Get free VPCs and trial software !
I know, a cheap headline, but I needed to get everyone's attention :-)
This is only of relevance for Gold and Certified partners.
Following up this post on the Early Start Initiative for Performance Management, I received a small parcel in the post from the US on Friday.
I honestly hadn't expected it but I can tell you it's awesome content. I had 3 or 4 DVDs of not-for-resale Proclarity software (the full suite as far as I could tell) and a VPC that covered a whole host of our BI technologies: SQL Analytics, Business Scorecard Manager, Proclarity, Excel Services etc
So my proposal is that all Gold and Cert partners should have a more in-depth read of the specialisations and get your program administrator to either get you registered as a company or if you have an associated account yourself (by which I mean your passport account is associated to your company's partner account, by your own program administrator), register yourself.
This early start initiative looks really quite impressive - it's structured, well planned, and will genuinely help you and your company get ready for the new specialisations.