MSP News

Azaleos Renews Microsoft Gold Partnership and Enhances NSI Status

By Carolyn J Dawson
MSPNews™ Contributor

Azaleos Corporation, a leading managed messaging, collaboration and unified communications services provider, has recently announced that it has renewed its Microsoft Gold Partner standing and achieved a Gold Certification in both the Unified Communications and Portals and Collaboration Competencies. Along with this, Azaleos is also a National Systems Integrator (NSI) in the Microsoft Partner Network. With less than 40 NSI partners within the United States, NSI Partners receive premier access to Microsoft technical and marketing resources in exchange for their leadership role in developing and delivering advanced solutions on the Microsoft Platform.

In a release, Phil Van Etten, CEO of Azaleos said that, “This set of Gold Microsoft Competencies combined with our National Systems Integrator (NSI) partner status renews Azaleos’ reputation as one of the nation’s leading Microsoft technology service providers. Our enterprise and Fortune 500 customers, who rely on complex and robust unified communications environments to keep their businesses connected, will continue to benefit from one of the largest and most experienced teams of Microsoft UC experts in the industry.”

In order to qualify as an NSI partner, companies will have to commit to a certain level of investment in growing their Microsoft practice. They will also need to have more than 40 Microsoft-focused employees across some mix of engineers, consultants and developers, and should also be able to demonstrate the ability to create demand through dedicated marketing staff. Organizations must have completed a rigorous set of tests to prove that their level of technology expertise, having the right number of Microsoft Certified Professionals, submitted customer references and showcase their commitment to customer satisfaction by participating in an annual survey, in order to earn a Microsoft Gold Competency.

Jon Roskill, corporate vice president, Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft Corp added that, “The Microsoft Partner Network is designed to empower solution providers to succeed in today’s business environment. By achieving the prestigious Gold competency, participating companies are provided with a rich set of benefits, including increased customer visibility through branding and accessibility, training and support. We are proud to put forth a program that provides the right resources to help a company develop the expertise customers’ demand in today’s competitive market and also provides the community and infrastructure that can connect them to one another, lowering costs for all parties.”