Episode 162 of Cloud and Hosting Partner Online Meeting | Tuesday Feb 18, 12:30-1:30 Sydney time
Tomorrow is episode 162 of the Microsoft Cloud and Hosting Partner Online Meetings and we have a feature topic "The Future of Hybrid Cloud Partners" to be shared by Dean Corcoran, Regional Technology Strategist for Hybrid Cloud and Data Centre Optimization. Full agenda is Commerce and Operations Update Updates from Past Meetings The Future of Hybrid Cloud Partners by Dean 30 Days in 30 Seconds which is a look at recent news items News, Views and Venues looks more deeply at some of the significant announcements and events Skilling, Training and Readiness covering options for education of Sales, Pre-sales and Technical staff Did You See seeks to summarize some of the skilling events in the past month Please join us online for the one hour Teams meeting. If you don't have an invitation just send me, philme@microsoft.com, an email. Also, please note these sessions are not recorded and using any recording apps will be removed from the meeting. Join the meeting to understand why. Content for the meeting is available here. Regards, PhilMicrosoft AI Partner Training Day, Sydney, December 10, 2024 | Sales Track Slides Now Available Here
Thanks to so many of you for attending the Microsoft AI Partner Training Day on Tuesday December 10. I really enjoyed the conversations we had. Please find here the content from the Sales Track with a huge thanks to Rohit Lakhanpal, Roan Kang, Sharlie Raymond, Natasha Fenton, Jaron Cohen, Jordan Hennessey, Arabella Mason and Vanessa Sorenson for taking the stage and sharing thoughts and insights. Have a wonderful holiday season and I do hope to see many of you online for the next "Microsoft Cloud and Hosting Partner Meeting" set for Tuesday, December 17, 12:30-1:30 Sydney time. Regards, PhilMicrosoft Cloud and Hosting Partner Online Episode 160 Highlights from Ignite, Summary of AI Tour
Hi everyone, we're starting our December call in about 10 minutes so sharing the slides here for you to follow along. Certainly been a busy couple of weeks and I, for one, am looking forward to the holiday season. Regards, philmeEpisode 159 Microsoft Cloud and Hosting Partner Online Meeting - Azure AI Agents, News, Did You See
I look forward to seeing you online in five hours for our 159th episode of the Cloud and Hosting Partner Online Meeting. Feature topic for today is "Azure AI Agents" to be presented in a panel format. Panelists will be our GPS "Agents of AI" - Abby, Daniel and Dean. We'll also cover recent Commerce and Operations Updates; News and Webinars; Did you see - a summary of some events you may have missed and Skilling. I'll also offer a glimpse of some news to be public on November 12 USA time. Slides for the session are here so you can follow along. If you haven't registered it's not too late. Just click HERE. See you online soon. Regards, PhilAchieving D365 Specialization Sales - MS keeps partners in the dark wrt retiring certifications
If you are a partner and hold or want to achieve the D365 BizApps Sales Specialization, you are soon in troubled waters. With required certifications retiring, we partners need to plan to replace our 15 Sales/Customer Insights certifications with new ones. However, Microsoft has not informed us which certifications will replace the current ones for Sales Specialization! We are just weeks away from the retiring deadline (Nov 2024)! This is what we face as partners: Total number of staff with a Sales and Cust Insights certs will decrease from a partner's list of skilled people (for Sales Specialization) from Jan 2025. From Nov 2025 you must have replaced these 15 certifications why "some other certifications". MS announced in May 2024 the retiring of these certs. Now, 6 months later, still no plan (and MB-280 in beta!) In other words: Once MS has announced which new certifications will replace Sales/Customer Insights, we partners must get 15 of our team members certified ASAP (with the new eligible certs). This is a BIG ask, surely for small partner teams, and surely an impact on productivity! And no: For most partners aiming for Sales Specialization, it makes no sense to invest into certifications which retire soon. Just saying, as I saw posts recommending getting certified for MB-210/220 now. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The current certification requirements for D365 Sales Specialization are: Fifteen (15) individuals must earn at least one of the following intermediate certifications (And minimum of 3 individuals required in each certification): - and these all retired in Nov 2024! Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Sales Functional Consultant Associate Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Customer Insights (Journeys) Functional Consultant Associate Do you realize that ALL these certifications will expire soon!? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Episode 158 of Microsoft Cloud and Hosting Partner Online Meeting is set for Tuesday October 15
Running a risk here publishing the approved slides early so you have a chance to review and use them to follow along tomorrow, Tuesday October 15 at 12:30pm Sydney time. Last time I did so it was an "Epic Fail" as on the very morning of the Online Meeting the Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2 capabilities were released. Oh well ... taking a risk is investing in excitement 😃 The feature topic for this meeting will be "Update on Azure Virtual Desktop" to be presented by Lourens Van Dyk, Partner Solutions Architect for Azure Core Infrastructure. As usually we'll also look at recent updates to the Commerce and Operations; general business and technology announcements; forthcoming events; and skilling. Please find attached to this post the slides for the meeting and if you are not already registered it's not too late. Just click here. I hope to see you online tomorrow. Regards, PhilEpisode 157 of Microsoft Cloud and Hosting Partner Online Meeting | Tuesday September 17, 2024
I'm looking forward to seeing you online on Tuesday September 17 from 12:30pm Sydney time for the 157th episode of the Microsoft Cloud and Hosting Partner Online Meeting. If you haven't registered yet it's not too late. Simply click here for details, the agenda and to register. Attached here are the slides we'll cover so you can "follow the bouncing ball" as we cover the usual topics of Commerce and Operations Updates, the feature topic "A Tour of Microsoft Entra Suite", News, Views, Venues; Did You See; and Technical Updates. Have a good evening. Regards, PhilSlides from Episode 156 of Microsoft Cloud and Hosting Partner Monthly Online Meeting now available
Hi everyone, please find here the content from the Cloud and Hosting Partner Online Meeting held on Tuesday August 20. In the session we covered highlights from various Commerce and Operations webinars held over the past 30 days, a discussion on questions raised last meeting and via the online form in segment called "Menagerie", some of the changes in content from past meetings, general news in the last month, and some of the recent and forthcoming Skilling opportunities. Enjoy the content and to those that joined in person ... thank you. Regards, Phil
MAPS Excessive Price Increase
I just renewed my MAPS subscription. As a background I'm a one person organisation. For many years the price was A$440 inc GST. This year, the price was over A$710 inc GST. Which is a price increase of over 75%. I was told this was because now all pricing is based on USD so I'm paying the equivalent of US$400, and that it's not a price increase. I'm posting this to raise my objection to the exhorbitant price increase, and find out if other people have also been similarly effected.
