Certified Partner Program Updates

Hardware vendors and OEMs can now participate in Microsoft’s Certified Partner program, which offers inexpensive software, customer referrals, and other benefits. Microsoft has also added to the list of products for which partners can get free or low-cost internal-use licenses. Hardware vendors and OEMs can join the program if they have a product that has received the Designed for Windows XP logo. (The Windows XP Logo program was described in “Logo, Catalog Lure Vendors” on page 18 of the Nov. 2001 Update.)

Benefits of the Program

One of the benefits of the Certified Partner program is access to free software (via a complimentary MSDN Universal subscription) for the partner’s internal use, testing, and developing solutions. In addition to Office, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Exchange 2000 Server, SQL Server 2000, and Small Business Server 2000 (which were included in previous versions of the program), Certified Partners can now get SharePoint Portal Server, Windows XP, Project 2002, Visio 2002, and MapPoint 2002. Partners who require more copies than those included in their MSDN subscription can order them at a discount.