Can you improve your odds when hammering out licensing contracts with Redmond? One "licensing geek" says yes.
How you can negotiate better software licensing deals with Microsoft — even if your company recently signed a new contract with the Redmond software kingpin?
The question is especially pertinent now, with many users" three-year-old Software Assurance (SA) licensing deals set to expire on June 30.
But negotiating a licensing deal with Microsoft is a skill worth honing any time. And who better than a former Microsoft large account reseller (LAR) to walk you through the paces?
In order to negotiate effectively with Microsoft, you must be able to answer four key questions:
- What software do you currently have installed on all the PCs and servers in the relevant enterprise?
- What licenses can you prove you own? And when did you buy them?
- What"s your technology roadmap for the next one to five years? The real one - the one the CFO and CEO like. (You do have one, right?) Where is Microsoft in that plan? Let them help you make the most of their technology. You"re using it anyway.