In a move to provide targeted services and benefits to the Management Service Provider (MSP) marketplace, the Global MSP Network , a worldwide association that focuses on the advancement of the outsourced management service provider channel, Monday announced the availability to all GMN members of a Software Audit Tool.
The Software Audit Tool is designed to help members’ clients achieve compliance with new Microsoft licensing rules that could save thousands of dollars on future Microsoft upgrade licensing costs.
Recently, analyst and press reports have described a new Microsoft upgrade policy that would require corporate volume buyers to upgrade to Windows XP by the first of 2002 or pay full price for their new Microsoft upgrades (with no upgrade discount).
“This tool will be instrumental in helping the companies who use MSP services to allocate their IT resources as effectively as possible — and in this case, to potentially save considerable amounts of money on software upgrades,” said Darren Wiebe vice president, strategic development for Voyus, of Vancouver B.C.
Industry research shows that almost all Microsoft corporate customers — that is, customers who buy software at a discount from Microsoft — will be affected by the new licensing change. The change may affect nearly 60 million computers in the United States alone, according to Guernsey Research Analyst Chris LeTocq.
The technology for the GMN’s Software Audit Tool is based on Intel’s Remote Services product. To help customers facilitate their compliance with Microsoft upgrade requirements, Intel is offering its Intel(R) Remote Services product to GMN members for a special rate that will enable the service for 90 days.
With the Software Audit Tool, MSP providers can use the Remote Services product’s auto-deploy mechanism to place an agent on each desktop they wish to monitor for asset information. In addition, MSPs can apply filters to the resulting report to identify exactly what their customers need to upgrade.
Intel is extremely pleased for the opportunity to support the MSP channel through the GMN,” said Steve Daly, business unit manager for Intel Corp. and president of the Vendor Advisory Council for the GMN. “As one of the founding members of the GMN, we are committed to help this channel advance and succeed.”
Today’s announcement will also have an important impact on the international MSP market.
“Virtually every client we support in the U.K. and throughout the European region will be affected by Microsoft’s new licensing rules,” said Victor Panas, president of founding GMN member PC Express. “As a natural extension to our existing MSP support roles, we offer a number of remote support and management services.
“We are very pleased to include the ability to monitor and manage Microsoft XP software upgrades among the critical and timely support functions we are able to provide.”
