You may have noticed our Microsoft partner logo changed and is no longer displaying our five Gold Competencies. Don’t worry, this isn’t because we’ve lost them!
October 3rd brought a big change for the Microsoft Partner ecosystem with the Microsoft Partner Network being renamed the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program – bringing with it some changes to how partnership looks.
Membership still begins with joining the network. The next step upward is to purchase an action pack. After that organisations used to earn silver and gold competencies as a demonstration of excellence. However, these have now been retired and are replaced by achieving Solution Partner Designations. Above that, organisations can still earn specialisations and expert programs.
So you may be wondering what are these Solution Partner Areas.
Solution Partner Designations in the Microsoft Partner Logo
Competencies had grown rather unwieldy with about 20 that could be earned. These are now simplified into six solution partner areas.
These are:
- Data & AI
- Digital & App Innovation
- Infrastructure
- Business Applications
- Modern Work
- Security
These solution partner designations are earned through partner capability scores. So it is absolutely still a measure of excellence. Partners earn these scores in three areas: performance, skilling and customer success.
For Ballard Chalmers our five existing gold competencies map onto three of these solution partner areas, as you can see here:
Data & AI
- App Integration
- Data Analytics
- Data Platform
Digital & App Innovation
- Application development
- App Integration
Infrastructure
- Cloud Platform
These competencies no longer exist, but this mapping is provided as a helpful reference tool as to what the new designations on the Microsoft partner logo mean at Ballard Chalmers.
As part of the Transparity Group, we have earned an incredible 5/6 of these Solution Partner Designations, truly making us one of the top-tier partners in the world.
You will see us displaying the Digital & App Innovation designation, as this is our specialist area of expertise. If you have any questions that haven’t been answered here, we have a full post explaining the network and these changes here. Or please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
