14:10 Lutz Ziob, GM of Microsoft Learning, just kicked off our opening session at WPC 2009 in New Orleans!
14:15 Lutz presenting “Identity 2.0” style rapid-fire presentation recapping the economy over the past year… hanging out with Deborah Grauer, our track manager, backstage as she valiantly (and successfully) tries to keep the slides in sync with Lutz’s words. :-)
14:20 Chris Pirie (GM of MSL Sales and Marketing) now on stage to give our annual scorecard… this ought to be interesting:
14:23 As expected, troubled times in FY09: even though things stabilized this past quarter, overall we were 12% down for the year.
14:30: The good news:
* SATV redemption up 16% worldwide * Class Locator drew in 960,000 searches for customer training at CPLSes * 38,000 copies of NFR software distributed through CPLS channel with training classes * 200 new organizations joined the CPLS program * 2,000 new IT Academies * 2,500 new MCTs; 98% renewal rate (highest ever!) * 19% revenue growth in Greater China * 89% (!) MOC revenue growth in India * 5% revenue growth in Middle East/Africa * 4% revenue growth in Brazil * 323,000 new MCPs this past year * Certification volumes grew 6% this year * June was highest certification volume month in 5 years!
14:33 Debut of Learning Solutions Partner Scorecard—distributed to all partners here with us today, and launched on-line on Campaign Factory for everyone today (called the KPI Report)
14:35 Lutz overviewing release calendar: Win7 and WS2008 R2 in Q1, Exchange in Q2, Office, SharePoint, Visual Studio in Q3—full line-up of content and exams coming.
14:37 MSL in FY10: 131 days of new MOC training; 136 days of new localized courses; 31 new certifications
14:39 MCT satisfaction with courseware on the climb—and Lutz is committing to a major 10-point climb (to 145) in FY10. Moving on to Core IO: 50+ Learning Plans released in FY09 to support this initiative.
14:42 Research from CIO Magazine: companies restricting IT travel, hiring, and training—and we’re all feeling the effects—but: Forrester shows that Computer support specialists, systems analysts, system admins, and data communication analyst jobs are still growing.
14:45 Main reasons why employers not spending on training right now: #1) understanding what training is needed; 2) motivating people to take training; 3) finding flexible delivery; 4) finding training locally—and CPLSes know how to overcome these concerns!
14:49 Elevate America brings opportunity to partners in participating states—and there will be more…
14:51 Chris Pirie is taking a trip down memory lane, to 1993 the year when the CPLS program began…
14:52 CPLS 2.0: no more requirement to have a physical location!
14:54 CPLS now will be measured on consumption, quality, and contribution to Microsoft—no longer just courseware volumes!
14:57 CPLS will be first competency to embrace new Microsoft Partner Network (MPN), with only 15% of CPLSes reaching advanced tier! Also, new program guide is available today—shrunk in half from old version—simpler and better. Flexible location requirements in place today; in January 2010, new rebate program launches and new KPIs replace courseware MVR. Stay tuned for details later this afternoon!
14:59 New Learning Services: #1) Courseware Library—improved! As of today, CWL supports paypal (see article earlier today on B2L); starting with Win7, now a print option for CWL courses; quality improvements; better royalty model for authors.
15:01 Digital distribution for MOC coming this year; quality improvements coming too; new Labs Online announced—details tomorrow.
15:03 FY10 goals:
1.2M class locator searches 15K event attendees 85K NFR software copies 80K training vouchers 7,000 sales academy sessions
…wow!
15:05 Announcing EventConnect: CPLSes will have exclusive event engine, will be exclusive hosts of TechEd community events (held simultaneously with TechEd), tied to Win7 launch!
15:06 MS giving away $68 million in free NFR software (including Win7) with our training courses in FY10
15:07 New Learning Solutions sales credential coming in FY10!
15:09 Impact Partner of the Year: QA in the UK! Innovative Partner of Year: Netcampus in South Africa! Congratulations!
15:12 “MSL Unplugged” session tomorrow—post questions in comments here, or tweet to @MSLearning
15:15 breaktime…whew! back in fifteen!
Stay tuned for news and announcements throughout the show!