Before, you may only need three to six months to prepare, but now you might need nine to twelve months. The first six months should be used to make sure you have complete control of what you actually need from Microsoft, and the remaining three to six months should be used to negotiate renewal. A comprehensive (and organized) understanding of your company`s privileges on an extension basis and the actual utilization rate is a critical data set that can be obtained when discussing the actual value of receipt versus fees paid with Microsoft. Ideally, you want to be able to communicate the dollar value associated with under utilization to display the lost value..
