What are SharePoint Deployment Planning Services?
Microsoft SharePoint Deployment Planning Services (SDPS) is a software assurance benefit for customers, which is a pre-defined paid service offering delivered by partners to plan an effective SharePoint deployment. This service offers customers a 1, 3, 5, 10 or 15 day deployment planning service, based on their individual software assurance benefit level. Customers will work with a pre-qualified Microsoft partner to develop a customized SharePoint Portal Server deployment plan for their specific environment and assess the overall cost for deployment of this technology. This service will provide benefits to the customer as they move to a secure and well-managed collaborative infrastructure.
Some of the highlights of this service include:
- Microsoft pays partners to deliver the deployment plan services at a reduced rate.
- Partners receive the SDPS tools, training, and support to help customers deploy SharePoint and increase their revenue in the process.
- Services are offered at no cost to the customer.
- The SDPS program provides opportunities as the customer redeems their Software Assurance (SA) benefit.
- SDPS helps remove the customer -perceived risk and cost of planning for SharePoint deployment.
- SDPS helps minimize the up-front partner investment and pre-sales planning and helps customers get a SharePoint® deployment plan in place, opening the door for increased partner service revenue opportunity.
Engagement Framework
The materials provided in the SDPS program follow the recommended methodology of the Microsoft Solution Selling Process, or MSSP. The MSSP framework is made up of four phases:
1. The Solution Development Phase – Qualify the opportunities and to discover others through a capability gap analysis
2. The Strategy Briefing Phase – Align relevant supporting evidence, high-level specific customer estimates of investment costs and benefits
3. The Architectural Design Session (ADS) – Use the high-level solution to refine the value proposition into a solution proposal and create a deployment plan and bill of materials
4. Proof of Concept – Prove a solution’s capability and mitigate customer-identified risks by demonstrating agreed points for the technical and value proposition
Engagement Offerings
An overview of the different engagement types (1-day, 3-day, 5-day, 10-day and 15-day) and how they map back to Office SharePoint Server technology segments. SDPS includes (5) different offerings, which vary in length, and a customer may upgrade to any of the longer length offerings. Let’s briefly summarize the offerings.
1-Day Engagement - The 1-Day Engagement is usually delivered remotely, gathers customer requirements at a high-level and results in a set of strategic recommendations to the customer.
3-Day Engagement - The 3-Day Engagement dives into the requirements at a deeper level, and results in a design and deployment plan.
5-Day Engagement - The 5-Day Engagement expands on the 3-Day Engagement, and adds a virtual lab session to provide the customer a hands-on understanding of the technologies and capabilities.
10-Day Engagement - The 10-Day Engagement expands on the 5-Day Engagement, provides a virtual lab that can be left behind with the customer, and includes a revision session to incorporate lessons learned into the deployment plan.
15-Day Engagement - A 15-Day Engagement is also available, which builds on the 10-Day Engagement and results in a production pilot of the proposed solution in the customer’s infrastructure