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Gives clients the ability to "test" and become familiar with the new Office Application program which allows users to compare the benefits of the new program with older versions that they may have intended to use.

Creates a price comparison against "retail" products and further demonstrates the cost savings a consumer can achieve by purchasing Office from the System Integrator.

Allows the dealers clients the opportunity to purchase Office up to 60 days after they bought their system and still receive integrator pricing levels.

                                                          Office Ready – “Why Should I care”

There are many advantages to offering Office Ready pre-installed on systems as a means of   helping resellers increase revenue through additional software sales. The simple truth is that one way or another Microsoft will get the sale for Office, but which reseller segment makes the sale is the key question? Today, even though most BTO systems ship with an OS (Over 90%), very few ship with Office (Less then 25%) so there is a tremendous opportunity for the SI channel to leverage Office Ready as a resource to help them ultimately sell the application rather then having the customer go elsewhere for the product.

                                                          A Few Notes to Keep in Mind

The overwhelming majority of users who purchase a BTO system will ultimately pay a much higher price and buy their Office product from retail or on line e-tail.

Resellers that create marketing programs and sales strategies around Office Ready will be much more successful at increasing their Office attach rates and improving their revenue streams.

                                                          Unlocking Office Ready

With a trial sample our customers have the ability to let their clients try the latest version of Office 2007 for 60 days and when they are ready to buy, they simply go back to their reseller who purchases a Microsoft License Kit or MLK from ASI and then uses the Activation Code from the MLK to unlock the users software. It’s an easy process but the critical element is to make sure the end customer knows that Office Ready is pre-installed on the system otherwise they reseller may not know the product was included and the reseller would have miss the opportunity to introduce the customer to the value of Office 2007.

                                                          Additional Advantages of Pre-Installing Office

      1.       Resellers can better demonstrate the value of Office 2007 and ultimately increase the likelihood the user will purchase Office from their reseller

2. The product is already installed so there is no additional set up time for the reseller which means there is no additional labor cost associated with the sale

3. Microsoft provides technical support to the end user for 90 days after the product is activated which is during the time when they are mostly to need it so this helps reduce the resellers support costs.

Product	MSF Selling Price	ASI Dealer Price	Delta	Office Software
Office Professional 2007	$499.95	$299	$200.95	Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, Contact Manager, Access
Office Small Business 2007	$449.95	$225	$224.95	Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Outlook – Most Popular Package
Office Standard 2007	$399.95	NA		Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook – Offer SB 2007 for less and it includes Publisher
Office Home Student 2007	$149.95	$116	$33.95	Word, Excel, PowerPoint, One Note

Please Do Not Install Office Ready

There may be reasons that a customer does not want Office Ready installed on their notebook such as in cases where they may be using a different set of applications or they have a corporate or educational license. In these cases as well as others, if your customers do NOT want Office Ready pre-installed, please type a note on your order to tell production to not install the Office product.