Now is the time for extra vigilance

For any supplier under pressure, the desire to extract every penny from you will become even more acute

It has been a while since Computing reported on vendors making mandatory and unexpected changes to their commercial terms to the financial detriment of customers.

Searching back through our archives you would find plenty of examples ­ – Microsoft and the controversy over its Software Assurance scheme; Oracle used to be perpetually under fire for its licensing programmes; there were unexpected charges when companies outsourced non-transferable software licences; or even back in the big mainframe days when contractual small print seemed to lead to unfathomable reasons for price hikes.

More recently, there has been much debate over the impact of virtualisation on products historically priced on a per-processor basis.

But in general, these days IT suppliers are much more sensitive to such commercial criticisms, and the rise in active and vocal user groups has helped lead to a more conciliatory process of introducing new terms and conditions.

Yet software licensing, support fees and maintenance pricing remain among the biggest potential causes of fallout in the buyer-supplier relationship. Experienced IT decision-makers still roll their eyes to the heavens when the subject is broached.

For IT managers carefully scrutinising vendor invoices, now is a good time to be wary.

Although most of the biggest suppliers will be insulated from the worst of the current economic uncertainty, if the crunch starts to hurt you can bet a bean-counter somewhere in even your friendliest vendor will be looking to see where they can accrue a few extra pounds.

For any supplier under pressure, the desire to extract every penny from you will become even more acute.

In successful IT companies, when the marketing blurb talks about “partnerships”, that is usually the goal, and many are good at delivering on such a promise.

But ultimately, it remains a commercial relationship, and tough times can lead to unpleasant measures. For IT managers looking to control their own costs, be sure to keep a close eye on those invoices.