Big news: Updated Gold Competency revenue guidelines published, measurement pushed to October, 2012

Here is some news that just came in hot off the presses that will be directly relevant to all partners out there either with or looking to obtain a gold competency in the Microsoft Partner Network.

Today we published the newly updated Gold Competency Revenue Guidelines and one of the big items that you should be aware of and take note of inside these guidelines is, in order to ensure that we have the most accurate revenue measurements in place, we are delaying measuring gold competency revenue until October 2012 (as opposed to beginning in October 2011). This delay will also give you more time to prepare to meet the gold competency revenue requirement. Detailed information is in the updated Gold Competency Revenue Guidelines.

What does this mean for you?

This means that until October 2013, you will continue with the same process that is in place today – agreeing to meet a minimum Microsoft revenue amount based on your respective geography and gold competency. Agreeing to the revenue amount will still take place during the gold competency enrollment process.

What happens when the requirement goes into effect?

Beginning October 2012, we will start to measure actual gold competency revenue attainment. Partners will need to meet the revenue amount by their next membership renewal date that occurs after October 2013, for which there has been a year to measure revenue achievement.

For example, a partner with a membership renewal date of January 2014 will need meet the actual gold competency revenue amount by the time of membership renewal in January 2014 (as competency revenue begins to be measured starting October 2012 and this partner will have had a year to achieve the revenue amount).

Other changes include:

• Slight changes to minimum revenue amounts
• Eligible products for each competency are now listed in the Appendix of the Guide
• More detailed answers have been provided to the frequently asked questions

Please take a moment and have a look at the newly updated Gold Competency Revenue Guidelines, where this revised information is located. If you have additional questions, you can also contact your nearest Regional Service Center or your account manager / account specialist.

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Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER, LinkedIn, and RSS and see “What I’m thinking”
Director, Worldwide Partner Experience
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

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