Our developers were extremely busy over the last few months getting their certifications completed in time for the November 1st Microsoft Partner Network changes. A special thank you to all of their hard work because we were able to quickly qualify under the new Gold Cert requirements in the first week that the changes took effect.
Important stats :
100% of our MCPD developers are .NET 4 Charter Member certification holders
27 MCTS/MCPD exams were passed with an average score of over 900+ points in Sept 2010 to October 2010
roughly ~ 60% of our Onshore Developers have their MCPD certifications completed on the .NET 4 Framework
roughly ~ 50% of our Offshore Developers have their MCPD or MCTS exams completed on the .NET 4 Framework
Starting November 1st 2010, the Microsoft Gold Certification guidelines have been drastically changed. We have been working closely with Microsoft to stay on the leading edge of the Gold Certification requirements as a key Microsoft software consultancy in the Southern California Area.
For more information about the changes please see the following article on channel insider
At Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft announces a near total overhaul of its partner program, including renaming the system “Microsoft Partner Network.” As part of the changes, Microsoft is eliminating the “Gold Certified” partner status and replacing it with new categories that reflect partner’s performance and capabilities.
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“We have heard that Gold Certified is not a differentiator so we wanted to change the way we qualify partners,” she said. “One of the key things is that of the 640,000 partners worldwide, not all can, should or would be in Advanced. And that’s OK.”
At a recent Microsoft event that some of our staff attended it was mentioned, that of the existing Gold Certification Partners, only 20-30% might remain Gold Certified due to the increased demands on software companies, consultancies, and strategic partners.
You can read through the competency requirements on the Microsoft Partner Network website.
Starting in Nov 2010 updated certification logos will be given to certified members. It would eliminate the familiar gold certification logo :
with an updated Microsoft Partner Logo dictating the competencies that have been achieved by that organization
A free download of Programming Windows Phone 7, by Charles Petzold has been made available for your download.
This book is a gift from the Windows Phone 7 team at Microsoft to the programming community, and I am proud to have been a part of it. Within the pages that follow, I show you the basics of writing applications for Windows Phone 7 using the C# programming language with the Silverlight and XNA 2D frameworks.
Yes, Programming Windows Phone 7 is truly a free download, but for those readers who still love paper—as I certainly do—this book will also be available (for sale) divided into two fully-indexed print editions: Microsoft Silverlight Programming for Windows Phone 7 and Microsoft XNA Framework Programming for Windows Phone 7. [Note from Devon: we should have these ready for order in December 2010.]
With the money you’ve saved downloading this book, please buy other books. Despite the plethora of information available online, books are still the best way to learn about programming within a coherent and cohesive tutorial narrative. Every book sale brings a tear of joy to an author’s eye, so please help make them weep overflowing rivers.
