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The SBSCs They Are A’Changin’

Too bad for you if you weren’t one of the 31 folks in on the Quarterly SBSC call today. You missed out on some of the big changes afoot for SBSC.

You also would have found out that SBSC is actually a Competency now, kinda.

Here’s how it works…

SBSC is officially a Designation, as it has been from the inception of the program. What’s new is that SBSC will now include what are being termed Capabilities. There are 4 options, broken down as follows:

• Server Network Solutions = Earned by passing exam 70–282
• Hardware Solutions = Earned by passing exam 74–134
• Business Productivity Solutions = Earned by passing exam 70–631
• Microsoft Business Solutions = Earned by MBS Partners

Here’s a handy analogy for you to use when trying to keep this straight…

CAPABILITY is to DESIGNATION as SPECIALIZATION is to COMPETENCY

Where it can get confusing is the mixing of terminology on the Partner website. You can see all this in action for yourself, if you are a Microsoft Partner already (and you have admin rights on your company’s Partner account). Go to the Membership section of the Partner site, then choose Manage Competencies. At the bottom, you’ll see the SBSC section, and the 4 new Capabilities.

The Microsoft team on the call was very careful to stress that, despite showing on the Competency page, SBSC is not a Competency at all. And the Partner point calculation for SBSC remains the same:

• SBSC = 25 qualifying points

However, when a Partner earns their first true Competency, the points shift a bit

• Competency = 30 qualifying points
• First Competency Bonus = 20 qualifying points
• SBSC = 5 qualifying points, 20 additional points

That’s because that first Competency bonus and the SBSC dump into the same Points bucket.

If your brain is reaching its melting point…there’s one very good thing about the Partner points model. It makes figuring out MS’ Licensing models a breeze by comparison.

And, of course, each location in a Partner organization is now assessed individually, rather than as a whole entity. This has been touted in several other spots, so I won’t rehash that.

There was also some news about the SBSC Finder. Thankfully, the big bowl of stupid that’s driving the new Solution Finder isn’t slated to affect the SBSC Finder.

According to the folks on the call, SBSC Finder will continue to:

• Use zip code as primary search criteria
• Return only SBSCs in the default view
• Sort results by the following criteria (in order)
• Partner level
• Alphabetically

It was also confirmed that SBSC Finder is, and will continue to be, the search entry point to which and through which MS will direct small business customers.

Considering how piss-poor Solution Finder looks and behaves, SBSC Finder definitely is the best Partner search tool MS has right now, no matter what level of Partner you are. Assuming you are an SBSC, that is.

And if you are an SBSC, you need to start acting like you care that you are one.

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