Employees opting to skip the commute and work from remotely have risen by 39% in the U.S. between 2006 and 2008 and corporations are starting to realize the cost savings. From a technology standpoint, setting up an employees at home (or at a location other than the corporate office) is rather simple – give them a laptop and an IP phone and no one is the wiser about where they are working from – whether wearing business casual at the […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has just revealed that as part of their efficiency review, they were able to save $89 million in software licensing fees by renegotiating contracts with Microsoft and Oracle. $89 million that can be used elsewhere. Their IT budget in 2009 was $6.2 billion. How did they do it? According to InformationWeek “The agency consolidated 487,000 licenses into a blanket software-and-maintenance agreement with Microsoft at a savings (or “cost avoidance”) of $87.5 million over the […]
In anticipation of the big October launch of Microsoft Windows 7, two new announcements regarding pricing have been made – one a good deal, the other, not so much… The first offer is called Family Pack, which includes Windows 7 Home Premium installation media and a license key that can be activated on three PCs in a single household. This is being sold for an estimated retail price of $150. Upside is the multiple licenses for this cost – families […]
In addition to per user and per device licenses with Windows 2003 Server, there is a third option called External Connector Licenses. Because per user and per device client access licenses (CALs) have to be assigned to a specific user account or device, this sometimes makes it difficult when companies would like to grant access to their servers to partners and/or clients. Whenever systems are extended to unknown users, an External Connector License can be purchased. These license options are […]
This time the poor saps were XMCO Inc., based in Michigan. They paid out $70,000 in a settlement for unlicensed copies of Adobe, Corel and Microsoft products. On top of the 70K, they agreed to delete all unlicensed copies of software on theircomputers, purchase any licenses necessary to become compliant, and commit to implementing stronger software license management practices. A more extreme case includes jail time. In Austin, Texas, a 24 year old was sentenced to three years in federal […]
Like the ISV licensing requirements, there are certain requirements that need to be met to qualify for cost savings found in the Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA) Program. 1- Your organization must be enrolled in the Microsoft Partner Program as a Certified Partner for a Registered Member in the Hosting Program. 2- You must also comply with the Services Provider Use Rights and export requirements. In addition, as an ISV, you must provide technical support for licensed products delivered to […]
Miro is excited to announce that we have been invited to speak at three conferences in the fall: Canadian ITAM Users’ Group (CITAMUG) September 30th Toronto, ON Topic: Smarter Oracle Licensing Virginia Oracle Users Group (VOUG) Conference October 9th Richmond, Virginia Topic: Managing Your Oracle and Other Software Assets to Lower the Total Cost of Ownership IAITAM Conference October 17th Marco Island, FL Topic: Vendor Management – Best Practices for Software Asset Management – From Oracle to Microsoft Check back […]
Want to see why and how CiOs and CFOs should work together? I was invited to contribute my thoughts on that particular issue for popular newsletter IT Finance Connection. I was inspired by the outlets focus on the IT-Finance connection. When dealing with software licensing issues and software asset management, we’ve had to go up to bat with CFOs more often than not. CFOs often will not understand the process that goes along with purchasing enterprise software, and often are […]