Microsoft, Small Business Partners Spar Over Office Licensing

In a Friday interview with CMP Channel, Ligman said his earlier statements were aimed at motivating partners to give their feedback on the Office licensing issue. "Getting information out to partners can be challenging, and when people hear licensing, they tend to tune it out," he said.

Ironically, Microsoft licensing terms are so complex that some of its own field sales staff don't fully grasp its intricacies.

Paul DeGroot, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, has run into situations where a field rep has told a customer to do something that, in his opinion, violates Microsoft's licensing terms.

"In another case, the customer was told that they couldn't do something that the rules quite explicitly permit. The risk here is that the field's advice is not shaped by licensing rules, but by sales considerations," said DeGroot. "In other cases, a customer wants to do something that could reduce the number of licenses they buy, so the field says they can't do it."

In Microsoft's small business channel, the problem is that most resellers don't have a solid enough understanding of the requirements and the opportunities that volume licensing represents, solution providers said.

"Microsoft could definitely help themselves by getting their resellers to understand the rules to play by," said Adam VanDreumel, account manager with Delios Computer Solutions, Grand Rapids, Mich. "Personally, I want to make sure I'm using what I'm paying for."

Anne Stanton, president of The Norwich Group, an IT consulting firm in Norwich, Vt., says licensing terms for small businesses can often be more complex than those for enterprises. "In small businesses, particularly with virtualization, licensing is becoming a struggle," she said.

For his part, Ligman believes that understanding licensing terms is a shared responsibility between Microsoft and its partners.

"Channel partners are running their businesses; we know that, which is why we try to get the training out to them in many different ways," said Ligman. "Part of that is partners taking a few moments to look at [the licensing training] and understand that it is a part of their business, and that having that knowledge can really help."

While it can be challenging for partners to get smaller businesses to see the value in volume licensing, it's ultimately the best course for partners to follow, according to Kevin Baylor, principal at Aequus IT, a solution provider in Bradenton, Fla.

"It's in customers' best interest to buy volume licensing packages such as Open Business [which includes five or more licenses for any combination of Microsoft products]. It can be more expensive, but it's the right thing to do," said Baylor.