Monthly Archives: October 2020

Our goal has always been to build a community of resources to help hosting providers and MSPs with their licensing. Our sister website, http://www.mscloudlicensing will be launching several new resources including our new podcast titled Fireside Chat with SPLA Man starting in November. Hope to see you there!

Thanks for reading,

SPLA Man

This has taken over the spot for the #1 asked question by SPLA hosters. (For those curious, SPLA VDI was #1).

To answer this question specifically, the answer is no. There’s no option to license M365/O365/Windows 10/Azure through a SPLA agreement. That doesn’t mean you cannot offer it through other channel programs such as CSP. To understand more about CSP, please visit csplicensing.com

You cannot host M365 from your datacenter without a QMTH addendum or dedicated infrastructure. Word to the wise, do not try to be QMTH authorized without really understanding what it takes to do so. There’s a lot of investment and upfront capital to get the authorization and other metrics to achieve – not the least which being CSP Direct authorized.

To understand the different options and program eligibility, I encourage you to reach out to our team at info@splalicensing.com We have helped thousands of SPLA partners with their licensing optimization strategies.

Thanks for reading,

SPLA Man

This is a follow up from our original post “Licensing CSP On Premise Products”

SPLA Man has gone mad! How can you sell Microsoft software without SPLA???!!! Sure, if you host the Microsoft software SPLA is still part of the equation, but if you want to sell outside of SPLA, here are a few ideas.

We’ve all heard of CSP, but most of us think of CSP as selling Office 365 or Azure. That’s true, but you can also sell CSP perpetually to your end users. I think this is a pretty big deal for both VAR partners and hosters.

Let’s say you have a customer who needs software for on premise. Maybe its a hospital or government agency who has strict policies against software as a service where they have to buy the licenses, not lease it. In the past, the only way a VAR or SPLA provider can offer their end customer Microsoft volume licensing is by partnering with an authorized reseller and they would be required to bill your end customer directly. Not their rule, but Microsoft. Fast forward to today, you can now buy CSP on premise perpetual software, add your own markup, and sell to your end customer. This is available through the CSP Indirect model which is ideal for partners.

The reason I feel this is important is because it gives you options. You can sell your customer almost the entire Microsoft catalog, offer different deployment options, and control your own margin. You can offer your customer SPLA, Microsoft cloud, on premise, or a combination of everything.

I know I wrote about this before, but I still get asked A LOT about reselling software outside of SPLA.

If you have questions on CSP and how this program can benefit you, please shoot us an email at info@splalicensing.com

Thanks for reading,

SPLA Man

As the shift from on premise/hosted solutions to the public cloud continues, so does the complexity of the licensing. As an example, in a recent engagement, a provider faced difficulty in determining which licenses his customers were eligible to migrate to a public cloud and which ones had to be relicensed. They were also under the pressure of a SPLA audit. Here’s what we uncovered:

1. No proper way to track licenses. They did not have a tool or SAM process. SPLA reporting should be used as business intelligence into what is happening in your environment, not just a requirement by Microsoft.
2. They had Office 365 license deployed on shared hardware.
3. Software Assurance was not offered to their clients.
4. They were paying a premium for their licenses over what others were paying based on reseller costs.
5. They purchased Office 365 through the portal out of convenience.
6. They owed over 2.4 million (USD) for licenses. We reduced to 150k (USD) based on licensing rules and reporting

Don’t be this provider!

If you are faced with an audit, it is important to not go through it alone.  Your plan should include ways to reduce your risk before it becomes a risk.  Our licensing experts will review your data, understand the risk, and put together a strategy to reduce exposure and path moving forward.

If you are going through an audit or want to reduce your SPLA reporting, please reach out to us to discuss our strategy.  We are independent and work for you, not the vendor. You can email info@splalicensing.com or directly at blaforge@splalciensing.com

Thanks for reading!

SPLA Man