Should I renew my Microsoft Enterprise Agreement?

This can be a tricky question for many organizations. Most of the time the answer is yes, but as much as Microsoft would like for you to renew everything, 90% of the time you shouldn’t. You should evaluate what you absolutely need, and then use everything else as leverage.

 

How do I go about determining what I need?

This is where an expert in Microsoft licensing will be invaluable. There are different licensing rules for every product. With Office 365 making it harder for customers to remove products from their agreement, a company should examine the rights they have to products and what they absolutely must have. Understand there are things that you may want, say rights to IPad for the Office suite, but this doesn’t mean it is a requirement. You can use this as leverage with Microsoft. You need to tell MS what you want, but that you are fine with these set of products. If they want you to renew all of your “want” products then they need to offer incentives to make them feasible.

 

How do I negotiate with Microsoft?

Getting the price you want is all about presenting the right business case to Microsoft. The business case you present to Microsoft needs to have an opportunity costs tied to it, with a 3 and 6-year analysis. You present exactly what you need, the cost savings that you can achieve, and the items you could be talked into if MS provides enough of an incentive. This is how you get a strong discount. Microsoft will want to position the cost to rebuy, and the extra cost you will incur. They don’t talk about the 3, 4, or 5-year cost savings you can achieve, nor the fact that they will absolutely discount in the future to get you back into a more expensive EA. All of these need to be positioned in your cost analysis.

 

Why should I get an independent licensing expert to help with my renewal?

Microsoft is the only one who can provide additional discounts. You LAR/Reseller can’t and they have no incentive to. The reseller is paid based on the size of your agreement. If you get a 15% discount, then their referral fee will be reduced by 15%. This is obviously something they don’t want.

Using an independent expert, like Vendorlogix, will provide honest and strategic ideas that can greatly increase your chances of getting a bigger discount. Over the past 6 years, Vendorlogix has averaged a 27% savings for their customers. Some customers have seen savings about 50%, but every customer situation is different.

Here is a free Enterprise Agreement Renewal Guide.