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Open about Licensing
By Dale Walls
With the arrival of the new Microsoft Vista and Office 2007 products, you may be wondering if you should upgrade or wait until you have new computers to buy. With existing computers with adequate hardware and warranty, it seems unlikely to need to buy new computers just to get the latest in software upgrades.
The next consideration to take is the number of systems that your business has.
If you’re running less than 5 client systems your options are to:
- Replace the system with newer hardware that includes the new software if warranted
- Upgrade core system components and obtain new OEM versions of the software in the process
- Purchase retail upgrades for your computer systems.
For those of you who have 5 or more systems to maintain, it’s time to consider a new, more beneficially way to keep your software on your systems managed and up to date.
With 5 or more systems, Microsoft provides various licensing programs. These programs are adapted to allow business owners to purchase software for their computers, not just with their computers. What many don’t know is that software purchased as OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) is by agreement designed to die with that computer. This means that OEM purchased software or software that came installed on the computer from the manufacturer is not allowed to be transferred from old to new when the older computer reaches its end of life or is replaced. This means that new software needs to be purchased again with the new computer. The problem with having numerous systems and all OEM licensing is that the office is generally not standardized on a consistent platform. For example, an office with 10 computers that were purchased at various times over the past few years from manufactures may have some systems running Office XP and Office 2003, both with various versions such as Professional, Basic, or Small Business editions. This type of licensing is hard to maintain and not easily managed.
To address this challenge, the Microsoft Volume licensing models are available. Again these programs are designed for businesses with 5 or more computers to be licensed and desire to maintain their software under a business license agreement. Microsoft’s Open License and Open Value programs are designed for offices less than 250 desktop systems but more than 5. These programs provide various benefits to include savings on software, training availability, Home-use rights (meaning your employees can use the software on home systems), and the right to run previous versions of the software as necessary.
There are some differences in the Open License and Open Value programs. Both programs have the availability to procure your software with Software Assurance (SA). The SA option is included in the Open Value program and is optional in the Open License program. Software Assurance allows for the inclusion of new version upgrades, technical training, user training, partner services, and technical support for a term of 2 or 3 years respective to the Open License and Open Value program of your choosing. Another difference to note about Open Value compared to the Open License program is that the Value program allows multiple payment options. For example, with this program you can chose to pay for the licensing up front or over a 3 year term. This is sometimes a great advantage for budget flexibility in your licensing model.
With this in mind, you options for the new upgrades are expanded. Rather than waiting until the end of January, Open licensing customers have the availability of Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 products now. Being a part of these licensing model types, we’ve begun the upgrade to the latest products in our office and have been extremely pleased with the compatibility with some of our questionably “no so new” systems. For those of you other there looking to improve your licensing or maybe capitalize on some left over year end funds, look to these Open programs and start standardizing on a license umbrella that will minimize management headaches and provide more benefits in the way of training, upgrades, and support. With new upgrades just coming out, there is no better time than now to capitalize on the benefits of these programs, especially for your office with 5 or more systems.
Dale Walls is President of Corsica Technologies, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner & Small Business providing complete IT Solutions for businesses, government, and home computing in Maryland, DC, and Virginia. Feel free to contact Dale at 443.262.9290, or by email at dale@corsicatech.com.
