SharePoint Server deployment planning assistance has been added as a benefit for customers who have Microsoft's Software Assurance (SA) on their desktop software. Qualified partners can sign up to provide the planning service to customers and will be added to a directory maintained by Microsoft, which will also pay partners for providing SharePoint deployment planning to end customers. The service is expected to be available to customers in 2008.

Desktop Deployment Planning

SharePoint Deployment Planning Services (SDPS) are modeled after the existing Desktop Deployment Planning Services (DDPS). DDPS is a benefit of SA, a Microsoft program that provides maintenance and upgrade benefits on software licenses. Eligible DDPS customers get from one to 15 days of desktop OS and application deployment planning, based on how much they spend on SA for their desktop software. For a minimum of US$60,000 spent on SA, customers get one day of DDPS, and customers who spend US$1.25 million get 10 days. (Benefit thresholds vary by region and currency.) Customers can also convert unused training vouchers into additional days of DDPS.

A typical DDPS engagement includes an analysis of the customer's requirements, a report summarizing the analysis, scenarios (with costs) that can help the customer chose a feasible solution, and (for engagements of five days or more) development of a proof-of-concept that illustrates how a specific scenario would work in the customer's environment. A typical DDPS engagement does not include the actual deployment of the software.

The SharePoint Engagement

Although SharePoint is not a desktop application, Microsoft has decided to offer deployment planning services for it because so much SharePoint functionality is related to Office productivity applications. The company sees SharePoint as a critical platform for business intelligence, content management, portals and collaboration, and search solutions that can leverage desktop applications such as Office.

SDPS also gives customers an incentive to purchase or renew SA and to deploy SharePoint, and gives partners incentives to promote both SharePoint and SA. To be eligible for SDPS, customers must purchase SA for all their desktop applications, including Office. (This blanket SA purchase is known as SA Membership, or SAM.)

Partners who sign up for certification as SDPS participants should have skills in the following areas:

• Networking infrastructure
• Network load-balancing
• Collaboration, content management, portals, and search solutions
• Security and authentication practices
• Data back-up and restore
• Relevant Microsoft products, including Active Directory, Internet Information Services 6.0, Internet Security and Acceleration Server, SharePoint Server 2007, SharePoint Services 3.0, SQL Server, and Windows Server 2003.

Partners will also need to meet some training and partner criteria, including the following:

• Be a member of the Microsoft Partner Program as a Registered Partner or higher
• Supply Microsoft with at least three references for projects that integrated products, technology, and services using SharePoint Server 2007 or SharePoint Portal Server 2003
• Have two consultants on staff or under contract who are certified on SharePoint Server and have taken Exam 70-630: "Technology Specialist: Office SharePoint Server, Configuring."

Microsoft will supply partners with training resources that can help them meet the program requirements, including agendas and questionnaires to guide their analysis of customer requirements. Partners can also purchase a collection of six online courses (totaling about 12 hours of SharePoint instruction) or attend an instructor-led course to help them pass the examination.

Financial Benefits

When customers order an SDPS engagement through their SA benefits and locate a partner for that engagement, Microsoft will pay the partner for the engagement according to a fixed-price schedule. Although many partners may find the payments lower than they like, such engagements can lead to further work that generates additional partner revenue.

In addition, partners are free to operate outside the SDPS program structure: they can use the program as a guide to the skills they should have for SharePoint engagements and can even use SDPS documentation, such as agendas and questionnaires, but offer them directly to customers at negotiated rates. Although SAM offers other benefits than SDPS, it is costly and many customers who are looking only for SDPS services may find it less expensive to buy equivalent planning services directly from a partner than to join the SAM program.

Because Microsoft's payments to partners also cover a specific type and scope of engagement, partners and customers who want a broader (or narrower) engagement can use SDPS as the starting point for customized services.

Resources

The SharePoint online learning courses are described at https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/offerDetail.aspx?offerPriceId=127456.

Frequently asked questions about SDPS are answered at https://iwsolve.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/sdps/FAQ.htm.