First post by Edie

Hello everyone,

My name is Edie van den Berge and I'm also a PTS in the Dutch PTS team.

This is my 7th year at Microsoft and I followed a similar route as Andre to where I am now. I started in Product Support Services as a support specialist in the Windows Core team. My main focus here was troubleshooting critical and deep technical issues with the Windows operating system. When I started we supported Windows NT4.0 and Windows 2000. I left PSS when Windows Server 2003 SP1 just got released around may 2005 and started as a consultant in MCS (Microsoft Consultancy Services).
In my role as a consultant I focused on nearly everything that had to do with Windows Operating System based infrastructures, application and server virtualization and information security. Information security in the broadest context.
The highlight of my time with MCS were the roughly 12 months I spent on the Windows Server 2008 RDP (Rapid Deployment Program). I worked closely with our product group and one of our customers (PGGM) to roll-out Windows Server 2008 during the beta/RC timeframe. This resulted in a case study that got a lot of attention during the IT Herolympics (Dutch 2008 launch wave) event where the customer (Immanuel Noorman, ICT Architect) and myself held a presentation around the specific scenario that we implemented.

Because of my experience during the Windows Server 2008 RDP I decided it was time for a more public facing role. So as of the 1st of July this year I started as a Partner Technology Specialist, focusing on Core IO (Infrastructure Optimization). Short role description:

With focus on core infrastructure products, the Partner Technology Specialist - Core IO is a specialized role intended to both enable and support partner success in the technical pre-sales process. The job’s primary purpose is that of enabling partner presales capability and co-selling on qualified opportunities. Some of the activities a PTS will engage in include: selecting and enabling high-potential “growth” partners for in-depth capacity/skills development, working in active sales engagements with partners on well-qualified opportunities and delivering presales presentations at one-to-many breadth-partner events.

From a Core IO perspective our main focus for this fiscal year (Our fiscal year starts in July and ends June of next year) will be:

It promises to be a very exciting year, especially if you are in the virtualization space :)

More to come in next posts.

Best regards,

Edie