TSG awarded record NINE Microsoft Gold competencies

TSG is delighted to announce that we’ve increased the amount of Microsoft Gold competencies we hold to a fantastic NINE Gold accreditations.

The additional Microsoft Gold competency is Application Development, which relates to our own products Tribe 365 and Traveller, both of which are built upon Dynamics 365/CRM. Competencies are awarded by the Microsoft Partner Network to strategic members who consistently demonstrate their over-and-above expertise in the Microsoft suite of products and let TSG customers know that we’re a market-leader in delivering innovative Microsoft solutions.

Our 9 Microsoft Gold competencies are as follows:

  • Gold Cloud Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
  • Gold Cloud Productivity
  • Gold Collaboration and Content
  • Gold Datacentre
  • Gold Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
  • Gold Messaging
  • Gold Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions
  • Gold Windows and Devices
  • Gold Application Development

These competencies are a testament to TSG’s highly-skilled Microsoft experts. In order to gain and retain Gold competencies, TSG must have a certain number of people trained and who hold specific Microsoft certifications. Of the 640,000 Microsoft partners worldwide, only 1% hold even one Gold competency; to hold 9 is a phenomenal accomplishment.

Also required for these competencies is evidence of projects successfully completed in the relevant area, as well as customer testimonials to demonstrate not only a partner’s expertise in that area, but to ensure an excellent level of customer service. This demonstrates not only that we’ve successfully deployed these solutions for customers, but that the customer is satisfied with them.

Listen to TSG’s Training and Development Manager David Filmer talk about how TSG achieves its Microsoft accreditations:

Microsoft’s competencies aren’t a ‘deal for life’, but rather are up for renewal every year as partners must continually prove their capabilities in delivering and supporting the Microsoft suite of software and devices. TSG has continued to build upon its competencies year after year, growing from 6 to 9 between 2015-2018.

TSG’s Training and Development Manager David Filmer said of the achievement: “Our Microsoft Gold competencies are something we are incredibly proud of. There’s so much hard work that goes into achieving these accreditations.

“Not only do they demonstrate to our customers, and in fact any businesses looking to work with TSG, our ongoing investment in skills and training, but our commitment to delivering the best IT solutions.

When asked if achieving these accreditations was the driving force behind TSG’s outstanding training and development programme, David commented: “The Microsoft competencies are fantastic to have, but they’re not solely what drives our training programmes. The motivation is for us to have a skilled team of people who can deliver outstanding solutions to customers.

“That’s not to say that the Microsoft competencies are not important – they’re amazingly important. However, we first look at what capability we need to service the customer. That’s got to come first. Being a national business, we also need skills geographically; having just two people trained in one area won’t cut it.

“We’re quite often over-qualified for these competencies – so for example, we need 4 people to hold 8 certificates for our Cloud CRM competency – so we’ll get at least 6 people qualified. This also allows us to ensure we don’t have any gaps if someone moves on. What’s more, we’ve got an in-house Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) to ensure we can upskill our staff year-round.”

What comes first – customers or Microsoft competencies?

“We don’t just train colleagues on Microsoft. We’ve also got Sage, Sophos, ITIL, PRINCE2 and many more best-in-class product and service certifications. We also focus on soft skills like communication and presentation skills, designed to complement the technical training we invest in. Our Learning Management System (LMS) also allows us to deliver online learning, allowing people to develop at a pace that suits them. We have a blend of classroom and self-directed online learning, which allows people to access the learning they need when it is needed.”

The Microsoft competencies have seen an overhaul recently, with Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions replacing the previous SMB competency, and On-Premise Customer Relationship Management replaced with its current cloud counterpart.

What solutions are covered by TSG’s Gold competencies?

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