Introduction
Joining a Microsoft Partner as a Dynamics 365 Business Central Consultant can be a game-changer for your career. Microsoft provide partners with a wealth of resources and support that can help you advance your skills and enable you to deliver better solutions to your clients. In this blog post, I’ll explore three key ways you can get the most out of these partner resources.
Microsoft Certifications
One of the primary benefits of joining a partner is (usually) free access to Microsoft certification exams. Many partners also reward staff directly for certification passes and certainly the success will be celebrated! Microsoft certifications not only validate your skills but also make you more attractive to potential clients and future employers. Always setup the link between your personal Microsoft account and your work account from the Enterprise Skills Initiative: Welcome (microsoft.com) page to secure your achievements for the long term. Once passed an exam be sure to add a reminder for any renewals for those that expire. The renewal exam is a lot less hassle than the full exam as it usually just focuses on what new and you don't have the proctoring hassle factor!
- Which cert will you pick next Browse Credentials | Microsoft Learn?
- For Business Central the main stay for Functional Consultants is the MB-800 Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Business Central Functional Consultant Associate - Certifications | Microsoft Learn
- And the recently Microsoft added the developer cert MB-820 Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Business Central Developer Associate - Certifications | Microsoft Learn.
- Why not also consider bagging the 8 fundamentals certs to give you a broad understanding across the Microsoft ecosystem Fundamentals Credentials | Microsoft Learn
- Or expanding your know-how in Power Platform..! Microsoft Certified: Power Platform Solution Architect Expert - Certifications | Microsoft Learn
Also watch out for the regular cloud challenges that Microsoft run, these are a great way to get motivated to learn something new and broaden your knowledge base - these challenges often come after one of the big annual events like BUILD Microsoft Build - Welcome…
Setup a Customer Digital Experience (CDX) Environment
Another extremely valuable resource available to you are the Customer Digital Experience (CDX) environments. Microsoft Customer Digital Experiences
These sandbox demo environments are only available to partners and you may need to ask your IT team give you the necessary entitlement to create a CDX tenancy.
In short the CDX environment allows you to create and test solutions in a risk-free setting for the purpose of demonstrating the art of the possible to potential clients.
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| An example of some CDX Tenancies |
There is a specific CDX template for Business Central, when you pick US for your CDX (don't worry you can still pick GB etc when you create your sandbox BC environments once you get access) which really makes things handy as you can spin one up, play around, delete and start again from the exact same point.
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| The Business Central CDX template |
The really great thing about the CDX tenancies is they come pack with example data and users - so you can get right down to testing real world business situations without too much admin! The main Global Admin user in these tenancies is always called “MOD Administrator”, what does MOD stand for? I have no clue!
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| The M365 Admin Portal of a CDX tenancy |
So, whether you're working on a new implementation or troubleshooting an existing system, a CDX tenancy provides a platform to experiment without affecting live systems. This hands-on experience is invaluable for honing your skills and ensuring that you can deliver robust and reliable solutions to your clients.
Engaging with the Partner Community
The MPN (Microsoft Partner Network) also offers numerous opportunities to engage with the wider community of fellow consultants, developers, and Microsoft experts.
Regular 'BC Office Hours' calls, 'BA Partner Community' calls and the BC Viva Engage (used to be called Yammer) group provide a platform to ask questions, share insights, and learn from others. These interactions can help you stay informed about the latest updates and best practices in the Dynamics ecosystem. The Yammer (now called
- BC Office Hours calls are a webcast on a particular hot topic run by the amazing Microsoft BC team in Denmark, with a change to ask questions over the Q&A chat at the end of the call. This link shows the last or next BC Office hrs call https://aka.ms/BCOfficeHours, you can catch up on the past events here https://aka.ms/BCOfficeHoursRecordings
- BA Partner Community calls are another MS run webcast, focused more on all the business side of the partner channel with lots of info about funding etc Microsoft UK Business Applications Community Call Resources
- BC Viva Engage is an instance of the MS forum tool (used to be called Yammer) where there are a very large number of BC consultants, developers and MS engineers, this is a MUST to join! Lots of super handy announcements and discussions between many of the big names in the BC space both MS side and Partner side. https://aka.ms/BCYammer
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| The Dynamics 365 BC Yammer / Viva Engage forum |
Being an active participant in the partner community can help you build a network of contacts that can be invaluable for career growth and client referrals.
- BC Launch Events - a great example of a resource that anyone can access https://aka.ms/bcle. Microsoft put these on for each major release and the platform allows for Q&A direct with the engneers for some sessions. Later on all the sessions are loaded onto YouTube - so check them out if you want to get a deep dive on any of the features from the last major update Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (youtube.com).
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| Look for the 'What's New' or 'Introducing' videos on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 BC youtube channel |
Conclusion
Joining a Microsoft Partner as a Dynamics Consultant offers many benefits that can help you advance your career and deliver better solutions to your clients. By bagging certifications, getting into sandboxes and engaging with the partner community, you can really maximize your potential and achieve greater success in your role.
If you are on the journey and looking to join a partner - ask them about these kind of resources and take full advantage of everything you have access to - then you really give yourself the best environment to help your career soar to new heights.