When a Microsoft salesman dropped by IT consultant Westcon Group's Tarrytown(N.Y.)headquarters for around of negotiations in late 2008, Westcon's chief information officer, William Hurley, decided he had had enough. "I'm sick of this," he said to the sales rep, complaining of the high costs of buying and maintaining Microsoft's broad portfolio of business software. "I don't want to do this anymore."rnMuch to Hurley's surprise, the rep offered alternatives. Within weeks, Hurley agreed to receive a new version of Exchange-the back-office software that makes corporate e-mail systems run-for a monthly fee, with Microsoft maintaining the bulky program and data on its own servers. The deal promised to save the company hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in hardware, software, and IT personnel costs. "This is a very different Microsoft than it was two or three years ago," says Hurley.
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