New 10-day SAP Business Warehouse Implementation certification launched

Firebrand has launched a new SAP Certified Application Associate Business Warehouse (Implementation) certification. The accelerated ten-day course is for professionals who understand Data Warehousing and the Data Dictionary.


You’ll need to sit and pass the following exam on the course:

• SAP® Certified Application Associate - Modeling with SAP® BW 7.3 & SAP® BI 4.0 (Code:C_TBW55_73)

Broadly, you’ll learn the following elements on the course:

• Enterprise Data Warehousing
• Business Warehouse Modeling & Implementation
• Business Warehouse Data Acquisition
• SAP® Business Objects (BO) Reporting Clients & Information Design Tool

You’ll become a SAP® Certified Application Associate in Business Warehouse (BW) Implementation on finishing the course and passing the exam.

Firebrand releases new SAP Business Warehouse User course

Firebrand has released a 10 day accelerated SAP Certified Application Associate Business Warehouse (User) course. The SAP Business Warehouse course is ideal for a System Administrator, Junior Consultant, or professionals in a Project Team with basic Business Warehouse experience.


To get the certification, you need to pass the following exam:

• SAP® Certified Application Associate - Business Intelligence with SAP® BW 7.3 and SAP® BI 4.0 (Code: C_TB130_73)

The three broad topics covered on the course are:

• Business Warehouse Query Design & Analysis
• Business Warehouse Web Apps Designer & Data Warehousing
• Business Warehouse Portal Integration and Business Warehouse Workbook design With BEx

You’ll become a SAP® Certified Application Associate in Business Warehouse (BW) User after passing the exam.

Microsoft WPC 2012: Day Four

Firebrand had an enriching experience, learning about Microsoft’s plans for the following year. We engaged and focused around what matters most – taking advantage of the opportunity we have to succeed together. 1.5 billion people use Microsoft products every day, and now Microsoft wants to help us target the other 5.5 billion.

Our checklist:

• We’ll continue networking and engaging with partners via WPC Connect and engage with the online community via DigitalWPC
• Compete to win and drive customer satisfaction
• Focus our attention towards: Windows 8, Office 365 in the cloud, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Phone 8
• We’re gearing up for the Windows 8 RTM release the first week in August and general availability at the end of October
• Top 8 tech trends: Cloud, Data, Social, Natural Interaction, Ecosystem of Computers, Consumerization of IT, Connectivity, and Machine Learning
• Understand the MPN Competency Updates
• Familiarize ourselves with the new MPN branding
• Nominate 500 eligible non-profits serving youth in their communities for the What’s Your Cause Challenge

Microsoft WPC Day 3: It's a New Era

Jon Roskill opened up the keynote and explained how partners and Microsoft will work together in the coming year. Kevin Turner talked about Microsoft’s vision of the cloud service for every person, every device, and every business.


Some of the big announcements of the day were:


IDC Study: A recently commissioned study by IDC issued a report showing that a 50-person Microsoft partner organization with approximately US$5-10M in revenue and 2-5 competencies can realise US$320,000 in value directly attributable to MPN benefit utilisation.


Tools to Compete and Win: Kevin Turner shared Microsoft’s commitment to helping partners succeed by delivering solutions above competitors in the market including growing virtualization growth at twice the rate of VMWare and outdueling Google Apps with Office 365.

MPN Competency Updates: Some of the updates to the MPN Competency include a new Application Development competency, a new Collaboration and Content competency, an evolved Desktop competency, and a revamped Digital Marketing competency. 


New MPN Branding: Microsoft has announced new partner strategy and programs. These enhancements are implemented with partners in mind.


Microsoft Translator: Commercial availability of the Microsoft Translator Hub is now available.

Windows Server 2012 Innovations Showcase:
Over 20 partners showcased applications and hardware supporting the new capabilities of Windows Server 2012. This ecosystem of partners ranges from OEM, IHV, ISV and ODMs supporting technologies in networking, storage, virtualization and application developers. 

Watch live stream and the day’s talks on DigitalWPC

Microsoft WPC 2012 - Day 2

Today, we found out about many new Microsoft programs and technology features. This continues the theme Microsoft has set for this year’s WPC - A New Era. Together. Microsoft explained the capabilities of virtual machine for Windows Azure, a program designed to help customers transition from the VMWare infrastructure to Microsoft. Microsoft talked about why it believed MS Dynamics to be a true game changer for ERP, and new Windows Phone 8 capabilities and features.


Notable announcements:


Windows Server / Azure: Microsoft announced a new Community Technology Preview (CTP) of new technologies that enable hosting service providers to use their Windows Server data centers to deliver the same great web site and virtual machine capabilities recently announced for Windows Azure.


Switch to Hyper-V Program: A new program to help customers transition from VMware infrastructure to Microsoft has been announced. The “Switch to Hyper-V” Program provides partners with guidance, training and software tools, including the Virtual Machine Migration Toolkit, to more seamlessly migrate virtual machines to Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center.


Microsoft Dynamics: Microsoft revealed that several new independent software vendors are choosing Microsoft Dynamics or extending their solutions across Microsoft Dynamics platform.


Windows Phone: Microsoft revealed the new hardware capabilities coming to Windows Phone 8 and the features Windows Phone 8 will deliver through integration with Windows 8. They talked about the new apps which will Microsoft will be releasing for Windows Phone 8.


What’s Your Cause Challenge: Microsoft has launched a new challenge, where they will be giving out software donations. MS wants to know: What’s your cause? Between July 10 and August 31, 2012 Microsoft Partners are challenged to nominate 500 eligible non-profits serving youth in their communities to receive a software donation from Microsoft. More information here


To watch a live stream of WPC, or to catch up on the day’s talks, visit: DigitalWPC

Microsoft WPC: Day 1 - It's not just talk. It's real. It's happening.

Steve Ballmer opened his keynote by saying, “It’s not just talk. It’s real. It’s happening. It’s here.” Over 16,000 attendees from over 156 different countriesacross the globe to joined us for the largest Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference ever and to hear what Microsoft has in store for us in the following year.

Steve Ballmer explained about how Microsoft’s preparing for the New Era and how partners are at the very core of this story. He says ‘this is the year for all of us’. Firebrand is there to find out about new technologies and competencies Microsoft is planning to release.

Kurt DelBene shared his thoughts and insight about being partners in productivity and announced Office 365 Open. Tami Reller then talked about Windows 8 and showcased how it adapts to the user experience.

The big announcements from the day were:

Office 365 Open: A new way for partners to provide Office 365 Open through a pre-paid offer which enables partners to deliver packaged services with a single invoice and manage the customer relationship.

Office 365 Advisor Program: Starting today, changes to the program let the most active partners sell and earn more from Office 365.

Windows 8 RTM/GA: Windows 8 is on track for release to manufacturers (RTM) during the first week of August, and the product will reach general availability (GA) at the end of October. Enterprise customers can get Windows 8 as early as August, and the product will be available in 109 languages in 231 markets.

Office 2010 / Windows 7 momentum: There are now 1 billion people using Office worldwide, and licenses for Windows 7 have reached 630 million worldwide.

Microsoft acquires Perceptive Pixel: “The acquisition of PPI allows us to draw on our complementary strengths, and we’re excited to accelerate this market evolution,” said Kurt DelBene, president, Office Division for Microsoft. “PPI’s large touch displays, when combined with hardware from our OEMs, will become powerful Windows 8-based PCs and open new possibilities for productivity and collaboration.”

To watch it live, or catch up on the day’s talks, visit: DigitalWPC

Microsoft releases new Dynamics® AX 2012 80424A course

Microsoft Learning has announced the release of a two-day 80424A: Product Configuration in Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012 course.


This course provides students with the knowledge and skills needed to use the intermediate and advanced functionality of the product configuration feature in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.


The course teaches you basic setup, how to build a product configuration model, how to prepare a product configuration model for release, and configuring lines on the AX client and the Enterprise Portal.


Note: This course is available for download on PartnerSource and CustomerSource, and will be orderable on 26 July 2012.


To find out the course syllabus, visit: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/Course.aspx?ID=80427A&Locale=en-us