Microsoft readies more volume-license portal updates

Microsoft is readying new features and tweaks for its Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) portal, company officials said on September 1.

The VLSC changes will be incorporated in November, 2010, according to a new post on the Microsoft Partner SMB Community blog.

The VLSC is the place where Microsoft customers and designated partners can view their licensing information, download Microsoft software and manage their licensing subscriptions.

Among the November VLSC changes, which Microsoft execs said are the result of partner and customer feedback:

• Offline access to licensing and relationship summaries
• Enhancements to the "Add Open License" functionality introduced in April 2010. Specifically, resellers will be granted automatic access to the authorization/license in the VLSC if their business e-mail address is included on the Open order form as the reseller. But customers also can request resellers be denied access to their accounts via a one-click link on an e-mail notification.

Microsoft will provide more details and training on the changes in October, officials said.

Last December, Microsoft was hit with complaints about VLSC site-access problems that took Microsoft months to resolve. Microsoft ended up making a number of changes and rolling them out in April, 2010, in the form of a new VLSC platform. In August, customers were again up in arms over VLSC downtime, which Microsoft attributed to some platform changes taking longer than expected to roll out.

Microsoft is working on more substantial changes to its volume-licensing agreements and infrastructure in order to reflect how customers are licensing Microsoft cloud-computing wares. But new licensing agreements reflecting these shifts aren't likely to debut until some time after mid-2011, company officials said earlier this year.