Microsoft partners can now offer SharePoint consulting

Microsoft partners now have a new service they can offer to their SharePoint customers.

The company yesterday announced SharePoint Deployment Planning Services (SDPS). Partners can become certified in SDPS and then help customers plan their Office SharePoint Server 2007 deployments. Microsoft will reimburse partners for the consultation they provide.

Customers enrolled in Volume Licensing Software Assurance are eligible to take advantage of SDPS. Partners must have a Microsoft competency in information worker portals and collaboration, enterprise content management or search to participate.

IBM is making a new push to attract SharePoint users to its Lotus Quickr platform. One of the selling points, according to IBM and its partners, is that SharePoint can quickly become unmanageable without proper planning. If it catches on, SDPS could go a long way toward fixing that.