Is it worth the effort to be a Microsoft Gold Partner? Yes, it is definitely important to CSG because it equips us to help our clients in ways not possible without this partnership. Yes, it is much more difficult than ever before to qualify for Gold, but the benefits are worth what it takes to achieve Gold level. We have access to more technical and advisory hours, internal-use software, new product information, training and certifications, developer resources and marketing tools and resources. Let's drill into a few specific benefits that help us help our clients.
Training and Certifications
Microsoft offers training courses, webinars and other resources for technical and sales training that equip our employees to do our jobs better and to better serve our customers. Having our consultants certified in various technologies gives our customers confidence that CSG consultants will do the job right. Our consultants can learn new tools and platforms such as SQL 2012 and SharePoint 2010 ahead of launch, so we can provide expert consulting and assistance to help our clients get up to speed with them sooner.
EA-Related Services
When our client has an Enterprise Agreement (EA) with Microsoft, they have a certain number of service days and training days that are part of their EA benefits. CSG is certified to deliver some of these benefits, including SharePoint Deployment Planning Services and SQL Server Deployment Planning Services. So, in addition to our normal CSG services, we can help our customers get the value from their EA while getting Microsoft-approved deployment services. Sometimes we help companies realize they have more days available than they thought.
Technology and Solution Workshops
We can offer educational seminars, conferences, and workshops to pass along the training we have received. CSG offers these events as a service and sometimes co-sponsors them with Microsoft or other Microsoft Partners.
If you're not on our mailing list that notifies you of coming events, please email me, donl@csgpro.com.