Sunday, March 25, 2012

What is Software Assurance ?

Working in the industry for so long, I sometimes even forget the deeper details of what I pitch. With almost every engagement through numerous customers, I have always recommended Software Assurance or “SA” with their volume licensing quote/budgeting cycle.

I usually head over to the Microsoft site to dig up further details. I was super happy to find the following videos:

In the past, I always loved the idea that if there were new software versions, you were automatically “trued up” to them, however, now a days SA includes so much more!

These are now the new offerings in SA:

Some of the new products:

Support & Training

Deployment

Specialized Benefits

The following table also describes the Benefit Manager associated with the specific service:

Activity

SA Benefit

Benefit Manager

Deployment

· Packaged Services for Deployment Planning

· Home Use Program

· IT Project Manager

· HR Manager

Training

· Training Vouchers

· E-Learning

· IT or HR Manager

· IT End-user Support, HR, or Line-of-business Manager

Support

· 24x7 Problem Resolution Support

· TechNet Benefits through Software Assurance

· IT Support Manager

· IT Managers

One of the other great things to provide to your customers in the IDC Whitepaper on the Business Value of MS SA.

Some key statistics from this whitepaper include:

  • Standardizing on a single version of desktop and server operating systems and Office reduced IT labor costs by 30–35%
  • Management solutions such as MDOP reduced desktop downtime by 40% and help desk–related issues by 44%.
  • Planning services support lowered the costs for program management for desktop deployment by 36%.
  • Providing copies of software to users as part of the Home Use Program in dvance of new software deployments reduced the service desk calls associated
    with the deployment by 19%.

Home use also lowered user training costs by 9%.
Using the training vouchers and elearning programs reduced IT annual training costs for software by 45%.
In addition to IT labor optimization, users benefited from software standardization and the Home Use Program, reducing their downtime and help desk issues and training time. In total, users lowered their nonproductive time by 39%.
Combined, these benefits lower the average annual per-user costs to manage desktops, servers delivering user applications, and Office by $353. This means that the annual cost for IT labor for an average company goes from $1,061 to $708 per user.

Those are some great stats to help support your business case!

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