A spokesperson said all deadlines remain the same, except for the timeline for implementation methodology certification which was moved from October to May “as we wanted to ensure that exams for this certification were available in multiple languages and partners worldwide had ample opportunity to complete this requirement.” Still, one important player who discussed this topic had that same feeling that the guillotine didn’t descend as had seemed likely and maybe Microsoft has blinked. It was just in the spring that Jeff Edwards, director of partner strategy, said that Microsoft needs 300 to 400 partners in North America, which raised the issue of a VAR bloodbath. Edwards could not be reached for comment.