Microsoft partner training offers self-assessment tool

An important part of education is determining what you need to learn. Microsoft partner training aims to help service providers in that regard, launching a self-assessment tool Feb. 15.

The tool, dubbed the Transformation Readiness Assessment, lets partners figure out the “next steps to increase [their] proficiencies and extend … practice development and service opportunities,” according to Microsoft. The tool assesses partners’ business and technology capabilities and then steers them toward the appropriate training and enablement resources.

Melissa Mulholland, director of cloud profitability at Microsoft, said the partner assessment tool’s business section covers such topics as sales and marketing, while the tool’s technical solution component measures the partner’s standing in AI and business apps among other areas. The partner tool resides on the Microsoft Partner Network.

“The assessment tool is a way to measure [a partner’s] capability and areas where a partner can grow,” Mulholland said.

Microsoft, meanwhile, is releasing new resources to help partners bolster their skills. For example, the company recently published a playbook for partners that focuses on recruiting, hiring, onboarding and retaining talent. Mulholland said the new playbook ties into the assessment tool in that it provides resources partners can use to improve human resources “capabilities that may need additional development based on the results of the assessment.”

With the new tool and playbook in place, the online platforms that deliver Microsoft partner training are getting a new look. Microsoft’s Training Center, a partner learning portal, has been refreshed. The portal offers training options based on a partner’s role — such as administrator, architect or developer — and the Microsoft technology they wish to pursue. Mulholland said Microsoft will continue to add content and additional roles such as data scientist.

The long-term Microsoft partner training vision, however, is based on the MS Learn platform. MS Learn has been geared primarily toward technical roles and offerings such as Microsoft Azure. But MS Learn has recently added content for Dynamics 365, and Microsoft 365 content is under development, according to Mulholland.

MS Learn eventually will serve as a one-stop-shop for training and certification across all Microsoft products and solutions, and the various roles associated with those products and solutions, Mulholland explained.