In a bid to woo small and medium businesses (SMBs), Microsoft India has announced a new trade-in scheme, offering them an opportunity to exchange legacy hardware and use the proceeds to buy credit on Microsoft’s cloud service Windows Azure.
Making the announcement on the sidelines of the ongoing two-day Azure Conference here , the company said that currently Mumbai-based JustDispose is the authorised hardware recycle partner for making an assessment of the value of existing hardware. After the assessment is made based on residual value, the SMB can use proceeds to obtain monthly credit based on an upfront initial commitment, the company said.
This is the first time Microsoft has come up with such an offer for any business segment across the global geographies the company operates in, said Karan Bajwa, MD, Microsoft India.
Microsoft had announced that the Azure platform is picking up among businesses in India. Mr. Bajwa said that at the highest tier (the highest level of quality of hardware traded in), credits offered will be enough to pay 50 per cent of the upfront value. He clarified that Microsoft defines as SMB any organisation that has up to 250 PCs.