Software King of the World Microsoft has backed down over its changes to its internal use rights policy after its channel partners revolted.
Microsoft had thought it was a wizard wheeze to suggest that from 1 July next year licences would not cover everyday use but could still be used by partners for demos, solution and services development and internal training purposes.
It said that it cost too much to provide the service, but suddenly Vole discovered that it had right royally hacked off the partners.
A petition against the plan gained more than 6,000 signatures, and it started to look like Vole would be facing an angry mob armed with pitchforks and questions at the Inspire partner event.
A blog post from Gavriella Schuster, corporate vice president, One Commercial Partner at Microsoft, made it clear that the relationships with partners needed to be protected.
“Your partnership and trust matters to us. Given your feedback, we have decided to roll back all planned changes related to internal use rights and competency timelines that were announced earlier this month. This means you will experience no material changes this coming fiscal year, and you will not be subject to reduced IUR licenses or increased costs related to those licenses next July as previously announced.
“Our decision to rescind these changes required a thorough review, and a key determining factor was the connection and trust we have with you, our partners — a valuable asset we do not take for granted. Together, we can continue to be a catalyst for digital transformation industry wide.”
Lessons seem to have been learnt, and the chances of this episode being repeated appear to have been reduced because of the way partners were public about their reaction, apparently.
“Each year, we review how we engage with partners and evolve our approach to ensure we provide best-in-class support to you and stay ahead of market changes. As we move forward, we commit to providing even more advance notice and consultation with our partner community to mitigate concerns and address issues up front. We will continue to invest in our partner program to ensure we create opportunities for all our partners”, said Schuster.
