Software Assurance Planning Services
Partner Eligibility Requirements

To become an approved Planning Service Provider, you must first meet the following requirements:

 

  1. Your company must be enrolled in the Microsoft Partner Network
  2.  
  3. The individual must have a Windows Live ID that is associated to the Partner Location MPN ID that will be registered for Planning Services Program(s)
  4.  
  5. Review and Complete individual Planning Service Certification Requirements as detailed in the table below
  6.  
  7. Click here and begin registration process

 

 

 

 




Planning Service Certification Requirements

 

​Program Program Approval Requirement​s ​Minimum Number of Consultants

Public Cloud, Windows Azure (AZDPS)​

MCP Exam 70-583: Designing and Developing Windows Azure Applications

 (1​)

Desktop  (DDPS)​

​All DDPS partners must obtain the Desktop competency (silver or gold).  (N/A)

Developer Tools (DTDPS)​

Gold Competency in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)  (N/A)
Lync & Exchange (L&EDPS)​ ​ Silver or gold in one of the following Microsoft Partner Network competencies:

Communications
Messaging  ​
 (N/A)
Private Cloud (PVDPS)​

Gold competency in either Management and Virtualization or Server Platform

 ​(N/A)
SharePoint (SDPS)​ ​ ​

All SDPS partner organizations must obtain one of the following Microsoft Partner Network competencies (silver or gold): 

 

- Business Intelligence (BI)
- Portals and Collaboration
- Search
- Digital Marketing
- Content Management

 

Consultants delivering SDPS engagements after May 2012 ust be certified in at least one of the following SharePoint competency supporting exams: 

 

  • Exam 70-573 : TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development
  • Exam 70-576 : PRO: Designing and Development Microsoft 2010 Applications
  • Exam 70-667 : TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Configuring
  • Exam 70-668 : PRO: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Administrator
  • Exam 74-676 : Fast Enterprise Search Platform, Development
 (N/A)
​SQL Server (SSDPS)

Gold competency in Business Intelligence or Data Platform to provide “Deploying SQL Server 2008 R2 Business Intelligence”

 

Gold competency in Data Platform to provide “Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 R2” or “Migrating to SQL Server 2008 R2 from Oracle”​

(N/A)

 

 

 

 

Enrollment moving to MPN for DDPS, SDPS, and L&EDPS engagements by May 2012

 

DDPS, SDPS, and L&EDPS partner enrollment is moving to the MPN platform by May 2012. All partners providing these engagements must be a MPN member, enroll in the Planning Services program, and obtain the required competency to deliver these engagements.

 



Keep in mind...
Each certified delivery consultant must have associated their Live ID and linked their Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) credentials to the partner company’s MPN Location ID that is registered for each service type.

 

The certification criteria above is the minimum criteria that a partner organization must meet to become approved to deliver each program. In addition, consultants that deliver a Planning service engagement on behalf of an approved partner must also be certified in the deployment service type they are delivering.

“We received an unbelievable bang for our buck with the SDPS engagement.  And this is a service out there that is essentially paid for; utilize it!  I would tell anybody there is no better way.”

Dorothy A. Chuday
SB/SE Business Systems Planning Senior Policy Analyst, IRS