Springboard Windows 7 Deployment Learning Portal Goes Live on TechNet

Windows 7 is estimated to surpass the 300 million sold licenses mark by the end of 2010, with a consistent volume of new copies shipping to business customers.

In this context, it’s no wonder that Microsoft is doing its best to make sure that IT professionals have sufficient resources at their disposal in order to deploy the operating system as smoothly as possible.

The latest addition to the collection of tools offered to IT admins is the Springboard Windows 7 Deployment Learning Portal.

As the label implies, the Springboard Windows 7 Deployment Learning Portal is available online, through TechNet.

“The Springboard Deployment Learning Portal is an online assessment and learning tool, designed to help IT Pros identify their knowledge strengths and information gaps around Windows 7 deployment,” explained Stephen L Rose, Sr. Community Manager - Windows IT Pro Client.

“Based on interactive assessment responses, the participant is provided targeted learning to help them gain critical deployment know-how, keeping them at the top of their game.”

At the same time, the software giant is trying to make sure that an audience as wide as possible is capable of leveraging the Windows 7 Deployment Learning Portal.

This is why the resource was localized in a number of languages, also being available in German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Chinese.

According to Rose, the Redmond company has decided to introduce a separate registration and login process than the Windows Live login process for TechNet.

Rose explained that the move was designed in order to allow IT professionals to better understand portal usage by locale and assessment scores.

“The Springboard Windows 7 Learning Deployment Portal is designed to guide IT Pro’s deployment education by:

•Enabling individuals to measure their proficiency and knowledge against key benchmarks

•Identifying specific skills gaps or areas of weakness to address

•Create personalized learning plans through direction to resources based on the areas and scope of knowledge gaps

•Provide informal knowledge checks through learning and re-assess areas initially identified as knowledge gaps

•Recognizing critical Windows 7 deployment skills and helping to build IT Pro confidence to deploy Windows 7,” Rose stated.