Microsoft Kills Volume Rebates in Name of 'Transparency' (theregister.com) 14
Microsoft is updating its pricing approach for Online Services in Enterprise Agreements in the name of consistency and transparency, but could leave some customers paying more. From a report: Many customers, particularly larger ones, enjoy substantial discounts via volume licensing and the change, which will bring the Online Services pricing model into line with those already rolled out for services like Azure, "reflects our ongoing commitment to greater transparency and alignment across all purchasing channels." Online Services include products such as Dynamics 365 and Windows 365.
Exactly how big a discount customers enjoyed depends on the deal they scored. The change will mean that "pricing will align with the pricing published on Microsoft.com." According to Microsoft, "This change reduces licensing complexity, enabling partners to invest less time evaluating Microsoft pricing and programs and more time working with customers on their business needs. With simplified and standardized prices, partners can shift their focus to delivering unique services that will propel their customers' growth." The changes will take effect on November 1.
Exactly how big a discount customers enjoyed depends on the deal they scored. The change will mean that "pricing will align with the pricing published on Microsoft.com." According to Microsoft, "This change reduces licensing complexity, enabling partners to invest less time evaluating Microsoft pricing and programs and more time working with customers on their business needs. With simplified and standardized prices, partners can shift their focus to delivering unique services that will propel their customers' growth." The changes will take effect on November 1.
If you're not negotiating, you're screwed anyway (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft will be happy to negotiate with a sufficiently large buyer. If you have several hundred licenses to work with, you could find a seller who was willing to cut you a deal on that. They are interested in total revenue, not extracting maximum profit from a SKU. This applies _regardless_ of the product in question, whether it's Azure time or an on-prem license. You'd be amazed at the freebies that get thrown to the customer. I know of one that pays much less than you'd pay for a commercial SKU for Windows Server basic edition for a copy of Datacenter. Whole classes of software will get thrown at you for free as long as you give them the required level of spend.
Rebates were always a scam (Score:5, Insightful)
Rebates are better for sellers than discounts, for several reasons.
First, a portion of purchasers won't know about the rebate, and won't apply for it.
Another portion will know about the rebate, and will apply for it, but find out too late that they forgot to check some obscure box, and won't qualify.
Another portion won't bother to go to the trouble of jumping through the necessary hoops to get the rebate.
So the seller wins, and gets to claim a lower price than customers actually pay.
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What makes you say that? There is nothing in the body of the article that contradicts the rebate headline.
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What makes you say that? There is nothing in the body of the article that contradicts the rebate headline.
You mean besides the fact that the word 'rebate' doesn't appear anywhere in the article but the word 'discount' shows up 6 times?
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Here's a link I found by Googling, that specifically discusses rebates. https://cspcontrolcenter.com/m... [cspcontrolcenter.com].
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But does that mean you admit you were wrong about the specific topic in the article having anything at all to do with rebates and want to move on to a more general discussion of how rebates work in enterprise IT?
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A "partner" is just a glorified kind of customer. I know, I've personally done the work to make my company qualify as a Microsoft "partner." We didn't do so because our customers would think of us as a Microsoft "partner" but because we got discounts and rebates through the "partnership." It's all just marketing, and you'd better believe enterprises will sign up to be a Microsoft partner if it saves them enough money.
Why are you so determined to get an admission of wrongness? I didn't make up the headline.
Somehow (Score:3)
I don't see this lasting. It may lose its "official" veneer, but volume rebates are unlikely to actually go away.
Not quite Darth Vader (Score:2)
Not quite "I am altering the deal, pray I don't alter it any further." More like "now that I have you captive, I'm going to squeeze you harder."
Won't last long (Score:2)
This will not last long, look at what happened to JC Penny when they decided to eliminate 'fake sales' and instead post the real price on their items. Almost went Cpt 11.
Granted this will not happen to MS, but people are stupid, they want to think they paid less than their peers even if false.
I can see some Sales People giving out some kind of benefit or discount behind the scene in a dark room. To me, this is a "feel good" ploy to make people thing they are all treated the same.