- Monday, 9 November 2009
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Word of the Day: ptarmic - substance causing sneezing - Sheesh! That pepper is really ptarmic, man!
Microsoft mugs old folks homes Down Under
CARE HOMES FOR THE ELDERLY in Australia are in shock, having been told by Microsoft that it will be revoking their non-profit designation that lets them buy MS software at steep discounts.
The Vole's formerly discounted prices offered to pensioners' residential care facilities Down Under had helped its products – including Microsoft Windows, Office, Sharepoint and SQL Server – become widely deployed in the IT infrastructure of the country's old folks homes.
Australia's Aged Care Industry IT Council estimates that having to pay full sticker prices for Microsoft products will increase its members' software licencing fees by about 400 per cent.
It says the surprise change in Volish policy will hoover up about half of the sector's annual IT budgets and extract an estimated AU$70 million over the next 18 months.
"Like many other industry sectors, aged care has probably a 90 per cent-plus reliance on Microsoft infrastructure, so it's not difficult for the company to say the rules have changed," said IT Council spokesman Mark Barnett.
"The difficulty for aged care providers is that they've bet the farm on a Microsoft strategy that they believed was consistent and reliable in price," he continued.
Barnett said the IT Council has been in talks with Microsoft for the past six weeks hoping to reach some accommodation, and the company has promised to take no further action on its policy changes until after Christmas.
At least three IT projects at Australian aged care providers were put on hold last Friday due to Microsoft's threatened price increases.
Certainly some IT managers at the country's 1,300 old folks residential care providers will be checking out lower cost software alternatives involving Linux, Samba and Open Office between now and the end of the year, we reckon. µ
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same as low life crack/smack dealers business models, give ya kit away to the susceptible/vulnerable, get um hooked, then write your own pay checks, well done M$ O_o
You would think at this stage that *any* organisation would know that if you get into bed with Microsoft you will get a nasty rash.

It is a despicable act though, to give so much to people only to get them hooked so you can charge them into the future.
Why am I not surprised? This is totally sleezy and a direct mirror of drug dealer tactics. Supply the smack (err... product) cheap until the victim is hooked then jack the price up massively.
If there's one thing I know about aged care homes here in Australia its that they're underfunded and struggle to survive already.

Way to go MS. These guys don't really have the money to spend. With tactics like this I wouldn't be surprised if they force a move towards open source software.
Vendor Lock-In - "How do you want to get screwed today?"

HB
Just when you thought they couldn't get more venal, next they'll be using kill bits to stop them using the software until they sheck out the denarii.

Fun times, maybe they'll start charging themselves more for using their own software.
Does the word SUCKER come to mind?
The profits being made from these facilites is rediculous compared to the actual level of care they provide so I see it as one shark biting another in the arse.
Microsoft seems to be doing a lot of hard work to alienate and piss off people these last few years. I guess they like hurting self inflicted wounds eh?
does no one realize it has been ages since microsoft made a good product? let's try 13 years. NT 4 was it, 2000 wasn't bad, 95 took the cake in the home. everything after that was just building on shaky ground, when what they should have done was scrapped everything and did it over from the ground up. seriously. it's not even usably efficient, just accustomed to by everyone who has to use it. it's time for something different. i'm biased, tho, i miss the days of DOS and Power Menu.
Looks like a typical ms bait and switch to me.