February 19, 2009

Generation-e today announced it has attained Gold Certified Partner status in the Microsoft Partner Program with competencies in both Unified Communication Solutions and Advanced Infrastructure Solutions, recognising Generation-e's expertise and impact in the technology marketplace.

As a Gold Certified Partner, Generation-e has demonstrated expertise with Microsoft technologies and a proven ability to meet customers’ needs. Microsoft Gold Certified Partners receive a rich set of benefits, including access, training and support, giving them a competitive advantage in the channel.

"This is the next step in the evolution of Generation-e.  We rely on companies such as Microsoft to provide the tools and support so that we in turn can pass the benefits onto our customers to help them grow and advance their organisations," said Victor Khong, Services Manager at Generation-e.

“Customers are looking for partner companies that can bridge the gap between their business demands and technology capabilities,” said Allison Watson, corporate vice president of the Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft Corp. “They need to trust in a company that can act as an expert adviser for their long-term strategic technology plans. Microsoft Gold Certified Partners, which have certified expertise and direct training and support from Microsoft, can build a positive customer experience with our technologies. Today, Microsoft recognises Generation-e as a new Gold Certified Partner for demonstrating its expertise in providing customer satisfaction using Microsoft products and technology.”

As one of the requirements for attaining Gold Certified Partner status, Generation-e had to declare a Microsoft Competency. Microsoft Competencies are designed to help differentiate a partner’s capabilities with specific Microsoft technologies to customers looking for a particular type of solution. Each Competency has a unique set of requirements and benefits, formulated to accurately represent the specific skills and services that partners bring to the technology industry. Within select Competencies, there are Specializations that focus on specific solution areas that recognize deeper expertise within that Competency. Serving as a specialized path to earning those Competencies, Specializations give direct access to the tools and resources that support that specific area of focus.

The competencies Generation-e attained

The Unified Communications Solutions Competency is intended for partners that have an aptitude for Microsoft Unified Communications technologies and have the ability to streamline communications between people and organisations, regardless of medium, platform, device, or location. Partners that have attained this competency have demonstrated expertise in planning, deploying, and managing solutions for email and calendaring, presence and instant messaging (IM), unified messaging, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call management, and audio-video-Web conferencing; all using Microsoft Unified Communications technologies, including Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Office Communications Server.

“Microsoft unified communications solutions harness the power of software to help streamline communications between people, whether down the hall or across continents. These technologies allow organizations to adapt to changing business needs with a secure, extensible platform that spans the communication modes of e-mail, voicemail, calendaring, telephony, instant messaging, and conferencing,” said Eric Swift, Senior Director of product management for the Unified Communications Group at Microsoft Corp.  “Leading companies need partners, such as Generation-e, they can trust to deliver unified communications on the Microsoft platform.

Microsoft Partners who have achieved the Unified Communications Solutions competency have demonstrated expertise in deploying and integrating Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 to deliver messaging, presence and voice solutions.

The Advanced Infrastructure Solutions Competency is designed for partners that specialise in infrastructure solutions such as storage and systems management; this competency provides the information, tools, and support customers need to help expand their business. Specialisations within this competency include Microsoft Active Directory, Storage Solutions, Systems Management Solutions, and Windows Desktop Deployment.

“Our industry partners are integral in allowing us to deliver high-quality solutions and applications to our customers, and we’re always looking at ways to strengthen those relationships,” said Aanal Bhatt, senior product manager, Partner Recruitment and Activation at Microsoft Corp. “Solutions competencies enable Microsoft to provide resources and training to partners who want to provide the best customer service possible. The competencies also provide industry partners with a way to showcase their expertise to customers that depend on them for services, such as building critical infrastructure including storage and hosting solutions.”

This means our on-site and support engineers are equipped with the resources to deliver many benefits to our customers.

Among them are:

• Access to phone and email support from Microsoft technical consultants, who recommend best practices, answer deployment questions and provide insight about products and solutions.
• Access to Microsoft technical phone support for all Microsoft technologies and solutions, during server-down or other critical customer situations.
• The ability to escalate Microsoft-related issues directly to a dedicated team trained to resolve customer issues, typically within three business days. The online tool keeps customer data confidential and engineers can monitor status at any time.