Interpreting the details of any software licensing or software financing plan historically has been a challenging task. More and more businesses are asking that streamlined licensing programs and broad financing options are a part of the package that partners deliver. Microsoft has taken this kind of customer and partner feedback to heart by embarking on an energetic initiative to simplify its licensing and financing processes and deliver new tools that make it easier for customers and partners to do business with the company.

A sampling of improvements Microsoft has made over the last year includes reducing the number of product licensing models from 70 to 9, reducing the number of pages in its Enterprise Agreement from 241 to 44 and reducing the minimum transaction size for financing from US$10,000 to $3,000. At the Worldwide Partner Conference today, the company is again reiterating this commitment by announcing a host of licensing and financing improvements to a sold-out crowd of some 7,000 Microsoft partners.

Some of the improvements include new use rights for Software Assurance customers who want to take advantage of virtualized desktop environments, a new version of the Microsoft Product Licensing Advisor (MPLA) tool, updates to the Forrester ROI tool, the expansion of Microsoft Financing into France and Switzerland, and a "buy now and pay later" financing offering to help customers prepare for upcoming products, such as Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007.

PressPass spoke with Joe Matz, recently appointed as vice president of the Worldwide Licensing and Pricing group, and Brian Madison, general manager of Microsoft Financing, to learn more about the details of the announcements and how they'll help partners deliver People Ready businesses to customers.