Office 365 Things You Need To Know: Partner Technical Benefits

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Tim Tetrick

We are a little more than halfway through our blog series this month on Office 365 Things You Need to Know.  So far you’ve picked up some great information to help you sell and deploy Office 365 to your customers.  If along that journey you find yourself needing technical support, training, or assistance, I want to make sure you’re aware of all the fantastic technical benefits you get as part of being a Microsoft partner.

The first technical benefit I want to make sure you know about is Partner Signature Cloud Support.  Signature Cloud Support is an exclusive partner technical benefit that provides qualified cloud competency partners with an elevated level of technical support for Microsoft cloud products. The Signature Cloud Support benefit provides partners with access to technical support engineers who work extensively with partners, have extensive product-specific knowledge, and are accountable for driving cases to resolution from start to finish.

To verify that you are eligible for this benefit and to learn more, see the Microsoft Partner Network technical benefits summary.  To submit an incident, see Welcome to Microsoft Partner Signature Cloud Support.

The second technical benefit I want to make sure you’re aware of is Partner Advisory Hours.  Partner advisory hours are the currency used to access certain key services offered to Microsoft Partner Network members. Use your hours to help you build your skill set with training powered by Microsoft Services, and get customized guidance for competing, developing, and deploying solutions for your customers.

  • Technical Training
    • Learning paths - Sharpen your skills with training for the latest Microsoft technologies. Partner learning paths provide a training roadmap that can help you reach your particular goals.
    • Practice Accelerator - provides a detailed framework of resources, spanning from pre-engagement to post-delivery. The complete documentation set includes project guides, templates, architecture guidance, and planning and design guides. You will also receive customizable leave-behind materials for your customers.
  • Technical Presales Assistance
    • Find the technical information you need to close more deals. Partners who have attained a silver or gold competency receive unlimited presales advisory support for any deal worth US$3,000 or more. For deals worth less than US$3,000, you can access Technical Presales Assistance by phone using your allotted partner advisory hours or through the Partner Support Community.
    • Examples of services - Competitive assistance, Feature overview and comparison guidance, Request for proposal (RFP) questions, Business value proposition, Proof-of-concept guidance, Technical licensing recommendations, etc.
  • Advisory Services
    • Empower your team with personalized technical assistance from experienced Microsoft partner consultants. These services are designed to help you with your customer solutions, and can include assistance with code development and guidance in deploying key Microsoft technologies.
    • Example of services - Deployment and migration services, Development services

To utilize your Partner Advisory Hours or to learn more, go here or you can engage the team directly at napa@microsoft.com. If you’re not sure how many Partner Advisory Hours you have available, you can check that online at My support benefits and activities.

The following table summarizes your Signature Cloud Support and Advisory Hours benefits across Action Pack and silver and gold competencies.

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One last technical benefit I want to make you aware of is a special promotion in which Microsoft partners get FREE partner online technical trainings until December 31, 2015.  A listing of these technical trainings can be found via the following links. 

• Microsoft Azure - https://aka.ms/PartnerTechnicalServicesAzure
• Microsoft Office 365 – https://aka.ms/PartnerTechnicalServicesO365
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online – https://aka.ms/PartnerTechnicalServicesCRMOnline 
• Microsoft Windows 10 & Enterprise Mobility Suite – https://aka.ms/PartnerTechnicalServicesWin10EMS

This is a fantastic limited time benefit and I highly encourage you and your technical teams to take advantage of it!

Thanks for reading and remember to check out the rest of the Office 365 Things You Need To Know blog series happening this month!