The new program will be simpler to manage and annual maintenance payments will make for predictable budgeting. In addition to the Software Assurance maintenance contracts Microsoft is introducing many other changes to the licensing program. It will provide tools to help companies track their licensing requirements online. And it is changing the sales process so that Microsoft, rather than its channel partners, will in future negotiate the license terms and prices with customers. And from October, the largest enterprises will have the option to license by subscription.
Critics see ulterior motives, particularly in the canceling of cheap version upgrades.
If you buy version upgrades occasionally, you decide when and if to buy them. You are in control. But that causes spikes in Microsoft's revenue. Enterprise customers will have time to digest the full implications. The new program won't take effect until October and Microsoft will extend until January 2002 a window within which customers can buy Software Assurance on current licenses.