Microsoft Business Certification
Program
Features and Benefits
Agenda
Business Certification Overview
Professional Exams Overview
Benefits and Positioning: Individuals
and Corporations
Business Certification Product
Strategy
Managing Budgets
Managing Presentations
Managing Team Collaboration
Supporting Organizations
Office 2007 Word
Office 2007 Excel
Office 2007 Outlook
Office 2007 PowerPoint
Office 2007 Access
Windows Vista
Official Pre-Test
(Application Specialist 1:1 mapping)
Microsoft Official Pre-Tests
Official Pre-Test Attributes
Online, anytime, anywhere assessment
Objective questions mapped to the same exam domain as the associated MCAS exam
Using Microsoft Office Word 2007
Using Microsoft Office Excel 2007
Using Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
Using Microsoft Office Access 2007
Microsoft Windows Vista for Business Users
Available June 2007
Official Pre-Test Benefits:
Assess current skills and provides learning plans mapped to specific curricula
Provide student and instructor a snapshot individual’s current skills
Provide instructors with a class-wide skill snap-shot
Enable instructors to focus on what the class needs
In conjunction with exam, enable instructors to document outcome-based education and
ROI of training
Enables companies to send employees to only the training they need
Business Certification Exam
Attributes
Application Specialist Exams
Hands-on, live in the application
Focused on students, entry level professionals, experienced professionals wanting to show
breadth of skills
Validates the candidate's skills within a single product, for example Microsoft Office Excel
2007, Microsoft Office Word 2007, or Microsoft Windows Vista
Focuses on individual efforts
Available now (Word, Excel, PowerPoint); full suite by September, 2007
Application Professional Exams
Focused on experienced business professionals, and business professional graduates
Validates the candidate’s ability to use the 2007 Microsoft Office suite of products, and
SharePoint to accomplish industry-agnostic and job role-agnostic skill sets.
Focuses on collaborative, complex efforts and enabling others to do their jobs
Does not test “soft skills”
Available beginning June, 2008
Vision: Application Specialist
• Live Application Testing
• Focused on individual products
• Shares objective domain with Official Pre-Tests
Performancebased testing
• Focused on individual efforts at desk
• Focused on entry- and mid-level information workers
End user
• Proctored in a test center
• Results in Credential: “Microsoft Certified Application Specialist”
• Analogous to Technical Specialist Exams in technical portfolios
Certified
Today’s Professional Life Realities
Increasingly
Collaborative
 Multiple
authors / users
 Information
lifecycle
 Intellectual
property issues
Increasingly Global
Multiple
locations
Asynchronous
schedules
World-wide
access required
Increasingly
Inter-disciplinary
 Project-based
work
 Multiple skill
sets required
Desktop Productivity Skills (Application Specialist)
Basic Digital Literacy
Vision: Application Professional
• Live application solutions to business scenarios
Performance- • Focused on large, complex, collaborative projects
based testing
Business
Professionals
Certified
• Focused on established professionals seeking new
opportunities and new competencies
• Focused on graduating professionals seeking to
differentiate themselves in tough markets.
• Proctored in testing center
• Results in Certification “Microsoft Certified Application
Professional”
• Analogous to Professional Exams in technical portfolios
MCAP: Supporting Organizations
Exam 77-610: Organizational Support - Available September, 2007
The Organizational Support exam validates the candidates’ ability to manage
both time and tasks to meet business needs. From managing multiple email
accounts and calendars, to tracking critical tasks against milestones, the
successful candidate is positioned to ensure that things get done on time, and
on target.
New Audiences
Administrative Professionals and Executive Assistants
Project Managers
IT Team Managers
Event Coordinators and Planners
Graduating BA Students
Professional Associations (IAAP)
Upgrades from MCAS and MOS Candidates
MCAP: Managing Presentations
Exam 611: Creating and Managing Presentations - Available September, 2007
The Creating and Managing Presentations exam validates the candidates’ competencies in
managing the overall look and feel and processes around an organizations presentations by
using the 2007 Microsoft® Office® system and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
sites. Skills include: creating and managing templates and slide libraries; distributing
templates; creating and managing the lifecycle of presentations; publishing presentations for
outside audiences. The successful candidate will be positioned as the designated
presentation expert for the organization.
Audiences
Marketing and Sales Professionals (internal and customer facing)
Graduating Communications and Marketing Professionals (BA and MA)
Team leaders responsible for organizational presentations
Executives who frequently report to upper level management
Professional Associations
MCAP: Managing Team
Collaboration
Exam 77-612: Content Management and Collaboration - Available March, 2008
The Content Production and Collaboration exam validates the candidates’
competencies around planning, designing, creating, collaborating on, and
securing documents by using the 2007 Microsoft® Office® system and Microsoft
Office SharePoint Server sites. Skills include: managing Microsoft SharePoint
sites and permissions, managing document libraries, creating and distributing
templates, and managing the organization’s collaboration strategies. The
successful candidate will be positioned as the content management and
collaboration expert for the organization.
Audiences
Professional writers, editors, and instructional designers
Enterprise content mangers
Employees managing collaboration with external partners
Graduating writers, editors, and MBAs
Professional Associations (STC, etc)
MCAP: Managing Budgets
Exam 77-613: Budget Analysis and Forecasting - Available March, 2008
The Budget Analysis and Forecasting exam validates the candidates’
competencies in analyzing budgets and forecasting financial results by using the
Microsoft Office system and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server sites. Skills
include: creating, distributing, and managing budget lifecycle documents;
automating data flow through documents; forecasting results or return on
investment by product, by project, and by department. The successful candidate
may be positioned as the budget or business manager for the organization
Audiences:
Budget managers and other financial professionals
Graduating MBA candidates
Anyone managing budgets within organizations
Anyone who wants to prove they can manage budgets
Professional Associations (MBA Associations world wide)
Microsoft Marketing and Support
Greatly Increased Marketing Initiatives:
New focus on driving demand for validated competencies with hiring
managers, HR professionals (B2B)
Focus on business competencies: Turning knowledge into
deliverables.
Marketing to certified IT professionals: There’s more to an IT career
than technology (B2C)
Marketing to Upper level Academic Programs
Seamless integration with Office Online
New products to provide greater flexibility in delivering and certifying
competencies within corporate audiences
Benefits and Positioning: Individuals
and Corporations
Individuals
Vastly increased skill with Office
2007 and SharePoint
Differentiation from other applicants
for positions or projects
Access to private website like MCT
web site. Network with other
professionals
Download earned logos and use on
business cards, resumes, etc
Make exam transcripts available to
companies or employers
Credit toward becoming a Microsoft
Certified Trainer
Managing Budgets
Managing Presentations
Managing Team Collaboration
Supporting Organizations
Corporations
Hiring and promotion benchmarks
Performers who can create
deliverables from day 1 on the job
Increased protection of intellectual
property
Less duplication of effort due to
better content practices and control
Increased capacity for their
professionals