Phoenix added another accolade to their stash recently by achieving the Microsoft Silver Identity and Access competency.

Earning this competency helps demonstrate our expertise in building solutions that help our customers access and protect corporate information across data centre and cloud.

Our customers can now be confident that we have the know-how, training, and support to enable secure access to corporate applications and data from any location and any device, while ensuring unauthorised users are prevented from accessing sensitive information.

Phoenix already hold Gold Microsoft competencies in Volume Licensing, Software Asset Management, Server Platform and Midmarket Solution Provider as well as a Silver competency in Devices & Deployment.

Adobe Creative Cloud for teams is an ongoing membership that provides your business or workgroup access to any of the Adobe Creative Suite® 6 desktop applications, plus Adobe Photoshop® Lightroom® 4 and Adobe Acrobat® XI software, Adobe Muse,™ Adobe Edge Tools & Services, and more.

As an active member, you can download and use new features as they become available, putting the best tools in your hands the moment they're ready. Membership also includes online services for file sharing and storage, collaboration tools for private workgroups, and exciting new publishing services that help businesses stay innovative and competitive.

Top benefits:

• Get the world’s best tools at a more affordable price
• Enable team collaboration
• Publish apps and websites
• Stay up to date

Available through the Value Incentive Plan - Adobe's new membership-based volume licensing programme that makes it easy to purchase, manage, and assign permission to use Adobe software and services based on declared user ID numbers.

For more information on VIP membership contact your Phoenix Account Manager on 0845 265 1265 or email: info@phoenixs.co.uk

In addition to Gold Competencies in Volume Licensing and Software Asset Management, we now hold the Gold Midmarket Solution Provider Competency.

To earn Gold Certification, we had to meet rigorous standards for competency, including revenue, service, support and customer satisfaction requirements set forth by Microsoft.

Sam Mudd, Director of Phoenix Software, said: “By attaining the Gold Midmarket Solution Provider Competency, we can demonstrate our expertise in providing critical infrastructure solutions, based on the most current Microsoft desktop, business-management and server technologies, that are tailored to help midmarket businesses with their unique challenges.  It assures our customers of the highest levels of knowledge and customer service - something they have rightly come to expect of Phoenix.” 

Janet Gibbons, Director of Partner Strategy and Programmes at Microsoft UK, concluded: “Partners with Gold status in competencies represent organisations and associated individuals that have demonstrated the highest, most consistent capability and commitment within a targeted business solution area. We are committed to supporting our Gold level partners by enabling them with the right set of tools, training and information that will help them delight our customers through leading edge Microsoft-based solutions and services offerings that address the customer’s technology requirements.  With a Gold competency in Midmarket Solution Provider, Phoenix Software has made an investment in developing their capability to deliver an integrated and customised technology solution to support today’s customer demand.”

We are also Microsoft's largest EdLAR (Education Large Account Reseller) and one of the largest LARs by revenue within the Public Sector in the UK.

Other Microsoft accreditations held by us include the Server Platform Silver Competency, Messaging Silver Competency and Desktop Silver Competency.

Phoenix is also a Microsoft Small Business Specialist and one of only a few Microsoft Cloud Accelerate Partners offering cloud computing services which make it easy to leverage and rapidly deploy familiar Microsoft server products on a flexible subscription licensing basis.

After attending a recent Webex hosted by Microsoft, I am able to pass on the following information relating to the next release of SQL.

SQL 2012 official release date is 'first half of 2012' and with it come some major changes to the licensing.

Datacentre Edition is being retired, the three versions will be Standard, BI and Enterprise. For unlimited virtualisation rights - as previously available with Datacentre Edition, customers will have to purchase Software Assurance with the Enterprise Edition.

Server and CAL licensing model is the only option for BI, Standard is available as Server & CAL and Core, and the only licensing model for Enterprise will be 'Core'. This is replacing the previous options of Server & CAL, or Processor.

 
Don't be - as Microsoft's largest EdLAR (Education Large Account Reseller) and one of the largest LARs by revenue within the public sector in the UK*, Phoenix Software are perfectly placed to provide individual guidance during the transition from Select to Select Plus.
 
To those of you who received an email recently from Microsoft, you will know that as from 1st July 2011 Select Volume Licensing will be replaced by Select Plus - a simpler and more cost effective way for you to manage your Microsoft licences with

• No minimum purchase needed
• The ability to carry your points forward to next year, and
• Offering more value from Software Assurance

Phoenix Software will be providing more information around the practicalities of Select Plus and our Account Managers will be able to provide individual guidance to our customers at the appropriate time. The time at which you will be offered a Select Plus Agreement is dependent upon the end point of your old Select Agreement and these vary greatly from customer to customer.
 
If you have any immediate questions, please contact your Phoenix Account Manager on 0845 265 1265.
 
*Phoenix also hold the Microsoft Volume Licensing Gold Competency

Updated Enterprise Agreement:

Microsoft launched the updated Enterprise Agreement recently which allows customers a mixture of on-premise and online desktops, and the ability to true up and true down between the two. This change will be incorporated into the new Terms and Conditions for the Enterprise Agreement soon but in the interim period this amendment is available for customers to sign. It is important to note that true up details for online products (BPOS and Office 365) are required 30 days PRIOR to anniversary.

Select Plus Changes:

Software Assurance can now be purchased for the remaining amount of months on the agreement.

Any points earned over and above the minimum requirement for that agreement level will roll over to the next year as of 13th February.

The minimum entry level of 500 points has been removed making it much easier for customers to take advantage of this agreement .