CRN | Keep It Simple: Microsoft Draws Up New Licensing, Financing Policies

CRN | Keep It Simple: Microsoft Draws Up New Licensing, Financing Policies: "Changes are afoot for Microsoft's SMB licensing and financing policies. And the common theme is simplification.
Among other things, the vendor is collapsing best practices from multiple regional efforts into a single, worldwide Open Value licensing program.
Moreover, Microsoft is streamlining its license ordering process. That includes a move away from a controversial program adopted several years ago under which traditional resellers (dubbed Microsoft Software Advisers) were required to work with Authorized License Providers, typically distributors, on licensing deals and were paid a fee for that work. Now, partners can resell Open Value contracts and set their own margins again. Open Value contracts apply to deals of 250 desktops or fewer.


>> 'Licensing terms and complexity affect us. If [Microsoft] can simplify licensing, it will make it easier for customers to buy software through partners.'
�YACOV WROCHERINSKY, INFINITY INFO SYSTEMS



'If you look at some of the things we had in the past, a lot of these one-off singular vertical decisions absolutely made sense either for the customer segment or the business we had. And then over time, the cumulative effect of that is not necessarily great,' said Brent Callinicos, corporate vice president of Worldwide Licensing and Pricing at Microsoft, Redmond, Wash"