While recent reports from Gartner and Giga Information Group indicate that Microsoft may lose a significant portion of its customer base when the plan is implemented on July 31, Vogler suggested that about 86 percent of the company's Australian corporate customer base have indicated they will cooperate with the new purchase system.
-As of July 31 customers will have the option either to purchase perpetual licences, or take part in the maintenance program provided through software assurance," Vogler said.
Initially planned for 29 February, the July 31 cut off for the change over to the new licensing system was extended after a poor initial response to the program, Vogler conceded.
While Vogler insists the Software Assurance program will result in a simplified licensing system for businesses, concern has been expressed regarding the structure of the plan which bundles maintenance, support and upgrade packages.
Customers have the choice to pay a single annual fee for fully serviced automatically updated software, or take out a perpetual licence without the benefits of ongoing service and maintenance. According to Vogler, companies will still have the opportunity to opt for perpetual licensing, however it will no longer come with traditional support structures.
-The difficulty has been educating customers of the options open to them via Software Assurance," Vogler said who assumes those customers who have already opted for maintenance programs and enterprise agreements with the Software giant, will simply roll these over into the Software Assurance plan.
Another seriously anti-competitive move
If what CIO magazine says is correct, Corporate customers face the following as one of the options:
"Sign up for an Enterprise Agreement, which entitles customers to discounted Microsoft software in exchange for agreeing to use Microsoft products instead of rivals' wares."
and
"joining means CIOs must also sign a contract that bars them from using any competitive products."
http://www.cio.com/archive/011502/meter.html