Why Microsoft Is Tops In Training

"To really add value, you have to know one area and know it better than anyone else," Miller says. "We had to walk away from other vendors that could have brought us more business because we didn't want to spread ourselves too thin."

But one company Miller says he couldn't walk away from was Microsoft, which has a tight alliance with Citrix. In fact, the vast majority of Citrix solutions run on Windows. More than that, however, was the value proposition of Microsoft's training and certification programs, which cost very little, Miller says. In addition, SCC didn't have to dole out gobs of time and money to get a dozen of its engineers certified on Windows 2000. In fact, it only needed two. Given the interesting possibilities Microsoft held for his company, Miller decided to move forward.

"It was a no-brainer," he says. "VARs can't always afford to invest in a lot of training and certification programs, but Microsoft's are extremely cost-effective."

The St. Louis-based solution provider recently applied for Microsoft Certified Partner (MCP) status, and was one of more than 35,000 VARs worldwide to receive training from Microsoft this year.

SCC isn't the only solution provider to have benefited. Microsoft owns the desktop, of course, but there's another area that the software giant thoroughly dominates: training. According to VARBusiness' 2003 State of the Market survey, 71 percent of respondents say they have received some form of training from Microsoft in the past 12 months,by far the highest percentage of all leading vendors that offer training, and a full 30 percentage points ahead of second-place vendor Cisco. Further, 56 percent of VARs surveyed say Microsoft certification offered the best return on investment, which was again the top percentage among the largest technology vendors. Here is a closer look at why so many VARs flock to Microsoft training, and how the software giant keeps its programs and courses compelling.

Making the Grade

For a multibillion-dollar software business with diverse operations and an even more diverse cadre of partners, offering the right mix of training programs and educational resources is no easy task. To become a MCP in 2002, for example, a company needed at least two employees to be Microsoft Certified Professionals in areas such as Windows XP, Microsoft SQL Server and Windows 2000 Server. Applicants chose from more than 40 exams, along with a multitude of training programs and classes that ranged from intense technical workshops to three-hour online courses.

Polly Slater, director of worldwide partner training and readiness at Microsoft, says the company's strategy this year was to make training and certification programs deeper and more focused, while at the same time reducing the time and financial investments in such programs. "One thing we've gotten a lot of feedback on in the past year, given the economy, is cost-effectiveness of the training," Slater says.

Starting at the lowest level with smaller or prospective partners, Microsoft offers a host of free or low-cost road shows and product "boot camps." A typical example is "Deploying the Microsoft Business Desktop," a $79, three-hour, hands-on lab that offers training on Windows XP and Office XP. The company is also launching a series of free TS2 (technical sales specialists) seminars nationwide beginning in 2003, which are specifically geared toward VARs and focus on such areas as automating sales quotes and customer-support processes via XML Web services.

While its MCP application looms, SCC has already begun working with Microsoft technology, taking part in several training seminars and workshops around .Net and Windows XP. "We're heavily involved in .Net," Miller says. "The overall cost of MCP certification is pretty low."

Microsoft's online training has also proved to be a powerful draw because of its low cost and convenience. For instance, partners can view a 90-minute Webcast of "Windows .Net Server 2003: Upgrading, Migrating and Restructuring Windows Domains" for no charge. "If we can bring the training to the partners, it saves them time as well," Slater says. "Webcasts and online seminars are very popular with partners and highly attended because they can choose to take the classes when it works best for them."

Another valuable online tool is Microsoft's Partner e-Learning Center, a portal that helps partners identify the skills they need, depending on their businesses' focus and technological proficiencies. Slater says the portal, launched this summer, helps solution providers and ISVs find new ways to hone their skills as well as avoid redundancies.

Higher Education

High-level partners that have managed relationships with Microsoft, such as Gold Certified partners, get substantial discounts on certification curriculum and hands-on training courses, Slater says. In addition, Microsoft offers deeper and more detailed training around specific vertical solutions, as well as scenario-based training, which centers on marketing and selling scenarios with customers. It also teams with allies to provide even more training.

Steve Terp, director of business development at Tribridge, a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner in Tampa, Fla., says the International Association of Microsoft Certified Partners (IAMCP) helps with training. Tribridge has taken advantage of numerous discounts programs and free training classes and workshops that are offered to the highest partner level.

"We budget each year on training and do quite a bit through our Gold Certified partnership with Microsoft, and a lot of 'on-your-own' computer-based training and knowledge-sharing," Terp says. "Microsoft is also great about offering discounted and free classes for close partners."

Terp says Tribridge took advantage of the many .Net seminars and courses this year and now, with a team of engineers already steeped in development tools such as Visual Studio .Net, has deployed some major projects with the Microsoft Web-services platform. "Our people are very skilled and have been very impressed with what we can do with .Net," he says.

While the lion's share of training and certification is currently centered around Windows 2000 Server, Slater says, many partners have taken part in .Net training in the past six to eight months. While Microsoft's .Net strategy got off to a slow start last year,Bill Gates himself gave the company a C++on execution this summer,a number of training programs and resources have been rolled out recently. Probably the most popular online training courses this year, Slater says, have been the .Net Technical Overview Webcasts. "Last year, we were just rolling out the .Net training, but now we have a lot more options and much more traction," Slater says.

It isn't easy, however. An individual looking to become a Microsoft Certified Professional for .Net, must pass a intense exam, "Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic .Net and Visual Studio .Net," the preparation for which includes two programming courses. The plethora of resources, however, is helping to build all-important .Net skills in the market. Cesar Brea, senior vice president of sales and marketing at integrator Razorfish, says Microsoft has made a generous investment in both .Net training and education, and demand generation for .Net certified partners. "Microsoft will live or die long-term on the success of .Net, so they have a large interest in people learning and using it," Brea says. "The mutual interest plus the resources for training equals lots of .Net solutions."

Slater says her company will continue to roll out more focused, cost-effective training programs and resources in the coming year. If so, Microsoft may be graduating more people than the Ivy League.