Partners Get US$30M for Training

To meet demand among partners for more trained staff, Microsoft will put an additional US$30 million toward certifying an additional 45,000 partner staff during its 2007 fiscal year. The program is designed to accelerate adoption of new Microsoft technology by ensuring that partners are ready to deploy and manage it with their own customers.

Microsoft already provides participants in its Microsoft Partner Program (MSPP) with discounts on certification exams, but the new money will also provide discounts on courses themselves. The amount of the discount on each course has not been determined, and is likely to vary by course and by region. While Microsoft has not announced additional funding beyond 2007, the company has hinted that it sees expanded partner training as a multiyear commitment.

Promoting Adoption

Don Nelson, general manager of partner sales and readiness, noted in an interview that incentives can sometimes redistribute technical resources without increasing the total amount of resources available. For example, if Microsoft discounted its own consulting services to help partners, particularly in high-profile early-adoption engagements that are critical to the company’s marketing efforts, this might improve the quality of services provided by existing partners, but wouldn’t increase the total number of partners available to perform specific types of tasks. Another form of resource redistribution is when partners poach each other’s technical staff, driving up payroll costs without actually increasing the number of qualified people.