Please make it easier to be your partner.
I think I have lost count how many times the topic of licensing comes up in lists I subscribe to but it is so often it amazes me that we can’t just get this sorted once and for all with something that makes sense for everyone and doesn’t make me look like I’m stealing from my clients.
Recently we had a question about making XP Home work in a domain, that is pretty much where it always starts my customer bought a computer from Blah Blah Blah and they sold them XP Home Edition, Vista Home Basic / Premium and now I can’t join it to the domain what can I do and how do I handle the cost conversation?
Often the list has a number of people say:
- Sell them OEM XP Professional / OEM Vista Business with a Hard Drive or Mouse
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Windows Vista OEM licenses — like all other OEM licenses — can only be sold with a complete system. What constitutes a complete system? A complete system consists of at least an enclosure, a power supply, a main board, a processor, memory, and a hard disk.
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The complying peripheral rule is long gone but long remembered too
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Once the idea of getting legal with a peripheral sale is debunked sometimes people suggest a purchase from the customer for $1, add OEM XP Pro, sell back to customer. Now that is interesting
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I have suggested in the past that making the machine non genuine by removing the Home Edition COA would then comply for Get Genuine but even that is not a great option
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The idea of an upgrade to Vista Business and exercise down grade rights is probably the right course but not a popular one I suspect.
Lets Assume the machine was bought from a local system builder and sold with XP Home Edition and I come to do an SBS Implementation, and I need XP Professional on the machines for either SOE or compatibility reasons.
Lets look at the licensing costs the client is hit with:
- XP Professional OEM sold by a Knowledgeable consultative System Builder $165 + Markup + Shipping. Total ~ $195.00
- XP Home sold buy call centre on machine $102 in cost of machine
- Vista Business Upgrade $323.57 + Markup + Shipping ~ $369.00
- End User Pays $471.00 for something they should have paid $195 for.
- XP Home sold buy call centre on machine $102 in cost of machine
- User tears off COA
- Buys MSOEM GET GENUINE KIT XP $212.30 + Markup + Shipping ~ $246.50
- End User Pays $348.50 for something they should have paid $195 for.
- XP Home sold buy call centre on machine $102 in cost of machine
- Reseller Buys Machine for $1.00
- Reseller reloads XP Professional OEM (maybe replaces fans, replaces Mouse and Keyboard but these are not Software Costs). XP Professional OEM $165 + Markup + Shipping. Total ~ $195.00
- End User Pays $296.00 for something they should have paid $195 for.
In all of the upgrade scenarios the clients are being robbed AND MS is making a whole second licence in the deal and the client thinks I’m robbing them, little wonder it is such a tough sell in this part of the market.
If I were king of the licensing machine in Microsoft I would offer an easy way for clients who relied on your partner channel (I’m including the OEMs as Partners) and got poor advice to get the right licence without being penalised for not being an IT Licensing guru.
How about two SKUs that do this:
- XP Home OEM to XP Professional OEM - $63.00 in fact charge me $10 for the COA (double what referbishers get theirs for), End User Pays ~ $219.00ish for something they should have paid $195 for, not too bad IMNSHO.
- Vista Home Basic OEM to Vista Business OEM - $64.90 plus $10 for the COA
I would have no problem selling a make good plus $10 COA to customers who want to be legal but treated like a customer should be. Why not make a condition that both COA's need to appear on the machine.
I really want to help my clients be legal and have some platform loyalty but it is tough when we are forced to sell in some cases more than double the correct licensing cost and 4 times their initial outlay for what appears to be very little benefit.
No wonder some people say just sync local credentials because all the fancy domain membership is for the Administrator anyway.