href="https://www.dqweek.com/in-this-fiscal-year-alone-microsoft-will-spend-9-5-bn-on-r-d">Microsoft
has recently announced a new
rebate structure on their system builder tools, which include Windows
Client, Windows Server and Microsoft Office. The rebates range from
$1 offered per license to $10. Moreover, purchase requirement has
been lowered and therefore, partners can now avail the rebates having
bought fewer products from Microsoft.
style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">On
Windows software, the partners could avail the rebate on purchase of
50 licenses. Now, the same rebate is being offered on the purchase of
15. Similarly, on servers, the rebate limit has been lowered to three
from 10, while on back office servers, the number is lowered to nine
from the earlier limit of 20 purchases.
style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255) none repeat scroll 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">On
Windows Vista/7, there is $4 discount per license, while on Windows
Vista/7 Home and Premium, the rebate is at $0.75 (for purchases
between 1-25) and $1.25 (25+) respectively. For the business version
of Vista and Windows 7, discounts vary between $0.50 (1-25) and $2
(25+). Microsoft Office suite has three categories-Professional,
Small Business and Basic. For each of the three versions, the rebate
stands at $7.5 (Professional), $5.5 (Small Business) and $3.5 (Basic)
for purchases between one to five and; $8.5, $6.5 and $4.5 for above
25 licenses purchased. For the servers, the rebates range from $5 to
$10 depending on the model and amount of purchase.
Talking about the latest promotional
campaign by Microsoft,
href="https://www.dqweek.com/microsoft-issue-continues-to-echo-among-jamshedpur-channel">targeting
the channel community, Atul Modi,
Director, Modi Peripherals said, “Earlier rebates could only be
claimed after purchasing quite a few products. Now, that amount has
been slashed by almost 65 percent.” Modi further added that these
rebate structures will be especially beneficial for smaller channel
partners who would be able to avail discounts on fewer products. “The
bigger players were always reaping the rewards of such schemes as
Microsoft has been offering these for a long time now. The lowering
will encourage everyone to buy genuine software,” Modi added.
However, Saket Kapoor, CEO, Green
Vision remarked that such rebates only affect the end-users as most
channel partners do not add these discounts to their bottomline.
“These are mainly beneficial to the end-user as 99 percent of
dealers do not add the profits they make from here to their
bottomline.” Kapoor believes that partners would benefit more if MS
offered rebates in kind, such as giving products for free upon buying
a certain amount.
Chetah Shah, CEO, Xpress Computers
remained enthusiastic about the new scheme, “For system builders,
such rebates are highly appreciated as it directly makes the
bottomline lucrative for users. It is up to the channel parter
whether to extend the discounts to their customers or not. If one
chooses to keep the profit as a little reward from Microsoft, they
may choose to do so. Ultimately, such discounts only encourage
people. This encouragement is needed in times of economic slowdown.”
However, the partners were in agreement
that end-customers and other dealers would be encouraged to buy
genuine software if such discounts are meted out. Microsoft has been
campaigning about the importance of only
href="https://www.dqweek.com/microsoft-raids-kk-software-3">buying
non-counterfeit
software and has issued an EDM to educate its partners about
pirated
software in general and how to tell whether a software is genuine or
not.