Microsoft MYO plan receives lick of paint
Channel claims hire-purchase scheme's complexity hinders sales
Microsoft is giving its hire-purchase software licensing programme a new look to ease customer confusion, but has refuted channel claims that sales have been hindered by complexity.
Microsoft partners said the vendor is giving its Multi-Year Open (MYO) scheme an overhaul because it is so complex it puts customers off and makes it difficult to sell.
But Mark Buckley, licence marketing manager at Microsoft Europe, said the vendor is reviewing its open licensing, and that the scope of the review amounted to little more than a name change.
MYO, which allows customers to spread the cost of a licence over three years, is called Open License Value in the US.
"Because we have two programmes in two different regions that do the same thing, it's a consolidation into a worldwide programme," said Buckley.
However, James Reed, Microsoft business manager at Computer 2000, said MYO is not selling as well as it should.
"Resellers are saying, 'MYO is too complicated, I don't want to sell that,'" he said.
"Over the past couple of months we've seen an increase in quotes for MYO, but those quotes are not necessarily getting turned into orders. Given the choice, the end-user is moving away from MYO and taking open licensing or open subscription licensing."
EU and US licensing programmes differ in more than name, said Alex Tatham, vice-president of global software at distributor Bell Microproducts.
"You can't buy all [Microsoft] products through these schemes, so the complexity is a nightmare. Microsoft will simplify this into one worldwide scheme," he said.
Dave Simpson, sales and marketing director at Microsoft reseller Softcat, said: "MYO is complex. We do sell it, but not in the same amounts as we sell OSL, Select or Enterprise Agreements.
"MYO is attractive. It fills a gap, but there are other things that fill the same gap in a slightly different way," he said.