SCCM to centrally manage your systems…. and Forefront.

One of main differentiator between FCS and FEP is around managing Forefront client agents.

FCS had its own separate Management console, that was in fact a separate SKU all together that had to be purchased on top and above the client subscription. It was a stand-along piece that used an instance of MOM 2005 (Microsoft Operations Manager) underneath the covers to provide monitoring and reporting. That instance of MOM 2005 could not be used for anything else and actually required SQL 2005 specifically.

FEP management is now integrated into SCCM. This is particularly interesting because our customers now have a single solution to manage all key aspects of a secure desktop: patch management, software deployment, compliance management, antivirus, firewall, inventory, etc. In addition, FEP inherits all of the functionality of SCCM (ex. wake up on LAN, over Internet management, delegated administration, branch scenarios support).  FEP management is fully handled via SCCM console which also offers an additional node for anti-virus management.

To more secure clients

The Anti-Virus component of FEP is also more advanced and is based on the Microsoft Security Essentials, providing better support for rootkit detection, host intrusion prevention, and cloud based threat analysis.

Conceptually the services offered by FEP are the same as FCS; while the old console did not offer client deployment functionalities, SCCM now allows to deploy your agents remotely, facilitating Forefront implementation in the environment.

Licensing requirements

Now the licensing stuff… As I mentioned, things have changed: in order to be able to centrally manage your FEP clients, you need SCCM Server… and a SCCM CAL per client being managed. This is good news for customers that are already using this technology (and those who bought the CoreCAL Suite which includes SCCM), but not so good for the others, who will need in fact to implement a SCCM Solution in order to remotely manage their FEP clients.

But this can also be a great opportunity to get the conversation started on our System Center suite of products. Lots of customers out there still aren’t using any type of management strategy; you can now also drive the System Center discussion through the Forefront protection features. SCCM is just one of the 5 components of the System Center Suite of products; positioning  SCCM is a foot in the door to talk about Operations Manager, Data Protection Manager (another component that can help secure clients), Virtual Machine Manager and Service Manager.

That being said, the Forefront Clients can run without the SCCM management component but the client will not be managed, i.e. the customer will have no ability for monitoring.

Additional resources

I would suggest listening to this Gartner webcast on the convergence of desktop management and security. The decision to integrate AV into SCCM is not primarily based on technical reasons, but mainly to align with the current trends in the industry. I am sure that once those trends are understood, articulating the value of SCCM + FEP will be easier for our partners.

Also:
- Forefront Endpoint Protection – Main product page
- Pricing and Licensing.

May the Force of Licensing be with You,
Mathias

As you most likely know, the downgrade rights to Windows XP were extended in last July 2010; Microsoft initially limited the downgrade rights to coincide with the release of Windows 7 SP1, or 18 months after General Availability. Customers can now leverage the downgrade rights for the entire life cycle of Windows 7.

OEM versions of Windows 7 Professional may be downgraded to either Windows Vista Business or Windows XP Professional. Similar end user downgrade rights (to XP Professional) are provided for the following Windows operating systems pre-installed on a new PC (OEM versions):

• Windows 7 Ultimate Edition
• Windows Vista Business Edition
• Windows Vista Ultimate Edition

I also got a question around the downgrade process. We strongly suggest that your customer works with the computer manufacturer that they procured their systems from, to re-image with the desired OS (Win XP Pro for instance). This process can be tedious and your system builder would know best how to proceed with this operation.

Regarding sourcing the media
The downgrade media can be associated with any prior legally licensed version from the OEM system builder or retail channels. Additionally, an end user, who is licensed separately through Microsoft Volume Licensing programs, may provide their Volume Licensing media and key to their system builder to use to facilitate the downgrade of their systems.

Regarding activation keys
Once Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Ultimate, or Windows XP Professional is installed, the PC will prompt for a Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Ultimate, or Windows XP Professional product key in order to activate the software. The product key associated with the original Windows software should be used for activation. If the Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Ultimate, or Windows XP Professional product key has been previously activated, which is likely if the media came from a prior legally licensed version that has been activated in the past, the software may be unable to activate over the Internet. When this happens, the appropriate local Activation Support phone number will be displayed, and the person performing the downgrade will need to call the Activation Support Line and explain the circumstances to a customer service representative.

Once it is determined that the end user has a valid Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows Vista Business, or Windows Vista Ultimate license, the customer service representative will provide a single-use activation code that can be used to activate Windows.

Note: Additionally an end user who is licensed separately through Microsoft Volume Licensing programs, may provide their Volume Licensing media and key to their System Builder to facilitate the downgrade of their systems. If your customer already owns perpetual licenses of Windows XP Professional bought under a previous Volume Licensing program, they can use that product key to activate their downgraded systems too (as long as the product edition matches, XP Professional in this example).

Additional resources:

• Product Licensing FAQ
• Understanding Downgrade Rights for Windows 7 (PDF)
• Downgrade Rights Details and FAQ
• OEM Downgrade Rights
• Understanding Downgrade Rights.

Reminder

One of the key take-away’s of the LiveMeeting was the importance of selling the right edition of Windows 7 OEM in order to cover any future upgrade that the customer would want to do. The “Professional” edition of windows 7 should ALWAYS be your recommendation. Windows 7 Home Premium OEM for instance will NOT allow the customer to purchase an upgrade license as part of a Volume Licensing program in the future. If they wish to upgrade from Home Premium, they will then have to re-purchase the full license again (through FPP for instance) and then attach SA within 90 days. Much more cumbersome, expensive and less practical. Remember: the OS license under Volume Licensing is an UPGRADE only. You MUST have an underlying license in order to purchase an Upgrade license through Volume Licensing.

I hope this helps clarifying this topic.

May the Force of Licensing be with You,
Mathias

I will make sure to update the licensing blog on a more regular basis to keep you updated on important and relevant licensing information. Among other things: EES launch follow up on last December (lots of content on the MPN site - phase 2 is coming in March) and SBS 2011 launch (SKU’s are on the January pricelist already). Other topics to come, stay put!

All the Best, and May the Force of Licensing be with You.

Mathias

Let’s continue with Software Assurance benefits….

Training Vouchers

Eligibility: days granted based on number of Office and Client licenses with SA Coverage.

Training IT staff can be a big expense to your customers. Deployment projects typically require your IT department to update their skills on new Microsoft products and technologies.

Software Assurance offers dozens of in-depth instructor-led courses provided by our CPLS community to allow your customer to:

- Support their software investment by preparing your IT staff to efficiently deploy, maintain, and support new technologies.
- Provide your developers with the technical expertise to build line-of-business applications for your organization.
- Reduce your overall training budget.

Please visit this page to search for eligible courses.

In addition, training vouchers can also be converted into packaged services days at a 3:1 ratio. See below for more information about this other benefit.

Packaged Services

Eligibility: days granted based on number of Office and CAL points.

One of the key reasons why customers are going with Software Assurance is to take advantage of the upgrade rights on their covered licenses. To go further, your customers might have access to deployment consulting days called Packaged Services. In a nutshell, these days offer guidance and analysis on the planning of the deployment of several technologies: SharePoint, Exchange and the Desktop platform (Windows and Office).

One additional offering is called Business Value and offers a more strategic engagement. Business Value Planning Services (BVPS) helps your organization's business decision makers develop a plan to maximize the business value of the Microsoft Office system through structured, multi-day engagements.

The BVPS consultant works with your customer to document, analyze, and design a plan that can help them unlock the potential of their existing investment, drive change, and improve their business processes.

Please check the partner portal site to get more information.

Home Use Program

Eligibility: every IW product with SA with grant 1 eligible user to HUP for this product

Your customer is deploying Office 2010? Looking for any possibility to train your users and reduce the ramp-up time? The Home Use Program can allow you to easily make your users more familiar with the new Office 2010 interface right from home, while offering them a great deal: Office Pro Plus 2010 for CDN$11 !

Every user of an IW product in the organization (Office for instance) is automatically eligible for 1 copy of the software for their own use at home.

Start a conversation with your HR Dpt contact and tell them about this program that can both increase your users’ efficiency, retention and happiness.

Your customers might also have access to other benefits, like TechNet, eLearning and more, so make sure you use this as a conversation starter every time you contact customers with L+SA. Keep in mind SA on the OS also opens access to MDOP (Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack), I’ll cover this in my next blog topic.

I hope this topic will help you position Software Assurance to your deals and grow your business!

May the Force of Licensing be with You
Mathias Rousseau

I can’t stress enough how important Software Assurance Benefits are for our customers: understanding and consuming their software assurance benefits will help ensure customers get full value of their software investment. Having the right conversation at the right time could translate into a stronger appreciation of your role as a software advisor and the entire software assurance benefits offering.

In this week’s blog, I’ll focus on the 24x7 Problem Resolution Support, one of the more compelling benefits.

24x7 Incidents

Eligibility: incidents granted based on SA Spending on Server and Client licenses.

Servers used for mission-critical tasks or services like email, intranet, etc are the center piece of most organizations. Customers are often asking how they can get support on their servers in case of problem and that kind of service can quickly become very expensive when outsourced.

Through Software Assurance coverage, your customers can have:

- Support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You get around-the-clock phone support for business-critical issues. The number of phone incidents available depends on your Software Assurance investment.

- Extended product support coverage. You get phone support for all Microsoft servers, Microsoft Windows operating systems, and Microsoft Office system products and editions—even if the specific license requiring support does not have Software Assurance coverage.

- Unlimited online support. You get Web support during business hours for all Standard and Enterprise edition server products that are covered by Software Assurance.

You can also use this benefit as a starting point to initiate the conversation around Premier support: incidents can be converted into Premier hours at a 5.3h per incident.

Stay tuned for coverage on remaining SA Benefits and the value they bring to our customers.

May The Force of Licensing be With You
Mathias

May the Force of Licensing be With You
Mathias

This course, Volume Licensing Fundamentals-Introduction to Microsoft Volume Licensing Tools, will introduce you to the different online tools that have been designed to help Microsoft Volume Licensing customers and Partners. The course forms part of the WWLP training series on Microsoft Volume Licensing and is a new addition to the Essential Microsoft Licensing MCP track(see Resources below).

Need to brush up on your Windows Client OS licensing?  Wondering what’s new with the release of Windows 7?

The Windows 7 Intermediate: Licensing course will cover policy details to ensure proper licensing of Windows in the Enterprise environment and how to leverage Get Genuine programs.

Live Meeting Details: Friday, October 30^th 1-2pm EST

Please join Dave Owen, Partner Territory Manager, Microsoft Canada as he highlights how our most successful customer offer currently in market will help you sell, close and bring forward bigger deals into this calendar year. In one of Microsoft’s biggest launch year in history, there is no better time to understand the offers that will help you close those sales.

Click here to register

What better way to start the year than with a promotion for our new Client OS – Windows 7.
With Windows 7 now officially on the Volume License price lists, now is the time to start positioning and selling the next generation of Windows – at a promotional price!

Here’s some official wording around the Windows 7 Upgrade program:

Limited-Time Windows® 7 Professional Upgrade Promotion – Help Your Customers Upgrade and Save

Increase your business of Windows desktop operating system upgrades by motivating small- and midsize-business (SMB) Microsoft Volume Licensing customers to upgrade their base of desktop PCs running the Windows XP or Windows Vista operating systems. Use this promotion to offer savings on Windows 7 Professional operating system upgrade licenses—with or without Microsoft Software Assurance for Volume Licensing.

In addition, customers with active Software Assurance coverage for Windows 7 Professional upgrade licenses can upgrade to the Windows 7 Enterprise operating system and get rights to acquire the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) for Software Assurance.

Promotion is valid between September 1^st 2009 and February 28^th 2010.

For more information please visit: https://partner.microsoft.com/Canada/productssolutions/windows/40113458

Don’t forget to check out our Microsoft Incentives and Reseller Promotions websites for information on this and other promotions.

That’s all for now. Happy Selling.

Krzysztof Sokolowski
Partner Licensing Manager