Bravo Memo

From the desk of: Sam C. Chan

Software Licensing vs. Retail Packages

August 15, 2002 (D R A F T *** D R A F T *** D R A F T *** )

This memo, based on an original email response to a client, is neither comprehensive nor up-to-date on the subject. Notably missing is licensing info for Microsoft and Dantz. Supplemental info is currently existing in other notes available by request. Those will eventually be consolidated into a revised memo.

Advantages of Corporate edition (SAV) licensing vs Retail edition (NAV)

Less cost per seat to purchase at start
$40/$33 (10+/25+) vs $50 Retail (tho discounts could be found to match the $40 price)

Less cost per seat to renew annually (version upgrade + definition subscription)
$25.80/$20.80 (10+/25+) vs $30 for Retail

Protects servers! Retail version has absolutely no protection for servers, only desktop stations.

Far Better features: Managed, enterprise-level solution. Single point of monitoring, reporting and management. Logical grouping and Multi-Level Enforcement of updates and various policies. Able to initiate concerted enterprise-wide virus sweep during incident response.

No hassle: A simple 1-line email to us and all paperwork is taken care of behind the scene. You get a certificate directly from Symantec. You're automatically registered with legal proof. You get verifiable 100% software license compliance status.

Contrast that to the retail method:
Administrator physically walk up to each and every station, interrupt the staff member from productive work. Enduring the long process of clicking series of menus and wait for web pages. Paying for each transaction by credit card, along with all the data entry. Recording all the transactions. Keep in mind those out-sourced ecommerce servers are over-burdened and often fail, requiring numerous retries, and occasionally double-charge you, or succeed with the charge, but fail to dispense the key number. A single customer service call could cost you 45 min plus of hold time and endless explanations. Once key number is obtained, technical glitches might prevent you from applying it and resulting in yet more support calls.