Archived press releases

Kitchener, Ontario – April 10, 2013

PEER Group demonstrates best-in-class capability and market leadership through demonstrated technology success and customer commitment.

PEER Group, today announced it has attained 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.

Since becoming a Microsoft partner in 1996, PEER Group has consistently met the highest requirements demanded by the Microsoft Partner Network. Having previously attained competencies for both the Gold Independent Software Vendor and Silver Software Development, PEER Group continues to strengthen its position as a technology leader. “The Microsoft Gold Application Development Competency demonstrates our commitment to helping our customers produce leading-edge solutions that improve operational performance and run reliably in production,” said Susan Hoskins, vice president of engineering for PEER Group.

“By achieving a gold competency, partners have demonstrated the highest, most consistent capability and commitment to the latest Microsoft technology,” said Jon Roskill, 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 Application Development competency provides partners with the resources, tools, training and support required to differentiate their business as a trusted expert in application development. From custom-built applications to broadly available software solutions, and from on-premise applications via hybrid solutions to pure cloud services, the Application Development competency allows partners to take advantage of the marketplace momentum that Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows Azure and Visual Studio are experiencing – and to lead the market evolution toward the cloud.

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.

About PEER Group

PEER Group provides innovative factory automation software solutions and consulting services to the semiconductor, photovoltaic, LED and other high technology industries. The world’s best manufacturing companies turn to PEER Group to solve their most challenging equipment automation, data management, and process control problems. With more than 100,000 licenses shipped, we are the leading supplier of equipment connectivity and testing products to automated factories around the world. Our innovative and reliable products and services help lower the cost of automation for high-volume manufacturers and their equipment suppliers.