Microsoft has introduced new software licences designed to harmonise terms between countries.

At its annual Worldwide Partner Conference in Minneapolis the software giant announced that from October its volume licensing programmes for small and medium-sized companies will be merged into one.

The new Open Value programme will combine the Multi-Year Open spread-payment and Open Subscription Licence scheme.

Microsoft said that it has united terms as far as is possible, and removed unnecessary jargon from contracts, reducing the size of agreements by half.

"The terms and conditions are effectively the same but the way they are written may be different between regions for translation and legal reasons," said Mark Buckley, Microsoft's UK licensing marketing manager. "We want it be like the Mini [car] where, wherever you are, you know what you are buying."

The firm has also introduced Microsoft Financing to help buyers and partners acquire software on easy terms. It can be used to fund hardware, services and third-party software as well as to purchase Microsoft products.

The new measures are part of a push to make it easier for small firms and departmental buyers to buy Microsoft products. As part of that, Microsoft also recently introduced a bundle of Windows, Office and other key applications.