Sixty-three per cent of IT directors feel that software procurement is one of the top three areas where dealing with vendors has become increasingly complicated, according to a survey by Microsoft.

And 68 per cent of respondents said they thought that they could raise the profile of IT in their company if this problem was addressed, while 65 per cent believe that complicated procurement delays implementation.

Microsoft is urging the vendors to simplify this process and give IT departments a break, said Dervish Tayyip, head of legal for Microsoft UK.

“The survey shows that in addition to product innovation, the spotlight is also being placed on the ease with which customers can do business with software providers," he said.

“If you have 65 per cent saying they are having trouble reaping the benefits, both sides need to look at the cause. But we don’t see many vendors expressly acknowledging the issue, let alone seeking to address it.”

“We have brought our licensing programmes down from 100-odd to about 30 and we have simplified things by reducing the sheer number of programmes, the language used, the size of contracts and the signature pages in those contracts.”

The survey comes at a time when the conventional software market is facing change and competition in the form of open source, freeware, software as a service and cloud computing.

Last month, Computing revealed that government education agency Becta is setting up a framework agreement to include provision of freeware and open source products in schools.

“Open source and proprietary systems such as Microsoft’s both have a place in the technology ecosystem,” said Tayyip.

“It is a competitive world out there, there is more choice and that’s how it should be.”