiness site, Microsoft is also delivering a steady stream of hour-long Web-based seminars that provide overviews of technical issues or of sales and marketing opportunities that could be useful to partners who want to build sales campaigns around the new Microsoft products.

Training Materials Arriving

Defining certifications and specializations takes less time than developing the actual exams and associated courseware. That, plus ongoing uncertainty about when some products would finally be released and which features would make the final cut, mean that substantive courseware is still not available for most of the major products that will be released in late 2006 and 2007.

Microsoft prepares four types of course materials: books published by Microsoft Press; classroom courses offered by independent learning centers called Certified Partners in Learning Solutions; self-paced online learning from Microsoft; and, the latest type of offering, Microsoft Official Distant Learning (MODL) courses, which combine live instructors, Microsoft's Live Meeting Web conferencing product, and software simulations to give students hands-on experience in a virtual classroom over the Web.

(For a more complete description of MODL, see "Distance Learning Blends Instructor, Virtual Classroom".)

As of Nov. 2006, the largest complement of classroom and self-paced online courses and clinics dealt with Windows Vista. (Clinics consist primarily of text or multimedia content, while courses offer more hands-on experience). Several courses are also available for Exchange 2007, but most of the Office 2007 learning resources were introductory level material, such as a series of "What's new..." offerings for components of the Office 2007 suite.

Many of Microsoft's self-paced online clinics and courses are free, particularly for products that are just coming onto the market.

The pace of new courses will accelerate in early 2007, as Microsoft's Learning Solutions division puts additional course material online and completes its work on instructor-led courses offered by training centers.

Resources

Various training resources and links to training providers can be found at www.microsoft.com/Learning/training/find/FindCourse.mspx.

Catalogs of e-learning courses can be found at www.microsoft.com/learning/elearning.

The goals of Microsoft's revised certification program were described in "New Certifications Connect to Products, Roles" on page 37 of the Nov. 2005 Update.

Microsoft certifications are described at www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/default.mspx.

The Partner Readiness site is at www.msusapartnerreadiness.com.

The Microsoft Partner Program portal is at https://partner.microsoft.com.

The new specializations, as well as the Early Start and QuickStart programs, are described at https://partner.microsoft.com/global/program/competencies/upcomingspecializationinitiatives.