[MAGNet] Re: Microsoft Product Activation and Volume License Product Keys

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From: Bob Callaway (callaway@socrates.berkeley.edu)
Date: Fri Aug 09 2002 - 12:54:39 PDT

Yes, Compucom is the Large Account Reseller (LAR) that operates
between TRC and the Microsoft subsidiary that handles the Academic
Select licensing program. TRC has not had the sales volume to
qualify as a LAR in Microsoft's scheme. (This could change in the
future.)

When UC went through the bid process that resulted in the selection
of TRC, one of TRC's attractions was the potential for more attention
to UC's particular needs. The previous two resellers had been
markedly inadequate in that regard. At the time of the most recent
bid, we talked to Compucom representatives, and they said that
Compucom was a big order-processing machine and that TRC could
provide more individual attention to customers in UC departments.

This sort of multi-tiered sales process is common in American
industry. In the software world, resellers typically deal with
distributors. Most of the time this layering is invisible to the
customer. The Microsoft arrangement is more complicated than most.

The feedback that many of you have provided this week will help me
convey to TRC (and to Microsoft) what is not working. This sort of
feedback is essential to getting good service, so I thank you all.

>At 9:30 AM -0700 8/9/02, Graham A. Patterson wrote:
>>
>>It is a lunatic system - Microsoft - the vendor (TRC) - the recipient -
>>the license holder (UCOP) - and none of us have the complete picture.
>
>
> Isn't there another party between TRC and Microsoft? I
>thought that TRC was still "too small" to buy directly from MS...
>
>-Greg 

-- 
-
___________________________________

Bob Callaway

Information Systems and Technology
University of California, Berkeley
Voice:  (510) 643-8262
Email:  callaway@socrates.berkeley.edu
___________________________________

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