Spacehamster’s Blog

It’s unfortunate to see that Microsoft has to use such high pressure tactics in order to drum up sales -

…here’s what happens if you’re a big Microsoft customer: Your customer history and purchase cycles are reviewed on a monthly basis by an engagement manager like Lawless. (That’s right — your Microsoft purchasing history is handed off to the consulting side for making sales pitches.)

Then the engagement manager makes the initial pitch — that’s the “preliminary review indicates your company may not be licensed properly” letter Frantz got. Deshaies says most customers take up the opportunity at that point. And if, like Frantz, the customer says no? Then the pressure is ratcheted up with a higher-level effort to make the sale, Deshaies says.

If there’s still no sale, if the engagement manager still believes there’s a problem with the customer’s licenses, the final decision is whether or not to pursue it, Deshaies says — presumably by kicking the issue over to the software sales side. Incidentally, engagement managers like Lawless are working from a “designed process.” Frantz wasn’t facing some loose cannon. Lawless was following the script.

And this can happen to any medium- to large- business that uses Microsoft software. I wonder if Linux companies do the same thing? And what’s to stop any software-licensing company from pursuing the same tactics?