The Microsoft Certified Gold Partner Status is an endorsement for Colt's growing portfolio of Managed Services for midsize and major businesses, in particular Colt Total Plus, Colt's managed IT service for smaller businesses. The service, which is based around Microsoft technology, provides a fully managed corporate-grade IT solution enabling organisations to focus their full resources on their core business without the overhead of managing IT. Colt Total Plus is already available in UK, France and Sweden and is being rolled out in all Colt countries before the end of Q2 2006.
To acquire the Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status, Colt demonstrated a significant level of expertise in 'Advanced Infrastructure - Hosting' and 'Networking Infrastructure' using references from existing Colt Total Plus customers.
"We see real demand for managed services from both large and small businesses looking for a way to simplify and reduce the costs of their IT and telecoms," said Daryl Szebesta, Head of Managed Services Unit at Colt.
"The Microsoft accreditation is a major endorsement of our ability to deliver innovative and enterprise-grade managed services, demonstrates the focus and investment we are placing in this business, and will also provide us with an important new channel to market."