Software Assurance/Volume Licencing

I was quite pleased at the SBSC day to see how many other partners either don't use or don't understand the licensing options available to them

I consider myself to be pretty good technically but my lack of knowledge in this area is embarrasing and I really think I could be serving my customers better if I had a better knowledge of the options available.  The ability to spread payments would certainly be attractive to many of my customers.

It was obvious from Daves presentation that he knows his stuff about licensing so I would like to ask if Dave(or anyone else for that matter) has any recommended reading to spell some of these things out to me more clearly.

Paul

Paul,

I am working on this - as soon as I have some more to tell, I will do - expect something in the next week

ttfn

David

David,

It's the next week.

I have a client that has some licensing issues, so I have kindly offered to get them legal.

The licensing scheme that suits them is Open Value and they wish to license their whole site with Office 2003 Pro and pay over three years.

How on earth do I supply these licenses to the customer?

Can I make profit on them or get partner points or both?

I have struggled to find out where I, the partner, come into the equation with Open Value.

Thanks in advance.

R.

Richard,

Hopefully this will help explain a few things:

The licensing scheme that suits them is Open Value and they wish to license their whole site with Office 2003 Pro and pay over three years.  – This will absolutely work fine – if they are buying new machines, then it might be easier to buy OEM licenses and enrol them, but as this sounds like “legalising” an existing base, this is probably the best option for them

 

It also think it is worth noting that if they have any desire to upgrade to the next version of Office or Windows client (XP today), getting these under Software Assurance is vital as it will prove a more price efficient way to get the software.  They also get other benefits such as e-Learning vouchers and Home Usage rights as part of the Software Assurance maintenance programme. With Open Value, Software Assurance is automatically included. Whilst for OEM licences, you can only add Software Assurance to the licences within 90 days of purchase.

How on earth do I supply these licenses to the customer? – This is the part where we say you need to talk to a distributor.  Microsoft sell via distributors and you need to buy the licenses for your customer here. – For more info on how to do this, have a look at the “making it happen” link on the page listed below:

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/licensing_and_compliance/licence_options/openvalue/

Can I make profit on them or get partner points or both? – The profit element is decided by the price you sell to your customer vs what you pay.  You need to talk to the distributor for more information on this.  Given the number of licenses you might sell in a year, partner points might not be something you can earn, but you need to look at the break points for more information on this.

I have struggled to find out where I, the partner, come into the equation with Open Value. – The key value you add is in helping your customer obtain legal software and managing the process for them.  The actual sale of the software is not, to be honest, the highest profit margin business.  However, once your customer has the software, the opportunity to build business solutions with and around it gets much easier.  If you need some ideas around this, have a look at the IDC white papers on Office and Windows XP mentioned in the site blog and forums.

 

Finally, it is worth saying that I am NOT a licensing expert, however our distributors are. 

thanks

David