NZ Category Submission Guidelines
Self-Nomination
1 December 2015 – 4 February 2015
Submissions to:
Questions to:
Contents
Introduction
How the Microsoft Partner Awards 2015 could benefit your business
Start preparing your award nominations today
Gold or Silver Level Competency Requirement
Instructions for preparing award nominations
Competency Awards: Business Productivity
Communications Partner of the Year
Submission
Introduction
Welcome to the Microsoft New Zealand Partner Awards 2015. We are excited to offer Microsoft partners a variety of awards designed to showcase solutions built on Microsoft technologies that provide benefits to all customers. These awards have been designed to celebrate success related to partner competencies, cloud technology, entrepreneurial spirit, and industry excellence.
How the Microsoft Partner Awards 2015 could benefit your business
Award recognition means visibility for your organisation. Awards help create new business and customer opportunities, generate press coverage, and lead to more market recognition.
Microsoft New Zealand Partner Awards 2015 benefits:
•Customised logos and web banners that help you showcase your company as an honoured Microsoft partner
•Custom public relations templates to help promote your award-winning status
•Trophies and nationwide recognition for winners to display their success
•Testimonial letters from Microsoft New Zealand’s General Manager
•Finalists and winners are invited to an exclusive awards ceremony, the event is a unique opportunity to network with Microsoft executives in specific business areas and strengthen your relationship with Microsoft.
•Selected winners may also be given further preference and opportunity to showcase their solutions at Microsoft Partner events in 2015, e.g. at Microsoft roadshows or Partner breakfasts.
•All winners will receive consultation with the Microsoft Partner and Account teams for a joint-case study opportunity after the awards (PR & customer case study consultation will be Microsoft funded within the next 24 months- if selected)
Start preparing your award nominations today
This document contains specifications for one distinct category and details the eligibility requirements and casequestions. These questions should be used as a template for your entry submission. Entries can be submitted via email to from Monday 1stDecember2014 until Wednesday 4th February, 2015 at 5pm.
Gold or Silver Level Competency RequirementThis will be the second year in the history of the Microsoft New Zealand Partner Awards where eligibility for ALL award categories requires a minimum Gold or Silver level Microsoft competency. The competency must be locally earned and not inherited from overseas affiliation. Please be sure to check that you have a relevant competency and that this competency is active and current prior to submitting your award submission. Gold or Silver competency may be obtained after submission (on the assumption that competency is processing) but must be validated before the judging process begins February 5th 2015, 5:01pm. If competency is not yet obtained at the time of submission but will be confirmed before the submission period closes, this information must be disclosed within an entrant’s submission. Submissions will be checked against MPN competency status prior to judging, entrants without a Microsoft competency will be held back from judging.
Instructions for preparing award nominations
Prepare your Microsoft 2015 Partner of the Year Award nominations by following these two steps.
Step 1: Review the relevant guidelines to your category (or multiple categories)and the official Terms and Conditions.
Step 2: Email the completed award submission(s) in Microsoft Word or PDF format to . Please ensure the submission addresses all of the questions for any given category, there is no word count restriction. You may enter multiple awards categories, but each submission must be a separate document. All submissions must be received by Wednesday 4 February 2015, at 5pmto be eligible entries. Improperly submitted entries will not be judged.
Your submission must include the following Partner and Customer contact information--please fill in the below tables.
The following timeline applies to this year’s partner awards:
Calendar Item / DateSubmissions open
Submit to: / Monday, 1 December 2014
Final submissions due date / Wednesday, 4 February 2015
Finalists Announced / Wednesday, 25 February 2015
Partner Awards Night / Thursday, 19 March 2015
Official Press Release Announcing Winners / Monday, 23 March 2015
Global Award Submissions Close / Friday, 25 March 2015
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (and Awards- in Orlando, Florida) / Monday 12-16 July 2015
Competency Awards: Business Productivity
Communications Partner of the Year
The Communications Partner of the Year Award recognizes partners with a proven expertise in Microsoft Lync. The nomination is open for all the Lync partners involved in building solutions, deploying, and supporting Lync. Partners should ensure their award nominations highlight the significant impact their solutions have on how people communicate and collaborate through an improved end user experience, increased efficiency, enhanced services, or innovative products and applications. Partners should showcase the unique and positive effects their innovative solutions have had on their customers’ business. Successful entries should also feature proof-points of how these solutions in solving customer business challenges on premise, in the cloud, or through enhanced features and functionality.
Eligibility:
•Active in the Microsoft Communications Competency
•Have a current Microsoft Pinpoint directory listing
•Currently a Gold or Silver level partner in the Microsoft Partner Network
Questions:
- Describe the customer business challenges or needs your organization addressed leveraging Microsoft Lync. Showcase how you are leveraging on premise and/or cloud based Lync solutions to meet customer needs.
- How did your application, solution or deployment of Microsoft Lync help customers lower IT costs, improve user experience and increase efficiency? Support this entry with quantifiable results. Provide outside references or data sources that provide evidence of exceptional customer experience or satisfaction (i.e., links to published articles, case studies, videos, customer testimonials, etc.).
- What specific features or benefits differentiate your services, product, or application in the marketplace?
- Describe how leveraging Microsoft technologies in your solution helped you win against the competition in a customer situation. What specific benefits were you able to offer that the competition was not?
- Describe the market opportunity your solution addresses. Discuss how you see the communications market evolve and how your organization’s expertise will scale to meet customers evolving business challenges and opportunities.
- Describe all MPN related activities your company has been involved in over the past 12 months, other than renewing your membership and qualifying for competency (e.g. profiling solution in Pinpoint [please include your Pinpoint solution URL], customer campaigns, etc.).
Note: There is no word count restriction for these responses
Submission
Partner Contact InformationCompany Name
Company Address (Street, City, Postal Code)
Company Web Address
Company Profile: Please briefly describe in a paragraph or two- the company mission statement, company history, what your main solutions/products or services are (this may be used for press purposes- pre or post event).
Contact Details
Contact Name and Position
Contact Email Address
Contact Phone Number
Business Focus: Please describe your business focus and the market areas in which you operate. (Limit 500 characters)
Please attach a ‘print ready’ high resolution image of your company logo (this may be used for press purposes- pre or post event) Must be pdf, Photoshop or vector formats ( .ai, .eps, .psd, .pdf)
Customer Contact Information (if applicable for your category)
Company Name
Company Address (Street, City, Postal Code)
Company Web Address
Contact Details
Contact Name and Position
Contact Email Address
Contact Phone Number
Customer Size: in # of seats
Industry/Business Focus: Please describe the customer's business focus. (Limit 500 characters)
Yes/No: I have received permission from the customer and give consent to use the customer story for publicity purposes.
Entry
Option 1: You may answer question by question, or
Option 2: You may use a free-form styleas long as the key questions are addressed
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