Re: "Microsoft will provide standard support for self-service purchasers."
@Ken - until the user has built a significant chunk of business around "his" apps, probably bypassing the proper tools and processes on the way. When the sales director comes along and complains that the self-purchased apps he uses to "manage" his teams' orders no longer work after the last update and the year-end figures are at risk then, trust me, the support will be local, fast and IT will get the blame for not managing things properly.
(This is based on a real situation I was hired to fix in an FMCG co. after a combination of a NetSuite update and someone leaving borked the macro-tastic Excel system the sales team used to manage orders because they "didn't like" Netsuite. The sales team believed then, and probably still do, that this was all someone else's fault.)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
