Is this the beginning of the end of the phone call? Is voice communications a dying breed? Perhaps not on its last breath, but certainly less relevant than it once was. Case in point: My phone hardly ever rings. OK, so maybe no one wants to talk to me, which is entirely possible, and I certainly attend plenty of conference calls, but seriously, most of my communication is via email and texting. I admit to preferring to communicate with my colleagues and clients and suppliers via email because it is self documenting and asynchronous. I would even argue that voice mail is becoming increasing obsolete. And, frankly, I don’t really want to talk ...
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A few weeks ago, Sony announced that it was ending production of the 3.5” floppy disk. I have boxes upon boxes of these little plastic memory devices, some with labels barely hanging on by a glue remnant. Sure, I haven’t had a computer with a floppy drive in almost a decade, but if the disks are being shelved, disk drives are soon to follow. What happens to my data? This isn’t the first time that technical obsolescence has affected my life. I’ve already repurchased my original PacMan Fever album three times as technology leapt from vinyl to cassette to compact disc. In its fourth iteration, I was able to convert from CD to MP3 on my own – ...
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Microsoft has a very sophisticated set of tools and processes to set, manage, deliver, and customize their volume licensing prices. Each month, Microsoft generates and disseminates an updated master price list via a secure portal. This list includes every possible permutation of product, license versus software assurance, new versus renewal, 1, 2, or 3 years remaining, enterprise edition, standard edition, level A, B, C, D, Enterprise Agreement (EA), Select Agreement, Open licensing, and on and on and on... literally, tens of thousands of unique line items are updated monthly. Then, Microsoft and their LARs (Large Account Resellers) and ...
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Clearly, Main Street–and the government–has Wall Street in its crosshairs. So now is the perfect time for organizations to review their agreements and show their shareholders that they are willing to take fiscal responsibility department by department wherever and whenever possible. One way to do this is to negotiate better deals across the enterprise. You can hone your IT negotiation skills with renowned industry experts from NET(net), the world leader in IT Investment Optimization. NET(net) University's Negotiation Program, conducted at DePaul's O'Hare campus in Chicago, is a two-day program dedicated to developing the theory and practice ...
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It's been said there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics. To this list I propose to add "not really a lie, technically, but it certainly isn't the whole truth and some people might consider it downright misleading" A case in point: Microsoft sales teams are fond of saying that "Enterprise Agreement customers receive an approximately 15 percent platform discount' versus other licensing options. Technically, this is true: if you were to purchase exactly the same mix of products via some other licensing program such as Select, you would pay more. But it's also somewhat irrelevant and misleading when it's used as an argument ...
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For Jordan, it was unabashed practice and, in fact, failure which helped him succeed. By his own admission, he “missed more than 9000 shots in [his] career… lost almost 300 games. 26 times, [he’s] been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed… failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” But he continued to devote as much time as possible to improving. Even his contract allowed him an exception from standard NBA terms and conditions which gave him the ability to play the game anytime and anywhere he wanted, now known as the “love-of-the-game clause.” Just about every other winning athlete has this same mentality ...
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If there was ever an argument for negotiation of even the most banal of desktop software licenses (the highest price per desktop is $51.46), this breaking story about McAfee's latest virus definition file should have most procurement people running scared. Simply put, the definition file itself causes wide-spread shutdown of virtually every XP system it's installed on. McAfee's Software Royalty-Free License (Jan 2010 edition) has two relevant sections [Note: This language is found in every publicly available McAfee agreement as of 4/22/10 at www.mcafee.com. Section numbers may be different.]: "6. Warranty and Disclaimer. THE SOFTWARE IS ...
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Continuing its direction toward rental-based agreements, Microsoft has recently been pitching EAP's and EAI's to some of its customers. Simply, these agreements are the "low interest mortgage loan with a large balloon payment at the end" of the licensing world. The customer forecasts a growth rate for covered products such as SQL Server, Visual Studio, etc, and only pays a lower rate during the 3 year term of the agreement. Looks great when you see the pricing in comparison to straw man of a 'business as usual' mock up... Until you realize, that at the end of the agreement you must either renew (at a price that Microsoft decides) or lose the ...
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Strategy 3: Issue Token Gifts Optimize persuasiveness Low-cost token gifts. Agree to meet at time or location that’s more convenient for the Supplier Arrive at talks with coffee to share with your counterparts Concede First. Open the dialogue and begin substantive discussions by agreeing to a small request made by the other side Communicate Effectively. Your counterpart is more likely to feel compelled to reciprocate in substantive ways if you make your concessions salient Make sure they know you agreed to meet in their preferred location despite the inconvenience for you NET(net)’s Website/Blogs/Articles and other content is subject to ...
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Relationship based persuasion is usually strategically intended to win others over, not to defeat them. Thus it is very important to be able to see the topic from different angles in order to anticipate the reaction of others to a proposal. To be successful in this pursuit, we recommend the following 4 steps: Step 1: Survey your situation. This step includes an analysis of the situation of the persuader, his goals and the challenges he faces in his organization. Step 2: Confront the five barriers. There are five obstacles that pose the greatest risks to a successful influence encounter: relationships, credibility, communication mismatches, ...
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