[There's a reason that Yoda is the unofficial mascot of SBS. Size indeed matters not.] Pricing really hasn't changed much has it? - THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA
Thu, Oct 14 2010 19:30 bradley

Pricing really hasn't changed much has it?

In cleaning out the closet to prepare for painting and new carpeting at the office (when you resign the lease with the landlord) stuffed in the back of the closet along with old Gateway OEM media I found a cdrom that had SBS 4.5 marketing material.  Why I stuffed it in the closet I have no clue but it was interesting in the price tag of SBS 4.5 back then along with SKU B58-00002.  Called the BackOffice SBS/Office Pro 4.5 bundle it combined SBS with Office licenses. 

BackOffice SBS/OfficePro 4.5 English NA

CD 5 Client CRYPTO Com

This SKU is designed with an integrated installation between Small Business Server with Office 2000 Professional, and comes with 5 Small Business Server Client Access Licenses and 5 Office 2000 Professional Licenses

B58-00002

$2,899.00

As much as Microsoft is hyping up the ability for SBS v7 to offer up SharePoint 2010's ability to support Office Web Apps, one can only hope that there is somewhere in Redmond some licensing people strongly putting something similar to this back into the product bundling mix.

But if you want to stroll down some really old pricing (interestingly enough Premium pricing really hasn't changed over the years has it?) check this out..

http://msmvps.com/media/p/1779979/download.aspx

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# re: Pricing really hasn't changed much has it?

Saturday, October 16, 2010 8:15 AM by Randy Spangler

Susan, I distinctly remember that SKU and I always thought that it made enormous sense for Microsoft to bundle Office with SBS. Just about every user on an average SBS installation uses or needs to use Office. If Microsoft could swallow their pride and charge next to nothing for Exchange bundled with SBS, then they should be able to charge a very reasonable price for Office when purchased with SBS.

The truth of the matter is that if a small business, strapped for cash, needs Word, Excel and Outlook, they are going to get it somehow. Most will run down to Best Buy or Costco and purchase Office for Home or Office for Education or an Upgrade version and install it all over their business. What is amusing is that I hear people say "Oh, it's OK. It says I can install it 3 times and I have 4 copies (at $79 each) to cover my 11 users." It is amazing how a human can rationalize, isn't it?

My point is (and I have made this point in several letters to Microsoft) is that people are going to steal it, pirate it, or cheat to use Office. That is the plain and simple truth. Microsoft realizes this when they offer the cheap versions for education or home. Microsoft (and every other software mfr) realizes the theory of the long tail, that the incremental cost of producing one more copy of any software package for sale is approaching $0.

Software developers walk the fine line of cheapening their product and causing large purchasers to ask "Why am I paying $400 for the same thing that Joe SMB is getting for $100?", but the dirty little truth is that in many cases Joe SMB is getting the software for nothing.

How is that check going to be deposited???

# re: Pricing really hasn't changed much has it?

Thursday, October 21, 2010 11:52 AM by Dean

I'm not really getting the appeal of the Office Web Apps thing. Is it just the convenience of being able to work with Office docs ( with a cut down version of Office ) on a computer that doesn't have office installed ? Am I missing something ?