Microsoft boosts licensing options with 'Select Plus'

Microsoft said on Monday that it is offering a new licensing option, dubbed 'Select Plus' and targeted largely at medium-sized firms.

The programme's two main attractions are the fact that it is not tied to a specific term and that it makes it easier for different subsidiaries of a company to take advantage of their combined purchasing power.

The additional option runs counter to a trend at Microsoft which has seen the company working to scale back the number of different licensing plans. The company had managed to shrink the number of options from 107 programmes in 2006 to 23 as of last year. With Select Plus, the number of Microsoft licensing programs has crept back up to 26.

Although presenting yet another licensing option, Joe Matz, corporate vice president at Microsoft, said that Select Plus fills a need.

"Many customers end up with multiple agreements because Select is not as flexible as customers would like," he said. Microsoft isn't getting rid of Select but expects that, over time, customers will choose the new option.

The software maker has come in for criticism from some customers and analysts for both the cost and the complexity of its licensing programmes.

In a recent report, Forrester advised its clients to plan months ahead to establish which Microsoft licensing option made the most financial sense. The analyst firm also said that Microsoft's Software Assurance support programme is more expensive than rival offerings.

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