As of this posting, there are 3 days left to create/assign vouchers for Software Assurance “Planning Services” & “Training Vouchers” – which expire June 30, 2021.
So here’s some tips on using them both:
PLANNING SERVICES
White you don’t need to give your credit to a Partner before June 30th, 2021, you do need to assign the credit to a workload & a in-house project manager to create a voucher(s), it’s likely to your benefit to work with a partner in scoping how the credit will be used, allowing them to guide you through the process of using the vouchers to their potential.
- WHAT CAN PLANNING SERVICES BE USED FOR?
Keep in mind that technically, the Planning Services can only be used for on-prem workloads and there are specific categories that these credits can be used for. You can review the document available for download here that goes over each category. For example, “Private Cloud, Management, and Virtualization Deployment Planning Services (PVDPS)”
https://www.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE4rdet - WHAT STEPS SHOULD I TAKE TO CREATE A PLANNING SERVICES VOUCHER?
You’ll need to be able to access the Volume Licensing Service Center to assign a Planning Services voucher to partner. (http://aka.ms/vlsc) If you want to see the entire workflow of how Planning Services vouchers are originated & processed by partners & their customers step-by-step, review the following doc. (Your part starts at page 3, “Customer creates and assigned voucher (existing partners)”)
https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE4oHrn - WHAT GOLD-CERTIFIED PARTNERS WILL ACCEPT THE PLANNING SERVICES?
These are Gold-certified Microsoft Partners that I’ve worked with in the past that will accept Planning Services: - Insight: http://insight.com
- Dyntek: http://dyntek.com
- NathCorp: http://nathcorp.com
- Cyclotron: http://cyclotron.com
- Aeon Nexus: http://aeonnexus.com
- Quisitive: http://quisitive.com
TRAINING VOUCHERS
While you may have specific training courses/subject in mind, I highly recommend starting with contacting a Learning Partner and working with them to understand a) what classes they actually have available, and b) what kind of training you’re interested in. They will, importantly, guide you through the process & help you get the vouchers assigned to them, as they are incented on doing so.
- WHAT MICROSOFT LEARNING PARTNERS ARE THERE THAT WILL ACCEPT THE TRAINING VOUCHERS?
These are Learning Partners that I’ve worked with in the past that will accept Training Vouchers. - Global Knowledge:
http://globalknowledge.com - New Horizons:
http://nhlearninggroup.com/ - NetCom Learning:
http://netcomlearning.com - Quickstart:
https://www.quickstart.com/ - Opsgilty:
http://opsgility.com/ - WHAT CLASSES CAN I TAKE?
Most training classes that are available are for on-premise products only – NOT Office 365, Azure, or Dynamics. There are some exceptions, so for a listing of all available courses, go to the following catalog online: http://savl-catalog.microsoft.com/. Set "Program Type" to SA and filter on "Language" for English, etc. This will list all 250+ courses that you can take. Note: This does NOT mean that there’s a training organization available that is delivering the course in the timeframe you want it in however. You will need to discuss that with different Learning Partners to see if they offer the course you specifically want. - WHAT STEPS SHOULD I TAKE TO CREATE A TRAINING VOUCHER?
You’ll need to be able to access the Volume Licensing Service Center to assign a training voucher to a student & a training partner. (http://aka.ms/vlsc) If you want to see the entire workflow of how Training Vouchers are originated & processed by Learning partners & their customers step-by-step, review the following doc. (Your part starts on page 7 with “Customer creates and assigns voucher (existing partners)”)
https://www.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE4rihy
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