MITRAIS ACHIEVES MAJOR MILESTONE IN NEW MICROSOFT PARTNER PROGRAM

Bali-headquartered company Mitrais has achieved Gold Software Development competency following Microsoft’s major revision of its relationship with its business partners.

The new program, now called the Microsoft Partner Network, aims to lift the levels of competency which partners like Mitrais are required to demonstrate in their specific business areas.

At the gold level it requires unique high level certified staff members who must sit multiple exams, more customer references, a demonstrated understanding of Microsoft licensing and the capability to sell or influence sales of Microsoft software.

Mitrais has achieved Gold Software Development competency at two locations and is working on a third says Mitrais CTO, Ken McClellan.

The company is formally recognized as a “Member of the Microsoft Partner Network that has earned the Gold Software Development competency”. Mitrais is believed to be one of only eight Gold Partners registered in Australia and the only one in Indonesia where the company has development centres in Bali and Bandung.

“We receive more hours of Microsoft advice and free support calls that help us to solve our clients’ issues. We provide a higher level of competence in our field and receive free internal use licenses to help keep our cost to our clients lower,” Mr. McClellan said.

Explaining the Microsoft Partner Network, he says “it is much harder to achieve Gold certification which is now recognized at the Competency Level rather than the whole organization. It requires four unique individuals with advanced certifications in the competency.”

Previously it was only two individuals and they could have certifications used to achieve other competencies but now only can be assigned to one. Five customer references are now required where previously it was three.

Mr. McClellan explains that Mitrais must now have an individual take a Licensing Overview Assessment and in some competencies related to products such as SharePoint, a person must take a Sales and Marketing Assessment. There is also now a Revenue Commitment with the amount dependent on the country in which the organization is based. That will be tracked starting in the 2012-2013 renewal periods. The annual fees for Gold designation are now about double those of Silver. The Customer Satisfaction Survey remains a requirement of Gold certification.

Another big change relates to branch offices which in the past could buy an “Additional Toolkit” after qualifying and receive the same benefits as the qualifying office and share those benefits with other locations in the organization. Qualifying required two certified individuals and three references. Now a location must earn the competency specific to that location before the “Additional Toolkit” can be purchased. Until the location earns it outright the location is considered to inherit the competency. It is earned by four unique individual certifications, five unique references and unique individuals taking the assessments.

About Mitrais

Mitrais was established in 2000 to achieve excellence in software development using Indonesia as a base of operations. Its objective is to be the leading near shore provider of application development services to the Australian IT industry and a significant player in other countries.Mitrais is a Microsoft Gold Certified developer, an Oracle Gold Partner and has also certified products in SAP NetWeaver. In 2004 the company entered the health industry, developing the Mitrais Medical Suite which it sells globally. In 2007 it absorbed Mincom Indoservices to extend its operations into the sale and support of mining software (in particular from Mincom) in Indonesia. With offices in Bali, Jakarta, Bandung, Singapore and Sydney, Mitrais has more than 100 clients and employs more than 300 staff. For further information visit www.mitrais.com