Super Six for TSG
Firm earns sixth Gold Status Competency from Microsoft and is propelled into a special club
VAR TSG has joined an elite group of Microsoft partners by earning its sixth Gold Status competency.
The Newcastle-based firm’s sixth accolade is in small business, and joins its other badges in collaboration and content, CRM, enterprise resource management, mid-market solution provider and server platform.
Only partners with proven skills and experience in the specific areas are awarded the competencies by the software giant. And fewer than one per cent of the 650,000 Microsoft partners around the globe hold a single Gold competency.
The competencies are renewed every year, requiring significant investment on the part of the partner, both financially and in terms of working hours to ensure the right skills are in place.
Phil Sorgen, corporate vice president of the Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft, said: “By achieving a gold competency, partners have demonstrated the highest, most consistent capability and commitment to the latest Microsoft technology. These partners have a deep expertise that puts them in the top one per cent of our partner ecosystem, and their proficiency will help customers drive innovative solutions on the latest Microsoft technology.”
David Filmer, TSG’s training and development manager, added: “To renew our five competencies and add a sixth was no mean feat. In 2012 Microsoft launched five new products which required training and development across the TSG team to ensure we had the right knowledge, skills and experience in place to retain our competencies. Essentially it was like starting from scratch, as each product brought with it changes to the accompanying competency.”
TSG’s chief executive David Stonehouse said the company had invested significantly in ensuring staff were as technically proficient as possible.
“Picking up the sixth Gold Status Competency demonstrates to our customers that we go that extra mile to show we are trusted, expert advisers for our key strategic partners.
“A lot of our customers rely heavily on Microsoft’s product stack. Achieving all these Microsoft Gold Status Competencies reflects our continued investment in helping customers get the most out of Microsoft’s portfolio of products."