Cloud Contenders. Are you ready? The Agenda

2014 is set to be the Year of the Cloud. You show all the aptitude, agility and strength to become a Cloud Heavyweight. To help hone your skills, we’re pulling out all the stops to run an intensive 12-week step-by-step Cloud Coaching program. And it all begins on 3 March 2014.

With sessions covering cloud readiness, cloud training and could selling, we’ve all the resources and motivation to take you from Cloud Contender to Cloud Champion in just 12 rounds.

So if you’re ready to add cloud clout to your business, but you’re yet to register, you can do so here.

Agenda:

Week	Date	Title	Audience	Abstract
1	w/c 3 March Webinar on 6 March	Get Ready to Rumble	Everyone	Learn how to get the best out of your partnership with Microsoft. Not only will it help you stay up to date with the most relevant training, assets and resources the Microsoft Partner Network has to offer, you’ll help your company earn Microsoft competencies and enjoy access to valuable member benefits, such as licences to run your business.
2	w.c 10 March Webinar on 13 March	Sign up to Training	Everyone	No one becomes an expert overnight. It takes dedication, time and tuition. To help you on that path, learn more about the training options available and which key events to register for.
3	w/c 17 March Webinar on 20 March	Eye on the Opportunity	Business	The cloud is no longer pie-in-the-sky, but a game-changing framework that businesses of all size are beginning to trust. So it comes as no surprise that cloud services represent a growing opportunity for partners in a wide array of activities across resale, services and development. Join Brent Combest, Director of Partner Development at Microsoft Corporate, to learn more about the cloud opportunity for Microsoft partners. Brent will share partner best practices from successful partners from across the globe and valuable insights how to be profitable.
4	w/c 24 March Webinar on 27 March	Transform the Business	Business Marketing	We know that before you start selling cloud solutions, there is amount of work to do. Week 4 will include some tips and tricks how to best think about marketing, sales and your technical resources to help you with your journey to the cloud.
5	w/c 31 March Webinar on 3 April	Go To Market	Marketing Sales	You've heard about the 4 megatrends of mobility, social, Big Data and cloud. In line with these trends, we also know that budgets are moving out of IT and into the lines of business including HR, Finance and Marketing. This requires a shift in reaching and influencing Business Decision Makers. See how can you focus your sales and marketing efforts on the industries with the biggest opportunities and what to consider when building a marketing plan targeting Business Decision Markers.
6	w/c 7 April Webinar on 10 April	Sell Office 365	Sales	Learn more about Office 365, what solutions will make the most sense for your customer and how to get started.
7	w/c 14 April Webinar on 17 April	Compete	Sales	This week will cover how to upgrade your customers from Windows XP as well competitive solutions.
8	w/c 21 April Webinar on 24 April	Demo Army	Sales Marketing	You’re on the frontline and your greatest weapon is your ability to effectively engage your customers in the vision of a modern business solution, so come join the Demo Army. Learn how to effectively demo Microsoft solutions to your customers.
9	w/c 28 April Webinar on 1 May	Deployment	Sales Technical	This week is about deployment best practices for cloud solutions. Also learn about the many Partners that have built solutions around Office 365, some of which enable other partners that are still building technical expertise or may not have capacity, to scale migration projects.
10	w/c 5 May Webinar on 8 May	Cross Sell and Upsell	Sales	Once you have sold Office 365 to your customer, week 10 will cover what other technologies you can upsell with. This will include a cloud version of Small Business Server to include backup, data analysis and social integration.
11	12 May Webinar on 15 May	Virtualisation	Sales	Learn about virtualisation as the first step to Cloud adoption, managing the platform and the added, managed service opportunities around Azure.
12	19 May Webinar on 22 May	Change Management	Sales	Now that your customer has purchased and deployed a Microsoft cloud solution, they are hopefully enjoying the benefits. In this final week, we will share some change management assets which will help your customer use the software and provide a summary of the 12 week program.