Find out what’s new for Microsoft partners this week. We’ll connect you to resources that help you become market-ready, connect with customers and prospects, and differentiate your business. You can read previous weeks’ issues at http://aka.ms/uspnewsletter.
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Top stories
Celebrating excellence among our US Partners
Congratulations to our Partner of the Year Award winners! Twenty US partners won 22 of the 43 available awards, and many others placed as finalists. This year’s United States Country Partner of the Year Award winner is New Signature. We look forward to recognizing these partners and their achievements during WPC. See our list of US award winners.
Extended to June 26: Migrate your customers to Office 365 with free MigrationWiz licenses
Help your customers that are new to Office 365 get up and running more quickly. Microsoft US partners can receive between 50 and 149 MigrationWiz Premium Mailbox Migration licenses for each qualifying customer migration initiated and completed by June 26. Get the details.
Ends June 30: SkyKick Migration Suite offer for your internal use seats of Office 365
Through June 30, Action Pack subscription and competency partners can take advantage of SkyKick’s Migration Suite to migrate your business to Office 365 for free on up to 500 seats. Register for the offer.
Ends June 30: Customer Adoption Offer for Office 365
Engaging your customers to fully utilize the cloud solution they have purchased can have big benefits for you as their partner. You’ll strengthen your customer relationships, expand revenue streams, and establish market leadership. The Office 365 Customer Adoption Offer ends June 30.
- Get the details about customer and partner eligibility for this offer
- Adoption Offer terms and conditions
- Learn best practices for using Office 365 onboarding resources
- Watch the #EasyAsABC video about the offer
Get ready to sell Microsoft Azure
The Azure sales readiness game has been updated, and has everything you need to prepare to sell Azure – including more in-depth topics, role-playing scenarios, and videos. Mobile version also available. Start here.
Office 365 Partner Community: Ignite highlights – Delve and the Office Graph
Part 2 of our June blog series for the Office 365 Partner Community covers the exciting future of Delve and the Office Graph. You’ll find summaries of announcements from Ignite, and links to on-demand sessions where you can see demos and learn more.
Azure Partner Community: Infrastructure as a Service announcements from Ignite
Part 3 of our June blog series for the Azure Partner Community takes you through IaaS announcements, comprising the Compute, Storage, and Network areas in Azure. You’ll find summaries of several new Azure capabilities, and videos from Ignite with demos and additional information.
Presales advisory support services help you close deals
Find the technical information you need to close more deals. Partners that have attained a silver or gold competency receive unlimited presales advisory support for any deal worth US$3,000 or more. Learn more.
Skype for Business workshops in DC, New York, and Chicago
This level 200, one-day, classroom technical training introduces you to the Video and Enterprise Voice capabilities of Skype for Business. See the schedule and get links to register.
Get ready for #WPC15 – US Partner activities
| Sunday through Thursday | The US Regional Lounge, located in The Commons, will be open throughout the conference during hours The Commons is open. A schedule of when various US Partner Team subject-matter experts will be available in the US Lounge will be published soon. |
Sunday, July 12 | If this is your first WPC, or you'd like to get a jump on making new connections, come meet members of the US Partner Team during the Sunday night Welcome Reception. We'll be in the United States Regional Lounge, located in The Commons at the Orange County Convention Center.
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Monday, July 13 | If you are a US Partner registered for WPC 2015, you are invited to join the Microsoft US Partner Team at our People for Innovation event, a celebration of partners that are empowering businesses, communities, and people to achieve more through technology.
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Tuesday, July 14 | The US Partner Team is delivering a day of sessions that lead up to the Microsoft North America General Session. Session content will focus on lighting up user experiences that are enabled by technology, and help you understand how to build a new practice or enhance an existing one—while keeping your profitability in mind. |
| Tuesday, July 14 US Public Sector Town Hall Meeting 8:30AM–9:45AM | The US Public Sector team is hosting four Town Hall sessions at WPC 2015 in the Hilton Hotel. Choose from sessions for Federal Government, State and Local Government, Health and Life Sciences, and Education. |
| Tuesday, July 14 Microsoft North America (MSNA) General Session 4:00PM–5:30PM | Join Judson Althoff, President of Microsoft North America, for “Selling Experiences to Win,” to get insights about your opportunities, visibility to best practices for success, and guidance for working with Microsoft. Judson will be joined on stage by partners, customers, and industry experts. |
| Tuesday, July 14 US Celebration 8:00PM–Midnight | Join the US Partner Team at Epcot at the Walt Disney World Resort for a magical experience that includes, food, fun, and a few surprises!
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| Resources | Download the WPC 2015 United States Agenda, and look for the US Partner guide to WPC soon. We’ll announce it here on the US Partner Community blog, as well as through our @wpcus Twitter feed, where we’ll continue to provide real-time information and updates for US attendees at WPC 2015. |
Calendar through June 26
 | Refer to the June Hot Sheet for a comprehensive, frequently updated training schedule. See our weekly post that highlights upcoming training and training-related resources. |
Week of June 15
Monday, June 15
- Partner Practice Enablement: Azure Technical Training
- Build Tour in Los Angeles, CA
- Ask the Experts: What's new or planned in Office 365
Tuesday, June 16
- Microsoft Skype for Business Partner Integration Day in Washington, DC
- Windows 10 Learning Series: Windows 10 for IoT
- Delve – Your Personalized Experience of Office 365
- SMB Cloud Office Hours: Power BI – Outlook Favorite Features and How to Demo
- Drive Skype for Business Adoption
- C# 6 New Features
- Selling Enterprise Web and Mobile Apps with the New Azure App Service
Wednesday, June 17
- Cloud Profitability Webcast: Changing Business Operations in a Cloud Environment
- Microsoft Virtual Academy: Building Websites with Python and Django
- Selling Enterprise Web and Mobile Apps with the New Azure App Service
- Demonstration of Azure Event Hub and Stream Analytics
- Office 365 Initial Journey: How to perform your best Office 365 Demo and leverage the FastTrack program
Thursday, June 18
- Office 365 Practice Accelerator for SMB
- Azure Partner Community Call
- SMB Marketing SureStep office hours
Friday, June 19
- No listings at the time this post was published – please check the Hot Sheet
Week of June 22
Monday, June 22
Tuesday, June 23
- Microsoft Skype for Business Partner Integration Day in New York, NY
- Windows Update for Business Overview as it Relates to Windows as a Service
- Trusted Cloud: Securing People, Process and Technology
- SMB Cloud Office Hours: Office 365 Partner Admin Features
- Solution Accelerator: Business Continuity with Azure Site Recovery
- Azure Starter Kit – Solution Scenarios: Windows Azure Pack for Service Providers and Enterprises
- Enterprise Mobility Suite Series: Configure Azure RMS for Secure Sharing
Wednesday, June 24
- Cloud Profitability Webcast: Selecting Target Markets for Your Cloud Solution
- Voices for Innovation: Know Before You Go to WPC 2015
- Office 365 Initial Journey: Exchange Online and Lync Online Technical Overview
- Building Roslyn-Based Analyzers and Diagnostics
Thursday, June 25
- Microsoft Skype for Business Partner Integration Day in Chicago, IL
- SMB Marketing SureStep office hours
- Office 365 Real World Scenarios for SMB: Always have the latest versions of familiar tools
Friday, June 26
- Partner Technical Services: Big Data and HD Insight using Azure
- MigrationWiz offer ends – get details here