No concessions, says Microsoft

Microsoft says it will offer no more concessions to users before its new licensing regime comes into force.

Companies that miss the 1 August deadline for signing a new licence agreement will have to pay the full price for upgrades to packages such as Windows and Office.

Major organisations such as Royal Bank of Scotland, the NHS and the Office of Government Commerce have already negotiated special contracts to cut the cost of the new terms.

But Microsoft licensing manager Sue Page told Computing that users should not delay decisions any further.

'There will be no more concessions,' she said.

'A lot of companies are still not aware of the deadline. Companies should take stock of where they are now. They have to make a decision, even if they decide to do nothing.'

Blue-chip user group The Infrastructure Forum (Tif) has written to members this week recommending they look at the most cost-effective option for their business.

In the letter, seen by Computing, Tif chief executive David Roberts warns: 'All existing extensions, preferential pricing and offers will cease on 31 July 2002.'

'All organisations should ... determine the timing and scale of licensing decisions that represent the most cost-effective solutions for their product mix, upgrade and migration plans.'

Roberts says the only way to keep costs down is to buy the licences needed for each individual user, rather than buying the same set of software for every PC.

But this approach will mean headaches for systems administrators, who will have to keep track of different configurations on different systems. 'Buy what you need, when you need it. That's the way to manage the cost and in some cases manage the cost down,' said Roberts.