NiCE IT Management Solutions attained a Gold Datacenter and a Gold Application Development competency, demonstrating a "best-in-class" ability and commitment to meet Microsoft Corp. customers' evolving needs in today's dynamic business environment and distinguishing itself within the top 1 percent of Microsoft's partner ecosystem.

To earn a Microsoft gold competency, partners must successfully complete exams (resulting in Microsoft Certified Professionals) to prove their level of technology expertise, and then designate these certified professionals uniquely to one Microsoft competency, ensuring a certain level of staffing capacity. They also must submit customer references that demonstrate successful projects (along with implementing a yearly customer satisfaction study), meet a revenue commitment (for most gold competencies), and pass technology and/or sales assessments.

With over 20 years of experience in Cross Platform Application Monitoring Solutions on UNIX, Linux, and Windows, NiCE has an extensive set of building blocks for Management Pack Fragments to develop the most comprehensive management packs on the market. The combination of NiCE's expertise PLUS the utilization of the latest tools, e.g. Microsoft Visual Studio Authoring Extension, creates the perfect ecosystem for developing an end-to-end solution built on customer needs and requirements.

"The Microsoft Gold Datacenter and Gold Application Development competency showcases our expertise in and commitment to today's technology market and demonstrates our deep knowledge of Microsoft and its products," said Christian Heitkamp, Director Products at NiCE. "We plan to accelerate our customers' success by serving as technology advisors for their business demands."

"By achieving a gold competency, partners have demonstrated the highest, most consistent capability and commitment to the latest Microsoft technology," said Phil Sorgen, corporate vice president, Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft Corp. "These partners have a deep expertise that puts them in the top 1 percent of our partner ecosystem, and their proficiency will help customers drive innovative solutions on the latest Microsoft technology."

The Microsoft Gold Competency is a prestigious accolade awarded to a company that has demonstrated the highest level of skill and achievement within a given technology specialization. All 29 Microsoft competencies are designed to help distinguish a partner's specific technology capabilities from another, which helps customers find solution providers quickly and easily. Each competency has a unique set of requirements and benefits, formulated to accurately represent the specific skills and services that partners bring to the industry.

The Microsoft Partner Network helps partners strengthen their capabilities to showcase leadership in the marketplace on the latest technology, to better serve customers and, with 640,000 Microsoft partners in their ecosystem, to easily connect with one of the most active, diverse networks in the world.