AWS Partner - Promotional Credits for Certifications

AWS offers AWS Promotional Credits for AWS usage which are awarded for net new Associate, Professional and Specialty certifications attained by AWS Partners at all tiers throughout 2023. AWS Promotional Credits can be used to help offset future AWS usage costs incurred once received. We have enclosed promotional codes at the bottom of this email for you to add to your AWS account for net new 2023 certification(s) your organization attained since the last program promotional credit issuance on July 25, 2023.

How are the credit amounts determined? For every Associate level certification passed and registered to an AWS Partner company account, $300 in AWS usage credits are awarded via email on a quarterly basis to the AWS Partner Alliance Lead. For every Professional and Specialty level certification passed and registered to an AWS Partner company account, $500 in AWS usage credits are awarded via email on a quarterly basis to the AWS Partner Alliance Lead. 

What can these promotional credits be used for? AWS Promotional Credits can only be applied to AWS future usage, and are subject to the AWS Promotional Credit Terms & Conditions. The Promotional Credit will be applied only to the specific AWS Services designated by your AWS contracting entity. Please note, these cannot be used to discount the cost of future AWS Training or AWS Certification activities. Please visit the AWS Promotional Credit Terms & Conditions for additional detail as to the eligible services. 

How do I redeem these credits? Please visit the Add AWS Promotional Code page for instructions on how to add a promotional code to your AWS account. If you have additional questions regarding how to redeem, Contact AWS Billing or Technical Support. 

Having issues redeeming the promotional credits? Please ensure you have removed any spaces before or after the promotional code when inputting into the system. If you are still having issues when attempting to redeem after removing any spaces, Contact AWS Billing or Technical Support. 

Believe promotional codes are missing? Ensure all individuals within your organization have correctly set up the “AWS T&C Account Email” within the AWS Partner Central “My Profile” section. Promotional credits are awarded for certifications attained, and recognized as net-new within the AWS Partner Central T&C Account, in 2023. If you believe all individual T&C Accounts are registered correctly and promotional credits are still missing, please contact your AWS team (copied). 

Want to learn more about AWS Certifications? Visit the AWS Certification exam voucher site to learn more about the benefits to certification and additional details on how to purchase. If you have additional questions regarding AWS Training & Certification offerings, please contact your AWS team (copied).

General Communication Guidelines

Here is a general communication guideline. 

Together, we all can learn, adapt, and get better at this.  Most of these points here are generally known to all of us, but we often overlook implementing them and thus a good idea to review, and perhaps review again periodically. I am happy to also get on a call to discuss this if needed.

 

Basic Writing

 

A few basic things to bear in mind when writing any document, email, or any form of communication whether it is internal or external:

• Be precise, but clear in your writing. Avoid long-winded sentences but don’t over abridge the essence of the document. Always spell check and grammar check your writing, as spell check alone is insufficient. 
• Avoid using Weasel Words in your communication.  The internet has additional examples of what these are but avoid using these in written communication.  In essence, don’t use words that are “vague”.
• Try to apply the Oxford Comma technique in all your writing.  This is not mandatory but is considered a better writing technique.
• Please read the following article, Amazon Writing Style, to better understand how Amazon (and now several other large companies) follow these simple techniques to make written communication more effective.  Much of it is already followed by many of us, but we can adapt further.

 

Email Communication

• TO: Address it to only those few who need to act
• CC: Copy only those few who should know about the actions and will need this information
• Subject: Make this effective and meaningful by adding words like “URGENT", "ESCALATION", "ATTENTION", "ACTION NEEDED", only if required
• The body of the email should follow the Basic Writing criteria mentioned above.
•  Emails do get forwarded, sometimes in error, and thus be cognizant of how it may appear when read out of context.
• If you are requested to respond to an email, please do so within 24 hours.  Sometimes, this may not be possible, but try to adhere to this policy as a professional courtesy.  As a rule of thumb, a 24-hour response turnaround period should be followed. 
• If the emails are generating unnecessary traffic, take the conversation offline to TEAMs, or simply schedule a call.  It is unwise and counterproductive to continue to foster undesired email traffic via emails.
• Use the “Standard Signature” in all emails sent via computer, tablet, or smartphone.  When sending emails via tablet or smartphone, always the MS Outlook App and not native phone applications.

 

Calendar Invitations & Scheduling

•  Invite people judiciously, and not randomly.
• Have an agenda or some details about the topic(s) of the desired meeting in the body of the invitation.
• Always have your calendars updated, including “Travel” times, dates, time-offs, etc.  It is impossible to manage a business without accurate information, including scheduling.
• When invited, please Accept, Decline, or suggest changes within 24 hours of receipt of the invitation.
• Avoid reschedules unless it is critical.  Constant rescheduling reflects how we operate as a company and thus need to curtail it as far as possible.

 

Status Reports & Escalations

 

This is an area where there is a greater opportunity to improve for us as a team.  Most of the status reports (4-square, or otherwise) that I have seen don’t convey any specific messages.  Here is what is most helpful in a status report:

 

• What is the Issue?  How will you fix it, or propose it should be fixed?  Who should work on it, besides yourself?  When will it get done or have a meaningful update?
• Be timely in escalating issues, as delays in reporting or escalating issues tend to worsen the impact.
• Always have a suggested action, along with the issue.  Just escalating an issue does not help solve the problem, and since you are closest to the issue, you should be able to always provide a suggested action.
• Always have dates when reporting issues, as having a plan with no dates is meaningless. 

 

The simple formula above will make all the difference when discussing Observations, Risks, Issues, and Blockers with internal and external stakeholders.  In our status reports, please ensure that the messages are well-fleshed out and not cryptic.  Imagine that status reports are to be read by people who don’t know you or don’t have enough information about the project(s) you are working on.

 

To sum it all up, this is a learned behavior and there is no expectation that we all will comply 100% seamlessly all at once, but we all need to get on the path to start following principles of better writing and more effective communication.  Please let me know if you have any questions at all.  Thank you!

AWS Partner - Ways to get free AWS Credits

 Let's capture what are different ways we can get AWS Credits 

AWS Certification - Associate level cert earns $300 per employee cert and Pro / Speciality gets $500 which is sent to the partner once every quarter.

WAR Remediation Accelerator Pilot Program 

1. Milestone 1: Receive $5,000 USD AWS Credits if you achieve 40% or above Remediation Rate as reflected in the WA Dashboard on September 31st, 2023, at 5:00pm PST, with at least 10 additional reviews during the Apr 1st to Jun 30th 2023.
2. Milestone 2: Receive $5,000 USD AWS Credits if you achieve 50% or above Remediation Rate as reflected in the WA Dashboard on September 31st, 2023, at 5:00pm PST, with at least 15 additional reviews during the July 1st to September 30th 2023

* Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) reserves the right to modify or cancel the offer at any time.
* AWS reserves the right to disqualify you from participating in this Offer if we determine in our sole discretion that you do not comply with any of these Terms and Conditions.
* Offer is non-transferable and may not be resold.
* If you violate any of these terms and conditions, the offer will be invalid.

Additional Reference:

WAPP Workflow and Funding Guide

AWS Well-Architected Service Credit Request Form 
Please take note that there is a 30-days SLA for the issuance of Service Credit by our program team. 

For Well-Architected Training Schedule: 

• AWS Partner: Well-Architected Best Practices (Technical)
• AWS Partner: Advanced AWS Well-Architected Best Practices (Technical)

How to view your company’s current HRI remediation rate? 
You can view your current 2023 HRI remediation rate in your Partner Central dashboard. (Sign in to Partner Central > Go to “Programs” > Go to “Program Application” > Search for Well-Architected Partner Program and click “Update Program” > You can view your company dashboard)

WAR Compliance Accelerator Campaign 

[Note: The one enrolled for WAR Remediation Accelerator Pilot Program is not eligible for this.]

Pre-requisite for partners: Must use an automation tool and have a published Well-Architected offering on marketplace.

Milestone 1: Receive $5,000 USD AWS Credits when the partner achieves 25 or above Workloads and Remediates 65 HRIs as reflected in the WA Dashboard, with at least 10 additional reviews and a remediation rate of 34% during the October 10 to December 10, 2023 (Known as “Campaign Period”).

Milestone 2: Receive another $5,000 USD AWS Credits when the partner achieves 30 or more workloads and 70 HRIs Remediated as reflected in the WA Dashboard, with at least 15 additional reviews during October 10 to December 10, 2023. 

For the purpose of counting the performance in this pilot, we will take the Compliance snapshot found in your WAPP Dashboard on Partner Central on October 9, 2023, at 5:00pm PST (close of business) as the basis of calculating Milestone 1 and 2. 

You can view your current 2023 HRI Compliance in your Partner Central dashboard. (Sign in to Partner Central > Go to “Programs” > Go to “Program Application” > Search for Well-Architected Partner Program and click “Update Program” > You can view your company dashboard)

Email Etiquettes

• Accurate Subject of the email & calendar invite so the communication is not missed or ends up in a pile without attention. For customer communication, Subject MUST have: <company name> - <customer name> topic of discussion
  
  
• Discipline about Who is on the "To" list and "CC" list. 
• Individuals marked in the "To" list are expected to be accountable or responsible for action on your email. 
• Individuals marked in the "CC" list are expected to be "in the know" and not expected to take any action. This doesn't mean recipients ignore this email - NOT an acceptable excuse. 
  
  
• Write emails in bullet-points; highlight the important points; keep it brief (don't lose the essence and meaning of the email); perform grammar check before clicking "send" especially customer-facing emails.
• In the cases your email needs immediate attention (Do not misuse this); tag the subject line as "URGENT", "ESCALATION", "ATTENTION", "ACTION. NEEDED". These will be addressed in an immediate fashion.
  
  
• Emails MUST have your signature in <company> standard format. Our goal is to make ourselves easily reachable by our customers/contacts.
  
  
• Anything that can be taken off from email and moved to the TEAMS channel; please do that. 

• If you keep getting copied on matters that are completely irrelevant; please ask the sender to remove you from further communications on specific threads.

• Discipline about Calendar invites: if you receive a calendar invite; you are expected to "Accept" or "Decline / Tentative - With a reason" so the person inviting you to the meeting can take appropriate action and ensure that maximum outcomes are driven/delivered from the time procured and spend with/without customers.
• NO calendar invites to be sent without an "Agenda" and "Expected Outcomes" and where possible "Prep Notes".
• NO meetings end without a summary of the meeting and action items. Meeting notes "MUST" be sent before the EOD. With the volume and growth, we are aiming for; we can't afford a wasted meeting and opportunity to drive revenues/customer success/customer engagement.
• GOLDEN RULES: 
• If you DO NOT get a response to your email; that had any Revenue Generating or Customer Success or CSAT activities; PICK UP THE PHONE and call the stakeholders including escalation to ELT if no response.  
• Avoid elementary excuses like "I sent him/her multiple emails but nothing was done"; "I never got any response"; "I tried,"; "We are all professionals, he/she should have replied." We are all here to get things done right the first time with quality and speed." Don't let someone fail you.