Do you use Microsoft Partner University?

You should! This is a great resource Microsoft has provided to us as partners. I have been taking online courses on this site for years, but it seems many partners are unaware of the site or have not commited to life long learning. Yes it takes some time and requires some work, but as technology professionals, which we want to consider ourselves, consider it as professional development and log in and learn. Not only can we learn things on many different topics, but they also incent us to do the right thing by allowing us to earn points which translate into FREE STUFF. Here is the latest offer to hit my inbox.

Announcing The Big Easy Offer with up to 10 million partner subsidy dollars available exclusively to Microsoft Partner Program members! The Big Easy Offer covers most of the core products and solutions you sell to your small and medium-size customers. Select from the eight Ready-to-Go Campaigns to help you easily prepare for and promote this offer. Or leverage the customizable materials for the products of your choice as you build solutions that meet your customers' unique needs.

Take the following two webcasts* and pass the final quiz by March 31, 2008 and you will be entered to win one of several fabulous prizes**! Also, the first 975 users to complete the final quiz will earn 20 MPU points***!

It's easy, just login to Microsoft Partner University and complete all online courses listed below.

Complete the following courses and final quiz to qualify:
Partner Introduction to the NEW Microsoft Open Value Subscription Program
The Big Easy Microsoft Offer

Final Quiz:
The Big Easy Offer Promotion

Prizes:
Grand prize - a trip for two to Jamaica (or 6,500 MPU points)
Sandals Dunn's River Golf Resort & Spa
1 of 4 BOSE Wave Music Systems (or 632 MPU points)
1 of 25 30GB Zune Music Video Players (or 234 MPU points)

Get on your keyboard and get into the learning mode. Good stuff and it is free!

Hello - is anyone in Redmond listening

I wrote on December 27th about the need to renew your Microsoft Partner Program for 2008. Little did I know just how painful the reference part of that process would be. I started right after the first of the year trying to enter new references because almost all of ours expire on 1-15-2008. Entry was pretty smooth but then the challenges set in. We sent out about a dozen references to get started and three or four were able to get them approved. But then the phone started to ring and customers were telling us it just didn't work. No matter what they tried - they kept getting this timeout message. We have learned the importance of contacting our customers to let them know that we are submitting a reference request and that they need to watch their email and respond. They tried - wasted time trying over and over - but it just didn't work. So I asked a couple of them to send me the email they were trying to respond to so I could try it. Surely my biggest vendor partner wouldn't ask my customers to use a site to do a favor for me that didn't work. But dog gone it - it didn't work and hasn't for days. We made the mistake before I figured it out of sending out the reminder request so I could pour gas on a fire and make it even a bigger issue. The customers tried again and viola - it still doesn't work. I don't mind looking bad when I cause my own issues. But when I am looking like an idiot because of my vendor partner - that just isn't fair. We are required to submit these things so we can participate in a partner program. My customers could care less and if not for the relationship, they would not spend a second doing this in the first place. But to have them try over and over because we need the references to have specializations and competencies is going too far.

I loved this question from one of my customers: "Is Microsoft running their site on Vista? If that is how it works I will wait a while longer to upgrade." C'mon Redmond. This stuff has to stop. Don't ask partners to do things that waste our time. And please, please don't ask our customers to do things that waste their time and make us look like morons.

Don't get me wrong, I have said many times that the partner program from Microsoft has come a long way. Unfortunately it has taken some big steps backward the last couple weeks.

Kevin Turner - if you are listening - this needs to be fixed or the current references just grandfathered for another year until someone can write the code so it works.

Allison Watson - I love your team and all the creative things you are doing - but this is killing us. As your partners you need to come to our rescue and just extend the references until this is fixed.

It should not have surprised anyone that the traffic hitting this site would be enormous with all the renewals coming. Maybe some of the dozen or so calls I get each month from Microsoft should just be to take names of my references and have someone manually put them in. Anyway - this has to stop.

Partners - there is an update on the situation at https://partner.microsoft.com/us/partneralert. Current suggested course of action is to call the RSC and have them manually do it. I have spent all the time I care to for now. Need to cool down and think about it before I waste more time on this. I am just thankful I didn't enter the other 20 or so references we need for renewal.

Waiting and hoping in Iowa.........