"The initial e-mail about Microsoft Corp.'s Software Asset Management
program was so helpful, even compassionate-sounding, that the CIO at a
midsize distribution company wasn't prepared for the outburst that followed.
A woman who identified herself as "a SAM adviser for Microsoft"
explained in an introductory letter, sent in late June, that she was
working on a national initiative the software vendor created because it
understands the complexity of managing valuable IT assets. Microsoft had
identified the distributor as having possible challenges, just as the
SAM team had seen with other "strategic" customers, she wrote. The
woman, who worked for a third-party firm called SEI Information
Technology Inc., suggested that a 30-minute call would be in the
distributor's best interest.
But any hint that the SAM team may have revised the heavy-handed
pitching tactics that caused some customers to complain to Computerworld
during the past two months soon evaporated. The CIO, who asked that he
not be identified for fear of retribution, said the SAM adviser turned
"very irate" and threatened to call the distributor's CEO when he
declined her offer.
"She even was demanding immediate information over the phone on how many
licenses we had from certain Microsoft applications," the CIO said.
"It's a sneaky tactic, trying to come in under the mask of offering a
service to help manage our licenses, when all along it is an audit."
He wasn't the only IT manager left with that impression. Neither was he
the first to think that his company had been approached by a sales
representative who was working on commission."
<http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=112541>
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