A woman who identified herself as "a SAM adviser for Microsoft" explained in an introductory letter, sent in late June, that she was working on a national initiative the software vendor created because it understands the complexity of managing valuable IT assets. Microsoft had identified the distributor as having possible challenges, just as the SAM team had seen with other "strategic" customers, she wrote. The woman, who worked for a third-party firm called SEI Information Technology Inc., suggested that a 30-minute call would be in the distributor's best interest.

But any hint that the SAM team may have revised the heavy-handed pitching tactics that caused some customers to complain to Computerworld during the past two months soon evaporated. The CIO, who asked that he not be identified for fear of retribution, said the SAM adviser turned "very irate" and threatened to call the distributor's CEO when he declined her offer.

"She even was demanding immediate information over the phone on how many licenses we had from certain Microsoft applications," the CIO said. "It's a sneaky tactic, trying to come in under the mask of offering a service to help manage our licenses, when all along it is an audit."

He wasn't the only IT manager left with that impression. Neither was he the first to think that his company had been approached by a sales representative who was working on commission.

The CIO at a Portland, Ore.-based division of a global logistics company who asked not to be named said he asked a Microsoft SAM engagement manager about her compensation package during an introductory phone call last week, when her persistence intensified even after he explained that his operation doesn't have time to participate due to more pressing projects. The CIO said she told him it was a confidential matter.