Microsoft Adds Advanced Specializations in Low-Code and SMB Management
Microsoft's advanced specialization catalog for partners is getting more extensive by the quarter. The company now boasts two new advanced specializations, bringing the total list to 16.
A relatively new addition to Microsoft's list of badges for partner organizations, the advanced specializations, are layered over a gold competency and demonstrate extra expertise in a particular area.
"In January, we launched our first two advanced specializations for Business Applications, the Small and Midsize Business Management advanced specialization and the Low Code Application Development advanced specialization," said Nick Parker, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Global Partner Solutions, in a blog post Wednesday.
"This means we now have advanced specializations across all five commercial solution areas -- modern workplace, business applications, Azure (apps and infrastructure, and data and AI), security," Parker said. "Advanced specializations provide an opportunity for partners to demonstrate their experience in specific technical scenarios and enable customers to identify the partners that best fit their needs."
Unlike most of the advanced specializations, which are attached to only one or two specific competencies, the Low Code advanced specialization is achievable from five different competencies. A partner can vault to the Low Code specialization from a gold badge in either Cloud Business Applications, Cloud Platform, Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions, Cloud Productivity or Application Integration.
Requirements include that the partner must have at least five Power Apps customers, must meet a growth metric in customer usage, must have a certain number of individuals who have passed exams or earned certifications and the partner's apps must clear various technical hurdles.
The Small and Midsize Business Management Advanced Specialization is an option for partners with a gold competency in either Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions or Cloud Business Applications.
The advanced specialization requires five individuals certified as Dynamics 365 Business Central Functional Consultant Associates, 10 customer deployments with five or more monthly active users, a 35 percent increase in monthly active users across the entire customer base over the last year, and at least one consulting service featuring Dynamics 365 Business Central published on AppSource.
Posted by Scott Bekker on February 11, 2021