MS scheme forces firms to pay per user

Microsoft took a brave step last week when it ended concurrent licensing for its Office products, raising fears that it would increase prices.

From 1 December, the software giant will phase out licensing agreements whereby corporates can pay for Office software on a per-seat basis.

This means companies will be forced to pay for a licence for every user.

In a statement, Microsoft US claimed that concurrent licensing was unpopular and only used by about five per cent of Office users. Steve Beswick, Microsoft UK enterprise customer and channel sales manager, claimed that concurrent licensing had come under fire for being complex to manage so Microsoft took the step to simplify licence management.

But Anthony Picardi, vice president of software research at IDC US, said the move would lead to an estimated price hike of about 10 per cent. 'The bottom line is that it will cost a lot more, but Microsoft knows not to increase the value too much or it will alienate its corporate customers,' he said.

Resellers felt they would benefit from greater simplicity of licence management and the higher revenue brought in from corporates. But one direct Lar felt that concurrency had been 'one of the golden goodies of Microsoft's Select programme'.