Charles Weaver, president of the MSPAlliance, described the relationship with Microsoft as a kind of "reciprocal recognition" -- for the MSPAlliance's Managed Services Accreditation exam and Microsoft's IT infrastructure certification.
"When a company takes our exam and specifies they have achieved Microsoft IT certification, they will receive credit for that, whereas today they do not," Weaver explained. "Conversely, Microsoft is promoting the Managed Services Accreditation exam to their partners worldwide…a big win for us."
The managed services space is expanding, especially as the economy contracts and enterprises and corporations shrink in-house IT departments. Microsoft is "certainly paying more than lip service to the concept of managed IT services" so the relationship with the MSPAlliance is delivering a "resounding and pro-channel message," Weaver said.
With 7,000 worldwide members, the MSPAlliance has developed a certification and accreditation standard for a variety of players who are "getting into the technology sector with the express purpose of delivering some sort of managed IT service," he continued. Among those players will be companies that use Microsoft's expanding managed services platforms.
"They're [Microsoft] taking a very hands-on approach to this relationship in terms of getting the news out to their partners," Weaver said.
The MSPAlliance is a trade organization open to employees of managed IT service provider companies, and more information is available here.
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