Start the new year right with VMware! Tune in to hear Lindy Christian, VMware’s Channel Engagement Manager, as she discusses the benefits and updates of renewing your VMware subscriptions.
Natalie Lopez: On behalf of VMware and Carahsoft, we would like to welcome you to today's podcast. We're lucky enough to have Lindy Christian, VMware's Channel Engagement Manager, to discuss the benefits and updates of your VMware Renewals. Hi, Lindy.
Lindy Christian: Hi, how are you?
Natalie Lopez: I'm doing great. How are you?
Lindy Christian: I am doing good. We’re doing this on a Friday. And it's just my favorite day of the week. So I'm good.
Natalie Lopez: Oh, I think I can agree with you there. Is it crazy with end of the year for VMware right now?
Lindy Christian: It is crazy. And you know, I know we talked about doing this in December. And I thought, oh, well, you know, end of year it's really busy. And then now January's here and I'm saying, Oh, it's end of quarter now. So it's good. It's one of those things where I feel like it's just, you know, you turn the corner and it's just always busy, but it's good.
Natalie Lopez: I agree. I think it's always in the quarter end of the month, or end of the year or something.
Lindy Christian: Right. It's something, I agree.
Natalie Lopez: Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're lucky to be able to talk to you, you're definitely a superhero on our team. So we appreciate you taking the time to do this today. I want to get into it with. Oh, go ahead.
Lindy Christian: I was just gonna say that is not true. But I'm happy to be here.
Natalie Lopez: No, it's very true. It's definitely escalating it to Lindy is a line that we use here that we know that everything is going to be taken care of. So you are definitely a superhero on our team, for sure.
Lindy Christian: Well, thank you.
Natalie Lopez: You're welcome. Well, I want to get into it with a few questions about renewals. And I wanted to ask you, first off, what are the benefits of maintaining support and subscription?
Lindy Christian: Sure. So I would say maintaining active support and subscription gives customers access to opening an unlimited amount of technical support tickets to assist their team if an issue comes up, they can either open their tickets through a web based or a phone based support option. They also will be maintaining access to all of our online knowledge base articles, some discussion forums with other customers and partners, and then maintaining access to various other technical resources. And then in addition to that, they're eligible to download VMware’s latest bug fixes and upgrades, the new version releases of their products.
Natalie Lopez: That's amazing. It really is like at the end of the day, helping them really making their lives easier.
Lindy Christian: Right.
Natalie Lopez: What happens if a customer is in a situation where their support lapses?
Lindy Christian: Sure, so if the customer doesn't renew their support by the date of expiration, they wouldn't be covered and eligible to open a technical support case and would lose access to those product updates that are available. They would also be responsible for paying for any reinstatement fees, or backdating charges that would be added to their renewal costs starting after date of expiration, you know, we do offer a per incident support on a select group of our products that kind of quickly become more expensive than actually just maintaining their active support and subscriptions. So my recommendation to a customer in this scenario would be to reach out to their preferred VMware partner and their VMware Renewals rep to get assistance and getting the support renewed as quickly as possible.
Natalie Lopez: Yeah, yeah. Is there any grace period? Or is it on the day when, when it ends?
Lindy Christian: So we don't have a grace period on the renewal side? No. So reinstatement fees and backdating charges would automatically be added to the renewal clock cost starting date after expiration, then they would also immediately lose access to like I said, those technical support tickets and then lose the ability to download any updates in their portal. Okay, and then the reinstatement fees are 20% added to what their original cost would have been? Sure the calculation is, it's about 20% of their annual renewal costs, but then when you add on backdating charges, the costs sort of increase the number of days they are expired, right. So we're really depend on when they renew on exactly how much those fees would be. But yes, so you're exactly right. So it's roughly 20% of their annual renewal cost.
Natalie Lopez: And then I want to ask you what enhancements have been made recently for me to get more value out of maintaining support?
Lindy Christian: Oh, this is a great question. And I'm really glad you asked this. So no what I would say is, it's a really exciting time right now at VMware, where we're seeing many of our customers are looking to move to the cloud. And we really see the renewal event as the best time to leverage our new subscription upgrade views to move from a perpetual licensing model to our subscription offers, which wouldn't be an option or wouldn't be available if the customer had allowed their support subscription to expire. And then, you know, another thing I would add to that is that I think sort of as the professional world has become more decentralized in the last couple of years, you know, we've seen remote work become the norm. So maintaining current support really allows customers to effectively manage that challenge by providing on demand support to really the anywhere workplace.
Natalie Lopez: Yeah, yeah, that's great. Yeah, that I completely agree with you that we're moving towards a remote work like world, right? Do you ever happen to have any, like customers that you talk to, that really are educated on renewables, where you've had to explain kind of renewables, like in a very basic form? I know, for me, I've had explained it in the form of like, Amazon renewal, like, like when you get Amazon, and then the next year, you pay that back, where it's kind of like that, but not back?
Lindy Christian: Yeah, no, absolutely. I think we talked to customers and partners all the time, that might not necessarily be, you know, in the know, necessarily on everything VMware Renewals, right. That's what I do every day, I think, you know, it's been this month will be eight years that I've been on the renewals team at VMware. And I mean, it's something like I said, I know every day and I work with every day, but yeah, of course, we talk to customers all the time, and they don't necessarily know everything. So, you know, walking a customer through the basics of this, I feel like that is, you know, pretty normal. So yeah, absolutely.
Natalie Lopez: And then with your eight years being there, what are you excited for looking forward to the next few years? Or what has grown tremendously in the past few years that you've been able to be a part of?
Lindy Christian: Yeah, absolutely. I think it really goes back to something I said a couple minutes ago, which is just kind of our move, and, you know, customers desire to really move to the cloud, and all of our new subscription offerings. So that's something that's really exciting to be a part of, and, you know, just through the last, you know, eight years, I've been in different roles sort of on the team. So I feel like I've seen, you know, different perspectives, you know, I was a renewal rep. And I managed, you know, commercial region, and I, you know, was a federal renewal rep, I moved into the channel role, and so just kind of getting to see different things. So yeah, certainly, you know, really excited to see what the next you know, eight years brings.
Natalie Lopez: Yeah, that's so amazing. No wonder that you are the person that we can go to, because you, you really have seen it all.
Lindy Christian: I always think that until the next day, I get an email, and it's something I've never seen. And I think it's something new every day. I think another reason why I love my role, because I do think, Oh, I've, I've done this, I know what I'm doing. And then as soon as you think that you get something or something hits your desk, and it's brand new, and you're relearning something, so that's exciting, though.
Natalie Lopez: Yes. Well, that's great to hear eight years, and that you have those days too, because so do I. So that's a change that that's never gonna end.
Lindy Christian: Yeah, absolutely. I think we probably all, we all deal with that for sure.
Natalie Lopez: Alright. Well, those are the questions that I had for you. Do you have anything else that you'd like to speak on?
Lindy Christian: I don't, I think, no, I think I'm good on my side.
Natalie Lopez: Okay, well, it was great speaking with you. Lindy, you are such a wealth of knowledge. And I know that, like I said, we can always run to you for us to help anything. And thank you for joining us today.
Lindy Christian: No, thank you guys so much. And I love working with your entire team just as much. So thank you guys so much.
Natalie Lopez: We appreciate that. All right. Thanks for listening. If you'd like more information on VMware Renewals or Carahsoft, please visit us at carahsoft.com or email us at VMwareRenewals@carahsoft.com. Thanks again for listening and have a great day.