I wrote a couple of articles last week griping about Live Meeting issues, so it's only fair that I balance it by noting something positive this week.
Neal Sipress over at KRM Information Services called my attention to this pricing page on the Microsoft web site.
Holy cow! When did these prices get implemented? I haven't looked at Live Meeting pricing in a while, so this could be old news, but it definitely marks a change from their historical pricing model.
For a minimum purchase of 5 meeting organizer licenses, each organizer can schedule unlimited numbers of meetings per month with a 1,250 participant capacity (per meeting). It also includes 360 days of hosted meeting archives. All for $15.42 per user per month. Let's see... At a five user minimum package, that's $77.10/month or $925.20/year. Less than Citrix GoToWebinar (my pricing benchmark for low-cost, large-capacity hosted webinar technology from a major name).
That's one heck of a deal if you are looking for large webinar capacity with one of the big name, full featured webinar packages.
I called the Microsoft sales line and talked to George Story. He confirmed my interpretation of the pricing, but also added a few things not highlighted on the web site. You must purchase an annual license... There is no month-to-month usage option. And all sales are contracted through reseller partners (Premiere Global is one example that he named). Even if you fill out the online order form on the Microsoft site you'll be turned over to a partner for order fulfillment.
Is this a loss-leader attempt to grab market share? Why aren't they promoting the heck out of it? Only the Microsoft marketing team knows for sure.
