by Paul Kunert
27 June 2008
Microsoft has withdrawn an exemption under the Outsourcer Enrolment scheme that allowed resellers to continue billing existing customers for software under Select licenses and all invoices must now be cut by LARs.
The Outsourcer deal was canned at the start of the year much to resellers’ anger but Microsoft gave partners a grace period to carry on directly charging customers that already deals in place or were about to refresh.
This has come to an end and in a statement, Amanda Abel, Microsoft head of licensing said the move reflected its desire to simplify the way licensing is handled by reseller partners and avoid situations where customers are incorrectly licensed.
“We recognise the need, globally, to manage the outsource enrolment our partners have in place more effectively to ensure both our partners and the customers we mutually work with are clear on the terms and conditions,” she said.
“To ensure customers receive the best advice and select the correct license type for their IT needs…we remain committed to simplifying licensing as much as possible,” Abel continued in the statement.
The software giant Microsoft was unavailable for further comment but one reseller was concerned that the decision to remove the outsourcer agreement scheme could have an opposite effect to the one desired by Microsoft.
“There have been issues concerning the correct licensing of products and Microsoft is right to try and address these but this will increase complexity, not reduce it,” said one Microsoft partner.
Stewart Hayward, commercial director at WStore, said it was disappointing that Microsoft had axed Outsourcer Enrolment, “they are stifling business which as been worked for by non-LAR resellers for many, many years.
“To force business to be placed with a specific reseller that the customer may not have any interest in dealing with is ridiculous and a slap in the face of hard working resellers,” he told Microscope.
The result of Microsoft’s decision may see a reduction in sales of Select Agreements as resellers choose Open Licenses so they are more in control of the deal without having to pass customers across to LARs, “this could dent some LARs’ business as well as several relied on resellers.”
