Microsoft
• Play a long game: Bona argues that if you have an enterprise agreement with Microsoft you are likely to have significant leverage if you can assess your current situation and make an argument that you do not need to upgrade to any new versions beyond those you already have entitlement to. For example, if you are running Office 2007 but already have the rights to a newer version, you could say to Microsoft that you will spend the next five years slowly upgrading all the versions you do not have and then once that is done move to the cloud. The prospect of no new deals and then moving to a subscription model in five years’ time might motivate Microsoft to provide better discounts now.
• Do not renew the whole platform: Microsoft’s software assurance programme allows companies to renew maintenance for components of their licensing agreements. For example, a company may decide to renew maintenance for just the operating system, but not client access. Bona said: “Microsoft clearly doesn’t want that so that’s when you will begin to see reductions and additional discounts.”
• Profile your usage: most companies with an enterprise agreement are likely paying for every qualified device, but some may find that their users are not making the most of this and just using certain applications, such as SharePoint. Point out to Microsoft that it knows that this is a problem, as it has four different tiers of user with its cloud offering, Office365. Bona claims this argument has allowed companies to negotiate their own user profile categories on premise.
• Year end: Microsoft’s year end is in June and is more likely to be more generous during this period, take advantage of that.
Oracle
• Transaction size: With Oracle it is all about volume and the size of the deal being done at that moment in time, according to Gartner. Bona said: “Oracle tends to have selective amnesia about all of your prior spend, so the fact that you have spent €10 million over the last ten years is forgotten about.” She claims that Oracle are only really going to give you a discount based on what you spend now.
• Discounting is not disciplined: Bona has seen discounts for deals of the same size that differ significantly. According to Gartner, Oracle is likely to discount more when it approaches a customer and tries to sell a product that has a lot packaged in that is unlikely to be used, but will likely result in maintenance revenue streams for years to come. Bona said: “That’s why it is discounted higher because they will expect an annuity stream whether the product is used or not. So be careful to dissect what you are getting, if you are getting high discounts make sure it is software that you are going to deploy.”
• Third-party support: there has been a rise in companies offering third-party support on maintenance, with some claiming discounts of over 50% on what companies are paying. The most popular ones include Rimini Street and Spinnaker. Companies that have seriously looked at these as options, according to Bona, have got more flexibility from Oracle.
• Year end: Oracles year end is in May.
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