Microsoft’s ‘Give Me 5’ Promotion – Trick or Treat?

Halloween is approaching and this year I’m excited to get to participate again in the fun tradition of trick-or-treating. I hope my neighbors won’t mind that my 6-month old can’t actually partake in the goodies (mom & dad will have to help with that!). Microsoft has joined in the fall fun by announcing a treat for new Microsoft Dynamics^® ERP customers: the ‘Give Me 5’ promotion. Let’s examine this offer and determine if it is in fact a treat, or just a trick.

Offer Details:

With the ‘Give Me 5′ offer, you get 5 users of Microsoft Dynamics ERP (Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL or Microsoft Dynamics NAV) for one low price of $3,000 — up to an 85% discount off the regular license price!  The offer is available to all new customers and is effective October 3, 2011 through June 22, 2012.

TRICK-

• One caveat of the promotion is you are required to purchase a one year Business Ready Enhancement Plan (BREP). The enhancement/support plan fee will be calculated on the system list price of all users and components based on the regular Microsoft Dynamics price list.
• Another requirement is you must buy at least 5 users to get the discount.  Orders with fewer than 5 users will be licensed per regular Microsoft Dynamics price list prices. So if your company only needs a few users, you’ll still have to purchase some that you might not use.
• The promotion is not available for Microsoft Dynamics AX. 
• The offer can’t be combined with other promotions.

-OR-TREAT:

• The greatest benefit of this promotion is that it provides an extremely low cost of entry for an advanced system.  In our experience working with companies evaluating new ERP systems, price is often a barrier. There is a substantial price jump from entry-level accounting systems like QuickBooks, to moving to an ERP system like Microsoft Dynamics GP. There isn’t much available at a price point in-between the two, making it too big of a leap for some companies to make.  Therefore, many companies postpone moving to a new ERP system even though they are in dire need of one.  The ‘Give Me 5’ promotion helps remove the price barrier and allows companies to move to a new system faster, fostering growth rather than waiting until their existing system is so painful that they can’t properly run their business and are forced to switch.
• Another treat is that the offer is available for both the Business Essentials and Advanced Management editions, so even if you have more advanced needs, you can still utilize this offer.  The $3,000 price is the same for both editions.
• The promotion is available longer (through June 22, 2012), allowing you time to evaluate Microsoft Dynamics thoroughly and to make sure it is a good fit for your business needs.  Historically, Microsoft promotions for ERP have been shorter in length, making it difficult to take advantage of the offer without making a rash decision.  That said; make sure you start your evaluation now as it usually takes longer than you think to evaluate a new business system.
• The offer is also available for a Cloud ERP deployment.  If you prefer a hosted model instead of on-premise, you can still take advantage of this offer.  It is a little different than the typical hosting purchase as you would need to purchase the users up front to get the promotion price,  then pay a monthly fee for the hosting.  This means you would own the licenses rather than rent them and also get the benefits of ERP in the Cloud.

Overall I think the ‘treats’ outweigh the ‘tricks’ of this offer.  The discounted price is such a great deal and one of the best offers I’ve seen in the 9 years I’ve been working in the industry. View this ‘Give me 5’ Promotion flyer for further details, or contact The Resource Group to learn more.

By Ann Haucke, The Resource Group – Seattle, Washington Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner