One for the price of three: Users angry at Microsoft licence rate hike

NEWS Microsoft unveiled its Enterprise Agreement option (EA) plan late on Thursday, as well as a raft of online management tools and simpler upgrade processes. The EA option is only valid for three years and users wanting to take advantage of "attractive" upgrade deals must do so during this time span, otherwise they face having to pay the full price of the licence again. Frank Coyle, IT director at John Menzies, said: "Over the first couple of years you wouldn't notice the difference to the cost, but over ten years costs could triple. As well as the licence costs we are also expected to pay for maintenance and every three years forced to pay to continue with the licence." Duncan Reid, product services group manager at Microsoft, admitted that while the EA option is initially cheaper it will prove to be more expensive in the long-run as users will be expected to pay for ongoing maintenance and patches. Users are concerned that Microsoft will use the new model to force unwanted upgrades. Brendan Major, IT director at the NSPCC, said: "I am very worried at the increase in software costs and the administration overheads involved in such routine maintenance upgrades. This is a more complicated way to do things and it affects the NSPCC's ability to operate leanly." Major said the charity does not want upgrades forced upon it. Coyle agreed. "We do not pretend to be bleeding-edge and we are not looking for headlines by being early adopters," he said. "We just want business benefit from our software so we tend to buy one version and work off that. "It's just good housekeeping as we are a high volume, low margin company," he added. Richard Sykes, chairman of Morgan Chambers, said it makes little business sense for companies looking for reliable rather than leading-edge technology to choose the subscription model. Microsoft's Reid was keen to stress that the EA scheme does not replace perpetual licenses. Users wanting to continue with standard versions may do so without a time limit. However, he said, they cannot expect to take advantage of any of the EA option features.