New Benefits for 2.2 Million Microsoft Certified Professionals

In preparation for the official worldwide availability of Windows Server 2008, formerly codenamed Longhorn, the company's last 32-bit server operating system, Microsoft unveiled new benefits for its global community of Certified Professionals. With the new breed of benefits addressed to the Global Certified Professional Community, counting in excess of 2.2 million members, Microsoft streamlines deployment and enables advanced support for new technologies by delivering widened access to exclusively internal resources, and through the MCP network infrastructure.

"As new technology is released, Microsoft is investing in unique benefits for MCPs that provide ongoing value that will help them improve their performance on the job while distinguishing themselves from their peers", revealed Lutz Ziob, general manager of Microsoft Learning. According to the Redmond company, the new lineup of resources for the Microsoft Certified Professional program includes: Knowledge Base Access, MCP Member Directory search, MCP Community Profiles, Transcript Manager, Certificate Manager and Logo Manager.

"Having certified professionals on staff makes a very positive impression when companies sell to their clients," explained Manoj Agarwal, senior software engineer at Microsoft and a Microsoft Certified Professional Developer in Windows development and Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist in BizTalk Server and SQL Server. "Organizations can use certifications to win clients and showcase all their skills and capabilities through the number of certified professionals they have."

With the new benefits, Microsoft has opened up the extensive partner-level Product Support Knowledge Base to MCPs, in addition to partners and Most Valuable Professionals. In this manner, MCPs will be able to tap a resource of information closed to the general public. On top of this, the company also facilitates the process in which MCPs are able to search and identify their peers.

"MCPs worldwide can build and maintain their personal landing page on the Microsoft.com Web site to help drive community interaction and increase their visibility within the worldwide community. MCPs can now download redesigned, high-resolution Microsoft certifications in both XPS and PDF file formats within days of achieving new credentials. MCPs can continue to download from the library of Microsoft certification logos for use in their resumes, Web sites and business communications", the company added.