Bill Anderson wrote:
"The initial e-mail about Microsoft Corp.'s Software Asset Management
program was so helpful, even compassionate-sounding, that the CIO at a
midsize distribution company wasn't prepared for the outburst that
followed.
A woman who identified herself as "a SAM adviser for Microsoft"
explained in an introductory letter, sent in late June, that she was
working on a national initiative the software vendor created because
it understands the complexity of managing valuable IT assets.
Microsoft had identified the distributor as having possible
challenges, just as the SAM team had seen with other "strategic"
customers, she wrote. The woman, who worked for a third-party firm
called SEI Information Technology Inc., suggested that a 30-minute
call would be in the distributor's best interest.
But any hint that the SAM team may have revised the heavy-handed
pitching tactics that caused some customers to complain to
Computerworld during the past two months soon evaporated. The CIO, who
asked that he not be identified for fear of retribution, said the SAM
adviser turned "very irate" and threatened to call the distributor's
CEO when he declined her offer.
"She even was demanding immediate information over the phone on how
many licenses we had from certain Microsoft applications," the CIO
said. "It's a sneaky tactic, trying to come in under the mask of
offering a service to help manage our licenses, when all along it is
an audit."
He wasn't the only IT manager left with that impression. Neither was
he the first to think that his company had been approached by a sales
representative who was working on commission."
<http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=112541>
Don't you wish this stuff was broadcast in the MSM? Yeah, I know, they
don't do tech stuff.
--
Michael J. Babcock, MCP
MB Software Solutions, LLC
http://mbsoftwaresolutions.com
http://fabmate.com
"Work smarter, not harder, with MBSS custom software solutions!"
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