Eric Ligman has been teasing us for several days now over a big announcement to be made on New Year’s Day. Well, the big announcement is “Open Value Subscription” which he describes as “lease-like” but not an “…actual lease.”
At the end of the term clients can “continue the subscription, buy out the subscription to own the licenses, or to end the subscription.”
So if the client ends the subscription do they have to stop using the software? If not, why would they want to continue the subscription? Sounds like a lease to me. When you lease a car and the lease is up you have to either extend the lease, buy the car, or turn it in.
There will be four webcasts to explain this new program: January 10th @ 9:00AM, January 17th @ 9:00AM, January 23rd @ 8:00AM, and January 29th @ 11:00AM (all times Pacific). I’m very interested to hear what other people in the community think of this.
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Stuart Crawford · January 3, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Hi Roger…a lease is exactly what this is…this should be just another solution that you can extend to your client base. It is not intended to be a replacement for retail box or other open license models. It is just another option to play especially for clients that are concerned about cash flow or what to preserve cash flow.
Cheers
Stuart Crawford
Calgary, AB
http://www.itsuccessmentor.com
Author comment by Roger · January 16, 2008 at 9:02 pm
I never really thought it would be a replacement for retail, OEM. I just have my doubts about how many SMB’s would go for this. Plus, unless Microsoft is willing to enforce the terms of the lease if the client doesn’t renew I see this as being ripe for abuse. Will MS deactivate keys and/or software remotely?
The community reaction seems to be a big yawn so far. I’ve seen very little discussion on the Yahoo groups. Maybe after Eric’s second presentation tomorrow there will be a little more buzz.