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Software Licensing: BSQUARE Renews OEM Distribution Agreement

By Anshu Shrivastava, TMCnet Contributor

BSQUARE (News - Alert) Corp.  has renewed its original equipment manufacturer (OEM) distribution agreement with Microsoft (News - Alert) for the 13th year.

BSQUARE is a provider of production-ready software products, engineering services, solutions and automated testing for smart, connected devices. The renewed agreement calls on the company to continue distributing the complete line of Microsoft Embedded Operating Systems within the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. The new contract is effective from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012.

Additionally, the company will also distribute the entire Microsoft Windows Embedded portfolio in the United Kingdom and Germany and Windows Mobile worldwide.

For OEMs, BSQUAR will now provide licenses for Microsoft Windows Embedded products – Windows Embedded Compact 7, Windows Embedded Server and vertical specific operating systems such as POSReady – thanks to this new agreement.

In addition to third party software licensing, the company will also provide end-to-end product development support including platform consulting, hardware and software development, quality assurance and technical support services. Company officials said that this support will help OEMs, ODMs and enterprises get their products to market faster and with less risk.

"Microsoft has created embedded operating systems that can deliver optimized levels of performance along with longer lifecycles and favorable royalty rates," said Scott Caldwell, vice president of sales for third party licensing at BSQUARE.

Optimization of embedded operating systems can require high levels of expertise and support, meaning that companies must often look outside for resources to implement these solutions, Caldwell noted, adding that BSQUARE is ready to provide this support.

In other industry news, software licensing leader Flexera Software recently hosted a webinar that explored the business challenges that pure-play SaaS (News - Alert) providers face these days. The webinar, titled “Making the Most (Money) with Your SaaS Offering,” focused on SaaS trends and the best practices for licensing, pricing and subscription and entitlement management.