Well, I am now “Empowered”! Yep, I applied for and received the Microsoft Empower program for ISVs. Much to my surprise, it was fairly easy and had no hitches, applied on Thursday and had an email about being accepted on Saturday morning. Just waiting for the MSDN subscription to become valid (says up to 72 hours). I had heard of people having problems in the past, but at least for us, it was a simple matter. Categorizing your product is a bit rough if it is not targeted to a specific business sector.
For those that are not familiar with the Empower program, it is an offering from Microsoft for ISV (independent software venders) to have all the tools you need for a year to run your small business and develop your product. The cost is only $375 per year and you can have up to two years if needed.
For the fee, you get a one year license for up to 5 users of:
- Vista Business, Enterprise or XP
- MS Office 2007 or MS Office 2003
- MSDN Premium Subscription (dev tools, OS's, servers, etc)
One license with 5 CALs of:
- Windows Server 2003 (Standard or Enterprise)
- Exchange Server 2003 (Standard or Enterprise)
- SQL Server 2005 (Standard or Enterprise)
- Office Sharepoint Server 2007 or 2003
And ten hours of phone-based consultative service for helping you developing products for MS technologies.
That is quite a bit of bang for your buck! As I mentioned, the license is valid for one year at which time it will end unless you renew for a second year or move to a Certified Microsoft Partner program or Gold membership (yeah, those Gold Member jokes ;) ). They offer similar packages at a much reduced price from what you would normally pay.
While this is not Team Suite, it is enough for most ISVs to run their business. At at only $375 per year for up to two years....
Anyway, we are planning to release Microsoft certified a program this fall which we hope to have in the Microsoft Marketplace directory. Only time will tell how well this turns out, but it is a nice start. Should have done this a long time ago! Can give you one hint though, the product will be called “Reflected Thought”. I know, it sounds more like a blog title, but it will fit the product ;)
http://empower-isv.one.microsoft.com/isv/programguide/