Microsoft News Tracker

Carol Sliwa reports at Computerworld on a Microsoft sales campaign that’s straining relations with some business customers:

During the past year, Microsoft has approached some 1,200 U.S.-based corporate customers it suspects may not be licensed properly, based on the data mining of its volume-purchase history records, according to Juan Fernando Rivera, the software maker’s director of worldwide software asset management.

But Rivera swears that license compliance wasn’t the driving factor and audits won’t be forthcoming, even though Microsoft often suggests potential license problems in its initial customer contact. Instead, Microsoft is trying to persuade those customers to participate in its Software Asset Management (SAM) program, which kicked off two years ago in the U.K. and launched a year ago in the U.S.

Under the program, Microsoft pays for its consulting partners to educate customers on the merits of asset management, help inventory their installed software, compare the inventory with license documentation, and make recommendations on policies and procedures. In the end, the customers get a chance to pay for unlicensed software, or “true up,” without penalty.

So far, 570 U.S.-based companies either have completed a free SAM engagement or are in the process of doing so with a Microsoft partner — 132 of which have attained SAM certification since it became available in November, according to Microsoft. The software maker plans to spotlight the SAM program this week in Boston at its annual Worldwide Partner Conference, as it works to scale the model during the coming year, Rivera said.

It doesn’t sounds that onerous, but there are some glitches:

A Computerworld investigation involving 51 companies — including 14 that Microsoft contacted about the SAM program — showed that many U.S.-based IT managers were confused, distrustful or downright angry after their companies had been accused of potential licensing problems in connection with pitches from Microsoft SAM representatives. In some cases, they later learned that the pitches were based on Microsoft’s admittedly incomplete records.

Basically, Microsoft can only really track licenses obtained through their volume purchase programs and if your company is buying through some other mechanism, you may unwittingly show up on the radar screen and become a target for Microsoft “pressure” as the examples quoted illustrate. Nothing like building good will.

There’s much more to the article including the payoff for the consultants doing the SAM reviews in getting to hawk their wares and also pitching Microsoft volume purchase agreements to the customers as a way to avoid further problems:

The EA is typically the most lucrative volume-licensing deal for Microsoft because a customer must commit to run a standardized package of its software on every desktop PC. In return, the company receives better pricing and the rights to all covered products released during the three-year contract time frame, as well as training and support benefits.

Which is why the Vista and Office 2007 delays have cascading ill effects, but I digress

Both of the SAM reference accounts that Microsoft supplied to Computerworld wound up signing deals for EAs after their consulting engagements — despite failing to meet the eligibility requirements for the program. To qualify for an EA, a company must have 250 or more desktop PCs.

Nice! Of course, this kind of thing works less well with more savvy customers, one of whom suggests that Microsoft just doesn’t “know how to do business with Fortune 500 companies.”

Curious blogger Corsin Carmichael has spotted evidence of Google’s online storage service (sometimes termed a “virtual hard drive”) called GDrive (codenamed Platypus) and Mary Jo Foley asks the directly Microsoft related question, Can Microsoft’s LiveDrive Be Far Behind? We’re still calling it “Live Drive” with a space and mentioned how all these plans for online storage services were quite a trip down memory lane back in April.

Update 7/14: LiveSide has a a different slant on Live Drive and reports on other rumored Microsoft storage services.

Nate Mook at BetaNews:

Mozilla’s Firefox browser continues to post gains in market share, according to Web analytics firm OneStat.com, while usage of Internet Explorer has fallen more than 2 percent since May. Opera, meanwhile, has surpassed 1 percent market share worldwide.

Worldwide, Firefox now holds 12.93 percent of the market, up from 11.79 percent in May. The open source browser commands a 15.82 percent usage share in the United States, and a whopping 39.02 percent in Germany.

More details by following the link and directly from OneStat.

Despite Microsoft denials, Brier Dudley at the Seattle Times says the iPod Killer is for real and has more details:

Microsoft is indeed developing a digital-media player to compete with Apple’s iPod, and there’s much more to the story.
…
What’s being developed is actually a complete line of Xbox-branded digital-media products, including a device that plays media, a software media player and an online media service.

The project, or at least part of it, is referred to internally at Microsoft by the code name Argo — a reference to the huge warship used by the hero Jason in Greek mythology.

Argo is being developed within the Xbox group under the leadership of Xbox co-founder J Allard. His team includes people who previously worked on MSN Music, an online music service that had a promising debut in 2004 but fell victim to Microsoft’s dithering over its music strategy.

Now the company is firmly behind Argo. It has committed hundreds of millions to produce and market the devices.
…
It’s a grand plan, but as with a few other big projects in Redmond, it may be a struggle to get it all done by the end of 2006. The project isn’t completed yet, the holidays are approaching fast and the team is under intense pressure to get everything absolutely right.

The timing of the hype cycle is perfect, however. Microsoft’s annual meeting with financial analysts is July 27, and it’s looking bleak.

More by following the link, but while the end of the year shopping season is approaching at a furious pace, July 27 seems a little soon to be spilling to the analysts. Dudley also asks the big question, “Can Xbox’s young guns get past the old guard with a less Windows-centric venture?” Looks like they already have. Now they have to deliver.

Press release:

Microsoft Corp. today announced the Business Ready Licensing model and the Business Ready Enhancement Plan for Microsoft Dynamics™ that introduces simplifications and improvements in value to the licensing and maintenance programs for its Microsoft Dynamics business management solutions.

Business Ready Licensing streamlines pricing for Microsoft Dynamics solutions — Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics SL — by moving from a pricing model based on hundreds of modules and granules to a new model based primarily on the number of concurrent users who actually use the software. This new model has three simple offerings: Microsoft Dynamics Business Essentials, Microsoft Dynamics Advanced Management and Microsoft Dynamics Advanced Management Enterprise. They are based primarily on common functionality and represent a price reduction for a typical entry-level configuration, eliminating much of the complexity of licensing enterprise resource planning software. Designed to increase value for customers through the life of their product solution, the new Enhancement Plan represents a global maintenance program for Microsoft Dynamics solutions and introduces new benefits such as transition investment credits, unlimited online training courses for customers, and resources to connect customers with the Microsoft Dynamics community.