Office 2007 Trial Version: Boon For Microsoft, Bane For Partners

Microsoft's channel partners have never been huge fans of the vendor's Office Trial program, which some feel gives the software giant a way to sell directly to customers. Now, some partners' discontent is turning to despair as reports surface that Office 2007 trials are also causing technical headaches.

Several Microsoft partners told CMP ChannelWeb the main obstacle they face is an inability to activate Office trials that come pre-installed on new PCs using Open License keys. This has forced partners to uninstall the Office trial version and re-install the exact same software using a special volume license CD, which adds hours to the deployment process.

The situation has some partners questioning the benefits of Open License, a volume licensing plan aimed at organizations with less than 250 PCs. Microsoft's Open Value targets the same segment and includes Software Assurance maintenance and support.

"The cost of buying an OEM copy of Office 2007 is about the same on open market as getting it through Open License. When we have that price parity, it removes the incentive," said one partner who asked not to be named.

"I can see no reason why the Office trial software couldn't be activated by any valid key, including a volume license key," added the source.

But despite the grumblings from channel partners, Microsoft is generating a tidy bit of revenue from the Office trial program.

Microsoft's dollar volume for office productivity suite sales double each year from 2003 to 2006, and the Redmond, Wash.-based vendor now holds a 9 percent share of the retail productivity suite market, due mainly to the success of Office trials, according to Chris Swenson, director of software industry analysis at NPD Group, a Port Washington, N.Y.-based market research firm.

However, this success means little to partners, who are weary of the constant pressure from Microsoft to sell Open License and Software Assurance and find it increasingly difficult to explain the tangible benefits to their small business customers.

"With this latest negative, there is now absolutely no reason that my customers can find to purchase Open License," another source told CRN.

Partners say another source of frustration is that the Office trial version reportedly interferes with group policy deployments of Office.

"When a trial version is left behind and a different version is deployed, it [messes] up the enterprise deployment of Office, so much so that one has to manually remove the offending trial version," a process that takes around 30 minutes, said another partner who was granted anonymity.

One Microsoft Gold partner said when using the activation wizard for Office 2007, choosing anything less than a full install of all the applications results in the other items in the suite being loaded on the PC as 90 day trials.

"After you put in the activation code, you start getting nagged to activate the trial versions," said the source, who requested anonymity. "I wouldn't have a problem with it if they made it simple to uninstall the Office 2007 trial, but that's not the case."

Microsoft didn't respond to a request for comment on the issues with Office 2007 outlined by partners in this article. However, a Microsoft spokesperson said volume licensing "is the most flexible and economical way to acquire from five to thousands of licenses for software and can potentially provide substantial savings."

The technical issues are rekindling unrest in the channel that originally flared last year when Microsoft revealed plans to offer Office 2007 trials on new PCs well as through Windows Marketplace.

According to some solution providers, this gives Microsoft a direct online relationship with customers and an avenue for enticing customers to buy and access solutions directly, which leaves channel partners out of the mix.

"From a business standpoint, anytime you bypass the partner relationship and offer consumers a means to buy directly from the vendor, there is a potential for conflict," said one East Coast partner who asked not to be named.

The launch of the Windows Anytime program last year also elicited howls of protest from some partners, upset because it allows small and midsize businesses to upgrade to higher-end versions of Vista and Office by purchasing license keys online from Microsoft.

David Sobel, CEO Of Evolve Technologies, a Fairfax, Va.-based solution provider whose business is based primarily on services, downplays the impact of the problems associated with the Office trials.

"If I'm doing job right, my customers are buying PCs the way I want them configured, and they're generally not getting machines with trials," he said.