MSDN benefits for partners

I have received a number of questions from our partners regarding the new MSDN benefits provided by the Microsoft Partner Program.

As we worked with the Microsoft Partner Program to revise the benefits for Visual Studio 2005, our goal was to provide every partner with a comparable or better benefit than what you previously received. Here is how these benefits have been revised to meet this goal:

· Partners at the Gold Partner level will receive 10 licenses of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers with MSDN Premium Subscription. This also includes Team Foundation Server Workgroup Edition (limited to 5 users).

· Partners at the Gold level and in the ISV or Custom Developer Solutions Competency will receive an additional 25 licenses of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers with MSDN Premium Subscription. This also includes Team Foundation Server Workgroup Edition (limited to 5 users).

· Empower members and partners at the Certified Partner level will receive Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition with MSDN Premium Subscription. As before, this will include 5 licenses.

 

I am also aware that there have been some issues in providing you with the access needed to download the products to which you are entitled. I apologize for this and assure you that we are on track to enable all the new partner benefits in the MSDN Subscriber Downloads by mid-December. For now, there are a number of ways you can begin evaluating Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 Team System:

 

  • All Partners (Empower, Certified, Gold) now have download access to Visual Studio 2005 Professional and Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite Trial Edition, via MSDN Subscriber Downloads.

  • Partner media kits containing Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 products will be included in the December Monthly Toolkit which began shipping on December 8th.

The Microsoft partner team is in the midst of updating their Web sites to reflect all of the above changes. In the meantime, you can view the Microsoft Partner Program License Benefits FAQ. Also, you can read Rob Caron’s nicely written Hitchhiker’s Guide to Visual Studio 2005 Team System for Microsoft Partners.

Namaste!