At Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft announces a near total overhaul of its partner program, including renaming the system “Microsoft Partner Network.” As part of the changes, Microsoft is eliminating the “Gold Certified” partner status and replacing it with new categories that reflect partner’s performance and capabilities.

Microsoft is revamping its partner program with a new system of membership designation that officials characterize as less hierarchical and better suited for the wide diversity of partner types the company now supports, including such partner types as web programmers and designers.

In her keynote opening the annual Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans Monday, Microsoft channel chief Allison Watson is expected to unveil the updated program, which will go by a new moniker, the Microsoft Partner Network.  Over the next year to 18 months, the company will phase out the well-worn “Gold Certified,” certified and registered membership categories in favor of four new classifications assigned to partners at different levels of relationship and commitment with the Redmond, Wash., software provider, according to Microsoft.

The new categorization will span a range of partner types, including:

1. Community: This designation is being described as entry level and is intended for any channel organization that is considering launching a Microsoft practice, but is not yet at the level of selling.
2. Subscriber: Partners who have moved beyond the exploratory phase and committed to building a Microsoft practice or capability in a particular area.
3. Competency: Partners that have earned a solutions specialization in the Microsoft Program. Microsoft will be reducing the number of official competencies from 46 to 30 over the next year, as well as changing some of the specialization names to be more relevant to the end customer.
4. Advanced Competency: Microsoft’s Best-in-Class space; partners that are most committed to Microsoft and operate a full-scale, sophisticated practice.

A couple of drivers are behind the membership adjustments, according to Julie Bennani, general manager of the Microsoft Partner Network. Most notably, she said, the partner ecosystem has evolved dramatically over the past five years with the number of different business models in the channel more than doubling from about five types to upwards of 10 or 12 – everything from traditional reselling to managed services to ISVs to Web developers.

Bennani said Microsoft is looking to better support market differentiation for its partners, many of whom had complained that achieving Gold Certified status has been “too easy” and therefore failed to be of any significant value-add in the eyes of end customers.

“We have heard that Gold Certified is not a differentiator so we wanted to change the way we qualify partners,” she said. “One of the key things is that of the 640,000 partners worldwide, not all can, should or would be in Advanced. And that’s OK.”

Different partner requirements will come with each of the four landing spots, with the Community designation requiring little more than some company registration information. The key requirement in the new Advanced category will be participation in regular, formal customer satisfaction surveys. Ultimately however, Bennani said Microsoft is trying to create a program that provides for partners more than it requires of them.

“This vision has been in development for two years. It’s not a hard right,” Bennani said. “We want these partners with us and we have a strong system today and want to keep it that way so we are giving them 18 months to meet the new requirements and giving them a year to brand their business without having to do a lot.”

SOURCE: http://www.channelinsider.com/c/a/Microsoft/Microsoft-Tosses-Gold-Certified-Partner-Designation-599653/