Bekker's Blog

Blog archive

MPN Competency Changes Go Live

Microsoft pulled the switch today on a previously announced shuffle of competencies in the Microsoft Partner Network.

"Today, the [Unified Communications] competency has been officially retired and we officially launch the Messaging and Communications competencies," wrote Ian Hameroff, group product manager of Exchange Partner Marketing at Microsoft, in a blog post.

Microsoft announced in May that the competency shift would be coming. The move takes the 28-competency MPN structure up to 29 competencies.

By product, the Messaging competency is focused on Microsoft Exchange and the Communications competency is focused on Microsoft Lync. Assessments for the new competencies are scheduled to become available in English by December, with versions in other languages coming later. The assessments will be voluntary until May 2012, when they become mandatory.

Posted by Scott Bekker on October 31, 2011


Featured

  • Microsoft Dismantles RedVDS Cybercrime Marketplace Linked to $40M in Phishing Fraud

    In a coordinated action spanning the United States and the United Kingdom, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) and international law enforcement collaborators have taken down RedVDS, a subscription based cybercrime platform tied to an estimated $40 million in fraud losses in the U.S. since March 2025.

  • Sound Wave Illustration

    CrowdStrike's Acquisition of SGNL Aims to Strengthen Identity Security

    CrowdStrike signs definitive agreement to purchase SGNL, an identity security specialist, in a deal valued at about $740 million.

  • Microsoft Acquires Osmos, Automating Data Engineering inside Fabric

    In a strategic move to reduce time-consuming manual data preparation, Microsoft has acquired Seattle-based startup Osmos, specializing in agentic AI for data engineering.

  • Linux Foundation Unites Major Tech Firms to Launch Agentic AI Foundation

    The Linux Foundation today announced the creation of a new collaborative initiative — the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) — bringing together major AI and cloud players such as Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and other major tech companies.