Microsoft on track to open launch Open Value
crn.com | at | by Mike
Microsoft is on schedule to launch its Open Value licensing program for small and midsize businesses on March 1 and is mulling other Licensing 6.0 concessions, said sources familiar with the vendor's plans. Open Value, the successor to the existing Open Business program, is a new Licensing 6.0 option that, for the first time, enables small and midsize customers to buy enterpriselike, companywide software agreements and spread out their annuity payments over a three-year period.
The Open Value plan enables companies with as few as five seats to buy in and has no fixed ceiling, thereby offering some midsize customers one last chance to sign up for license agreements. Many midsize companies that did not sign up for Upgrade Advantage/Software Assurance by the July 31, 2002, Licensing 6.0 and Software Assurance deadline and lost their rights to discounts may now be eligible for Open Value, the sources said.