C/D/H Earns Microsoft Gold Competency for Portals and Collaboration and UC, First in Michigan According to Microsoft Pinpoint

Grand Rapids, MI—C/D/H, a leading Michigan information technology consulting firm, today announced that it has achieved Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) Gold Competency for Portals and Collaboration and Unified Communications.

According to Microsoft’s official directory, Pinpoint, there are over 27,500 partners currently displaying Microsoft business solutions. C/D/H is one of only twenty-one (21) Gold Portals and Collaboration partners and one of fifteen (15) Gold Unified Communications partners. It is also the only partner in Michigan with this level of distinction. This clearly demonstrates the firm’s depth and breadth in Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Unified Communications technologies, like Lync and Exchange.

“SharePoint and Unified Communications are two of the hottest technologies in the market today.   These are important areas for C/D/H to show its expertise, important for our clients and important for Microsoft,” said Paul Hillman, a partner at C/D/H.

In October, Microsoft made significant changes to its partner program. The new program requires partners to clearly demonstrate areas of knowledge and specialization. Partners who meet the requirements, which include testing, customer evidence and satisfaction, among others, are known, by Microsoft, to have the highest, most consistent capability and commitment to a specific business solution.

C/D/H was given twelve months to meet the new criteria, but was able to achieve the highest level of competency for Portals and Collaboration and Unified Communications within three months of program launch. It has also earned Silver Competency in Systems Management, Virtualization, Identity and Security, Content Management, Search, Server Platform, and Midmarket solutions.

“We took these challenges very seriously and I’m incredibly proud of our team for accomplishing these tough goals. Being one of the first partners in Michigan is just one of the benefits. We believe these accomplishments, along our other 2011 plans, make for a great year.” said Hillman.

C/D/H is a technology consulting firm celebrating 20 years of service to clients across Michigan. The firm has offices in Royal Oak and Grand Rapids, from which it provides clients with consulting services in collaboration, infrastructure, access & identity management and project management. C/D/H is certified as a Microsoft Gold Partner, earning the FY10 Central Region Customer Excellence Award, a VMware Enterprise Partner and also has earned top levels of certification with Novell, Citrix and Cisco Systems.