Microsoft Announces New Small Business Specialist in Chicago

January 15, 2007; 01:10 AM
Microsoft Corp. today announced onShore Networks, LLC has become a Small Business Specialist in the Chicago metropolitan area. To attain this new designation, onShore Networks has demonstrated expertise in planning and building solutions for small businesses. As part of the Small Business Specialist Community, onShore Networks will receive a rich set of benefits from Microsoft, including access to training specifically designed for the small-business industry, small-business marketing materials for reuse, special partner offers, and the ability to use the Small Business Specialist logo in marketing materials, which can help give the company a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

The Small Business Specialist Community, available as a competency-like designation as part of the Microsoft® Partner Program, was developed in response to input from customers and partners that expressed a need to build easier connections that enable small-business customers to quickly and easily identify technology partners best suited to support them.

"Small businesses are looking for partner companies that understand their unique business needs," said Steve Guggenheimer, vice president of small business for the Small and Midmarket Solutions & Partner Group at Microsoft. "With resources like the Small Business Specialist Community and the partner locator tool on the Microsoft Small Business Center Web site, it will be much easier for Chicago's small businesses to identify local partners that are best able to address their specific needs. We are confident this offering will help onShore Networks reach its full potential by creating more visibility, opportunity and demand in the local small-business segment."

"onShore Networks is extremely pleased with our status as a new Small Business Specialist," said Nick Valavanis, Vice President at onShore Networks. "This special designation allows onShore Networks to effectively promote ourselves to customers as having proven expertise in delivering high-value, strategic solutions for small businesses. For Chicago area customers, Small Business Specialist status provides onShore Networks with early line of sight to new products, services and programs from Microsoft, which can extend the value we bring to our client relationships."

As one of the requirements for attaining Small Business Specialist status, onShore Networks had to pass Microsoft's Small Business Sales and Marketing Skills Assessment, designed to test the company's knowledge of the dynamics and dependencies of the small-business market, as well as the value to small business of several software solutions, including Windows® XP Professional, Microsoft Office 2003 and Windows Small Business Server 2003. In addition, at least one individual in the company had to pass a certification exam that measures the ability to design and implement solutions for the small and medium-sized business by using Windows Small Business Server 2003 and the Windows Server System™.

The Small Business Specialist Community was announced at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2006. To enroll, partners can go to https://partner.microsoft.com/smallbizspecreadiness.

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onShore Networks, LLC is a leading provider of computer network integration services to the Chicago area. Its expertise includes designing and implementing local and wide area networks (LANs/WANs), network security monitoring and management including Managed Security Services, onSite technical support and internet connectivity (ISP) services. In addition to its network integration business, onShore designs and builds multi-tenant data networks (MDNs), for delivery of data and video services, in high-rise buildings.