Microsoft Tries To Keep It Simple
Backing up its promise to simplify its rather dense software licensing policies,
Microsoft yesterday
announced
some updates to those policies that affect its Enterprise Agreement, Select
License and Open License agreements.
Some of the more notable changes include a 10 to 50 percent reduction of the
length of agreements depending on the program; the removal of all signature
blocks from agreement forms, with a new signature form being introduced for
a single signature with the customer; and updates to the language and content
flow in each agreement for purposes of consistency across all volume licensing
agreements.
And while it finds itself in the simplifying mood, Microsoft also announced
that starting October, it will help users obtain pricing information about products
by reducing the number of price points and SKUs per Volume Licensing program.
For instance, presently, individual languages are represented on price lists
in several different ways, and each price list also varies in the quantity and
kind of language. This results in 8 million price points worldwide.
Microsoft also debuted its new Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC), intended
to offer an easier way to provide online solutions for users looking to better
manage licensing agreements and products. The service will help users to find
and download all the software available under their volume license entitlements,
to find and request volume licensing product keys, and to calculate current
Microsoft License Statements in order to gain a summary across all programs
and agreements.
Posted by Ed Scannell on September 06, 2007