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Microsoft Launches SharePoint Deployment Planning Services

SharePoint Deployment Planning Services is available now for customers with Volume Licensing Software Assurance through partners with an SDPS certification.

• By David Nagel
• 05/20/2008

"Customers told us they got the most out of SharePoint when they brought in a SharePoint Certified Consultant in the early stages to help with deployment planning," said Tom Rizzo, director of SharePoint at Microsoft, in a statement released Monday. "SDPS is a great matchup between our customers and our partners, because the customers win twice: They get deployment planning to help ensure the best possible results on the SharePoint platform, but also an added value for their investment in Software Assurance."

Microsoft partners with competencies in Information Worker Portals and Collaboration, Enterprise Content Management, or Search specializations can become certified in SDPS. Microsoft said it will reimburse these partners for consulting on SharePoint deployment planning with customers and allow SDPS-certified partners to access a new online community for partners aimed at sharing best practices for SharePoint implementation.

For customers, SDPS providers can offer templates for deployment, architecture design help, and support for SharePoint server farm deployment.

Microsoft said that, as of Monday, it's wrapping up a pilot of the SDPS program in which IT solutions provider Dimension Data took part. "There's incredible interest in SharePoint," said Dimension's Peter Menadue, general manager of Application Integration. "SDPS has driven good initial engagements with clients around SharePoint, and it's been valuable to build our business."

Further information on becoming an SDPS provider can be found here.