More Renewal Flak

My recent column on software license renewals ("Renewal Trouble," CRN July 28) sparked a firestorm of e-mails and phone calls from solution providers weighing in on the debate.

A quick refresh: The latest trouble with renewals comes from the Symantec camp, where Symantec resellers say the company has recently ratcheted up the renewal game with repeated phone calls, e-mails and letters to customers. Symantec says things haven't really changed, but resellers say the company is contacting customers earlier, and much more often, than its stated policy portends.

If the response I received is any indication, it is not just Symantec that has trouble. While I wholeheartedly acknowledge that it is in no way a scientific undertaking, my conversations with several solution providers in and outside the security space suggest renewal headaches are the norm.

Some of the VARs weren't happy about the vendor contacting their customers directly. Others said it is OK for a vendor to contact their customers as long as the contact, the credit and the money lead back to the partner. Almost all of the solution providers I talked to said that once they lose a renewal, vendors have the right to step in with the hard sell if they think it's worth a shot. Fair is fair.

It sounds like vendors and their partners agree about what the renewal process should look like. So with all in agreement, all should be right with the renewal process, right?

Well, no, because what should be happening and what is happening don't exactly jibe.

It seems vendors' biggest problem might be recognizing when a renewal has actually been processed. Several partners told me that they know that their vendors take renewals seriously and they get out in front of them. But even with renewal orders processed 60 to 90 days early, Symantec reps are still contacting customers to renew.

One partner told me he even got repeated calls to renew his own company's licenses, which, of course, had already been renewed. When he told the Symantec rep that he had already renewed, she suggested that he push his reseller to get that order in.

The moral of the story here is simple: If partners aren't renewing software licenses then vendors have every right to go after the business. But they should get their systems in order before they do. If you can't verify whether the renewal has been processed, it isn't really fair to call the contract fair game.

What's your take? Let me know at [email protected].