By Simon Quicke
9 July 2008
Microsoft has put a number to the amount of money that the channel loses as a result of software piracy.
The software giant commissioned a white paper from IDC and the results of the analysts research is that for every $1 that the vendor loses as a result of piracy the channel loses $5.50, the vast majority of that is lose services revenue with some also being a result of having to drop costs in order to compete.
The white paper concluded that without piracy those selling services would gain $4.37 from faster delivery and sales cycles and the natural market expansion of having more legally licensed customers.
The rest of the lost money, $1.13 is lost as goods have to be sold at a lower cost in order to compete against companies without worries about training and development.
Michala Wardell, UK head of anti-piracy at Microsoft, said that it wanted to used the research to show the channel that counterfeit goods had a wide impact.
“We need the channel to work with us and we will help get that $5.50 back for them,” she said.
She added that once presented with the figures she hoped that partners at both its conference in Houston and back in the UK would realise that when action is taken against someone guilty of piracy it was for the good of everyone.
“If we could get rid of piracy then everyone would be five times better off,” she said.
