THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

For me, it's a "no sell".

I'm not going to recommend SA to my clients until Microsoft COMMITS to value for the money.

I WANT all clients to buy softawre with maintenance. I want the maintenance to annually cost 25% - 30% of the license. I want the client to receive actual, tangible, real-needs value for that maintenance, each and every year they pay it. And that MUST include a new major release - of significant actual, tangible, real-needs value - within a three year period.

Or, don't pay for the maintenance. Period.

One of the big problems i see is that you have to explain to the customer they have to buy the license AND the maintenance for a product where you get all these nice goodies which they don't really need (there nice but not essential) and some upgrade rights which give you, well R2. Which is basically a beefed up service pack. It is not easy to sell.

In a round about way, I assume you are saying that Microsoft are completely crazy.... like Tom Cruise ;)

No SA for my clients without REAL value for money.

It's my job to keep my clients from being Nichole. When SA was first released we had our clients sign up for the office portion. All benefited. We haven't sold anymore until this month. We're recommending it again for anyone that's in the position of having to upgrade or get legal. It's a good deal again, if you buy now. Too bad it's a timing thing.

show me a customer with under 15 computers in their shop that has even heard of software assurance.
It's like trying to sell glasses to a blind man.

Not to mention how many versions of office have come out since 2003. nada.. next version 2007 Lets see 2007-2003.. 4 years. No benefit to the end user.

I have less than 15 machines and I've heard of it.

Here's the problem with SA as I saw it when it came out....boiled down, you pay us this additional fee, and IF we release an update in the period of time you're covered, you can upgrade.

IF?

How about you get the next upgrade free. The client gets a discount on future upgrades, and MS gets their $$$ up front. Instead, the way it was structured it was like "Trust us"

Uh, no thanks.

Recently my customers are asking me for Open Value licencing. And OV always include SA, so my customer are happy with it knowing that will have SBS 2003 R2 and the next version in 2007. BTW, SA in OV is covered for 3 years and you can make 3 payments instead of one.

my two cents...

Now that I have spent over two weeks learning Open Value, Open Business, three years, two years, OEM SA add-ons, etc. (and all of the SKUs), I am starting to recommend SA for some clients because 2007 looks like it is going to be an upgrade kind of year. I agree with a previous poster that timing matters with SA. Assuming that Vista, Office 12 and Longhorn release in the 07-08 timeframe, it would seem folly to purchase SA in 08 without some sort of guarantee (which isn't going to happen) of an upgradable product within 3 years.

In a perverse sort of way, Microsoft has made it easy not to purchase SA. Say what you want, there is probably not another company in the world that is so open and has so many free or extremely cheap ways to support their products as MS. Public staffed newsgroups, private staffed newsgroups, support incidents for $245, free system down incidents for partners, free webinars, podcasts, extensive Knowledgebase, readily available patches, the list goes on. So when MS tells you that you get free support or discounted training if you have SA, whats the big deal? But, has anyone ever tried to get support for a Sonicwall router after 1 year? Even download a firmware upgrade after 1 year (even if it fixes a problem.) No way. Gotta have the extended contract (and you don't ever get new equipment.) Ever tried to get ANY kind of support for your car from your dealer for free? How is Chrysler's KBs helping you fix that Check Engine light? On-Star for free? Ha!

I am not suggesting that MS pull back free/cheap support to sell more SA, but perhaps, they could lower the annual price of SA to, say, 20% of retail. This would tend to lock people into their software since they have a rolling investment. I mean, why not? Why give education discounts or non-profit semi-giveaways? They are users too aren't they? They get the same value out of a product even if they pay 10 cents on the dollar. Therefore, allow SA clients to see a real amortized savings. Kind of a 'family discount'. Our sales jobs become easier, MS gains more recurring revenue and the new SA benefits are just icing on the cake, not contrived reason to buy.

I went a little long in this segment... time for a commercial break.

Randy: I agree....totally.

One reason I don't have a product (such as Sonicwall) that requires you to have a support contract to download bugfixes...they should always be free I don't care who's product it is. That doesn't mean they have to support a product forever, but if the product is current and shipping, the self-serve fix-it-yourself option should be there to take advantage of.

You want hand holding? Then you need a Support Contract...that makes sense.

And if MS offered SA at a much more reasonable cost (like you suggested 20% or so), then I would be more likely to indulge. But if I remember, the cost was 75% to 80% of the total cost...way to high for the possibility of being skunked on a release date slip. No Thanks.

Microsoft does follow the subscription method on the Dyanmics portion of their business. We have both Solomon IV and Navision and for 18% of the purchase price we can remain current on the major version that is out now. This includes self support on the Knowledge Base and patches. This is a lot easier for me to budget for as I know what my price is going to be for the next couple of years. Eventually we will have to pay for a new major upgrade but for now we get the same thing as SA for a lot less of the original purchase price.

Mark

Your article is quite right, thanks.