Small Business Desktop Advantage for only $785 ERP (That’s only $16 more than Office Small Business by itself!) Here’s how…
One of the regular readers of our Blog pointed out two of my posts and asked a simple follow-up question. Here are the posts he read:
1) Are you taking advantage of the 15% discount offered through the Open Consolidation offer?
The question he asked… “Can I combine these to help my clients get to the Small Business Desktop Advantage for only $785?” The answer? “Absolutely!”
Here’s how it works:
First, to qualify for the Open Consolidation offer 15% discount:
· You need to have more than one Open License Agreement with Software Assurance with expiration dates are more than 90 days apart.
· Consolidation must be made through a new Open Value Agreement.
· Discount applies to Open SA or L&SA SKUs, on initial order only.
· Agreement must be submitted & accepted by Microsoft between 3/19/07 & 6/29/07.
Based on this, if you have a client with any Office Small Business, Windows Upgrade, or SBS CALs with unexpired Software Assurance that they purchased more than 90 days ago, you are already ½ way there. All you need now is a second Open Agreement with Software Assurance that has an expiration date more than 90 days away from the first Agreement. What if they don’t have a second agreement? If only there was a way to get them a second agreement they could use…
That’s where the “Sales Tip: Use SoftGrid to qualify any of your customers for a new Open Business or Open Value Agreement” post comes in. If your client decided to purchase (5) of the SoftGrid CAL for TS L+SA SKUs to start a new Open Value Agreement, they would now have two agreements, both with active Software Assurance, and both expiring more than 90 days apart. Now they consolidate the two agreements through the promotion:
1. Instead of renewing the SA on your Office, Windows, or SBS CALs, you will move to the Small Business Desktop Advantage for all PCs in the company
2. Add the SoftGrid CAL for TS L+SA SKUs to the new agreement as well since they are being consolidated.
3. You will receive the 15% discount on all SA or L+SA items included on this initial order, which means that you will receive the Small Business Desktop Advantage for $785 ERP instead of the regular $922 ERP. By the way, the $785 price on the SBDA is only $16 more than the ERP of Office Small Business 2007 L+SA through Open Value by itself, which means it’s like getting BOTH the Windows Vista Business Upgrade + SA and the SBS CAL L+SA for only $16!
As an example, let’s say you have a client with (3) Office Small Business L+SA licenses expiring sometime in the future (plus whatever else was on the initial agreement) and their company has 14 PCs. You would simply:
· Start a new Open Value Agreement with the (5) SoftGrid CALs for TS
· Once you receive the Agreement # for the new Open Value Agreement the SoftGrid licenses are on, you can now place your consolidation order.
· The consolidation order would consist of:
o Qty. 14 Small Business Desktop Advantages (B6K-00052 for spread payments or B6K-00050 for up-front payments or to use Microsoft Financing). Remember, you would have to order 14 since the SBDA is a Company-wide Agreement.
o Qty. 5 of the SoftGrid CALs for TS (part # would depend on which one you chose to start your initial agreement with).
o Any other L+SA or SA renewal items you wanted to receive the discount on or that you were renewing from the initial Agreement that had the Office Small Business on it (for instance if you had an SBS Server with SA on the same agreement with the Office Small Business licenses, you could renew the SA on the consolidation order)
o You would receive the 15% discount on all of the L+SA or SA items included on this initial consolidation order.
Yes, you could utilize this for any additional items you wanted to include beyond the Small Business Desktop Advantage and you could use something other than the SoftGrid CAL for TS as your second agreement if you chose to. I was simply looking for lowest cost. Remember, you can combine offers and promotions to help your clients get the most from their IT dollars. Be sure to check out the Microsoft Incentives website often to see what offers are happening from time to time.
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UPDATE: As of October, 2008, platform options (such as the Small Business Desktop Advantage) are now handled through the “Build Your Own Platform” model. Here is the post that explains this new option for you.
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Thank you and have a wonderful day,
Eric Ligman
Microsoft US Senior Manager
Small Business Community Engagement
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights