MSPA Newsletter, September 2008 Issue

Welcome to the first volume of the Microsoft Services Partner Advantage newsletter. The objective of our newsletter is to provide our partners with information about our services and to tout the great work that the ISV Practice does every day to empower our partners using Microsoft technologies! In the MSPA newsletter, you will learn about actual engagements, get a sneak peek into services that we deliver, keep up to date on products, technologies and support and view scheduled offerings that you can take advantage of today. We want our partners to fully capitalize on their investments in Microsoft services, so read on!

In the September 2008 issue of the MSPA Newsletter, you will learn about:

• How a partner used MSPA services to jumpstart a SharePoint deployment.  The ISV Practice of Microsoft Services counsels independent software vendors on “all-things-Microsoft” by way of our Microsoft Servicers Partner Advantage (MSPA) program. In a typical day, one of our partners comes to us and requests an engagement that is tailored very much to their specific business needs and objectives. Recently, Cliff Green, an ADC (Application Development Consultant) in the ISV Practice, embarked upon one such engagement to assist our partner with extending their SharePoint Server 2007 production environment.  Read the full article to understand the partner's objectives, the services that we delivered and the value provided.
  
• Services in demand.  Take a sneak peak at our testing lab services and the content for a WCF workshop.
  
• New products and technologies.  We touch on products and technologies that are the buzz right now: Visual Studio 2008 SP1, SQL Server 2008, Software Licensing and Protection (SLP), and the newest Composite Application Block (CAB) for WPF.
  
• Important Support Updates.  Internet Explorer 8.0 is right around the corner – is your Web site ready? 
  
• Upcoming events you can sign up for today.  We have a compilation of upcoming tech talks that we deliver exclusively for our MSPA customers and a listing of the workshops open for registration.