Mariner has the honor of announcing, once again, their Gold Certified Partner status in the Microsoft Partner Program with competencies in Data Management Solutions-Business Intelligence and Information Worker Solutions-Performance Management. In retaining this coveted position, Mariner is recognized for its knowledge and leadership in two of the fastest-growing sectors in Microsoft’s broad set of product offerings. As a Gold Certified Partner, Mariner consistently demonstrates its expertise with Microsoft technologies and its ability to use Microsoft’s rich Gold Certified Partner benefits to solve customers’ business problems.

“The Performance Management specialization is especially important as it represents the focus of many of our business intelligence clients,” commented Philip Morris, Mariner CEO and Co-founder. “We achieved the specialization before its release to the general partner community, reflecting our investment in Microsoft PerformancePoint Server and our success in implementing it for our clients.” Early in January, Mariner consultants John Welch and David Darden earned certifications in PerformancePoint Server Development, also achieving certification prior to the test’s general release.

“Partners play a critical role in delivering solutions and applications to customers with the Microsoft Office system,” said Chris Capossela, corporate vice president of the Information Worker Product Management Group at Microsoft Corp. “Solutions competencies enable Microsoft to deliver resources and training to partners that have proven successes in meeting customer needs. For partners, solutions competencies provide the tremendous opportunity to highlight their expertise to customers in the growing information worker solutions market.”

Mariner specializes in business intelligence, data warehousing, business scorecards and performance dashboards that help clients improve productivity and decision making in the education, financial, and utility industries. Mariner, a Microsoft partner since its inception in 1998, has maintained Gold status since 2003.

The Microsoft Partner Program, launched in October 2003, represents Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to the success of partners worldwide by offering a single, integrated partnering framework that recognizes partner expertise, rewards the total impact that partners have in the technology marketplace, and delivers more value to help partners’ businesses be successful.