Online Licensing Gets Stamp Of Approval

"I don't have to pick up the phone or wait for someone to answer," Rush said from his Walled Lake, Mich., shop. "This fits my business model. I'm all about no paperwork. I can access this from anywhere."

In their quest to build services that help customers compete in the low-margin, tight-budget SMB environment, distributors Ingram Micro and Tech Data added new functionality and vendors to their online licensing systems. In addition, Synnex Information Technologies recently bought an existing online licensing service, and Merisel revamped an old one.

Ingram Micro recently signed six new vendors for its licensing tool, Click2License, bringing the total to nine. It also launched the Click2Club, which offers solution providers additional market-development funds, and improved the site's speed and navigation, said Pat Collins, senior vice president of sales at Ingram Micro.

"This has nothing to do with the physical shipment of boxes. This is how a distributor aggregates product and limits the complexity of the process for the customer," Collins said, adding that 25 percent of Ingram Micro's software licensing goes through Click2License.

Jeff Doty, owner of Oakleaf Consulting, Evansville, Ind., received a licensing quote late at night through Click2License. "It works really well, especially for smaller customers that keep wild hours," he said.

The electronic process has forced vendors to simplify licensing for online ordering and enabled distributors to use front-end portals to pass along promotions, marketing specials and other information.

At least 25 percent of Tech Data's customers use LION each day, said Tamra Muir, Tech Data's vice president of software marketing. LION accounts for about 65 percent of the distributor's software transactions and features products from Microsoft, Novell, Symantec and Veritas.

"Vendors across the board are embracing licensing as an effective and efficient means of software dissemination," Muir said.

Patricia Bunker, a purchasing manager at solution provider Netcom Systems, Roswell, Ga., said she likes both distributors' systems. She uses Tech Data's more because she can pull up quotes without disclosing customer information, but she orders more from Ingram Micro because it offers better pricing. "Overall, the systems make the process a lot quicker," she said. "They probably save us about 20 to 30 percent in time."

To compete on the online licensing front, broad-range distributor Synnex recently bought License Online, which features software offerings from Microsoft, Symantec, Citrix Systems, Computer Associates International and IBM. "From a solution provider perspective, this allows them to keep in constant touch with their customers through license upgrades," said Mimi Anderson, vice president of software marketing at Synnex.

This week, Merisel is reintroducing its SELline online licensing tool. The distributor has spent the past six months updating the system with new functions, such as an online configuration, query and procurement tool that also allows solution providers to save, retrieve and convert customer quotes, said Traci Barnett, Merisel's vice president of sales and marketing.

"Our solution providers were telling us they needed a tool that makes their buying and licensing experience easier," she said. "So we knew it was time to revamp."