Citrix gives resellers the Easy option
Firm introduces electronic licensing programme
Citrix has introduced a new licensing programme, dubbed 'Easy', to allow companies to buy small numbers of licences electronically.
Easy also feeds into Citrix's Advisor programme, which rewards partners for registering new business with the firm.
"Advisor is about looking after partners that create business as opposed to fulfilling it. Easy is a way of getting licences to customers electronically, and getting the reseller in," said Kevin Bland, UK sales manager at Citrix.
"We are currently upselling two or three opportunities a week and presenting them back to the reseller."
Advisor will be extended to government sales, he added.
Easy sits beside two other Citrix schemes: Flex, which deals with large site licences of over 1,000 seats; and Open, for 350 licences and more.
Jonathan Evans, Citrix Sales specialist at reseller Eurodata, said: "Most companies don't need more than 350 concurrent licences. Easy gives them much greater flexibility. The customers can go for as few as five licences, and build up."
However, a catch is that Citrix needs Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to operate on Windows platforms, and Microsoft charges for its Terminal Services, a vital part of thin-client operations.
"An install can be quite pricey, because we must have Terminal Services licensing for each desktop," admitted Evans. "Citrix charges for concurrent users."
Citrix rival Tarantella reverse engineered RDP several years ago. The vendor changed its licensing strategy after taking on new investment earlier this year, offering licences for its Terminal Services Edition product free with two-year service contracts.