what kind of microsoft software licencing do you use

im looking to try and sort out our software licencing from microsoft
what kinds does everyone esle use
select
campus agreements

i have heard that they have changed the campus agreement and now you need to tell them what you might want to use in the future.

i have never understood thier licencing much and am hoping for some pointers from you guys,

We use Select. It seems to be the simplest and definately the best value for money.

Since ours is a very small school (50 pcs total) we use Academic Open licensing.

Select?

Select agreements /School agreements are the same as Academic Open Licensing.

Basically there are two ways of buying licenses.

Outright purchase or rental
With Select/School agreements you tell MS how many of each product you want and you get a volume license key. Throughout the term of the agreement you can use this to install new machines and replacement machines so your install base can grow without worrying about licenses.

At renewal - you update the number of each product which sets the price for the next term and off you go again.

With outright purchase - you buy the product and that is it.

The main advantage in my opinion of select is that you do not have to worry about licensing on a day to day basis. The two licensing models work out to be about the same over a three year period, BUT, and here is the important bit.... With Select you can also have something called Software Assurance which means you AUTOMATICALLY are licensed for the latest version of the product. This means you can implement it when you are ready.

With outright purchase you have to replace the existing license with the new version. This makes it more difficult to budget and you end up falling behind on licensing.

From experience - it is better to make changes a little at a time rather than all at once. Select allows you to do this. With outright purchase it is not as easy because you are hitting senior management with a big bill so they are less likely to say yes.

thanks Andy
that was easy for my little brain to understand
we have a select agreement and i recently installed 2 off windows server 2003 ent, does that mean i have 3 years ( the term of the select agreement ) to buy those licences or do i need to update each year?
Also if i have 3 years to buy the licences i use whats to stop me from running office 2003 and then updating to 2007 and just buying those licences or do microsoft just expect us to be fair
Taz

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Originally Posted by misterbusy-2

thanks Andy
that was easy for my little brain to understand

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You are welcome

Quote:

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Originally Posted by misterbusy-2

we have a select agreement and i recently installed 2 off windows server 2003 ent, does that mean i have 3 years ( the term of the select agreement ) to buy those licences or do i need to update each year?

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You update the figures on renewal (in your case 3 years) - no need to worry until then.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by misterbusy-2

Also if i have 3 years to buy the licences i use whats to stop me from running office 2003 and then updating to 2007 and just buying those licences or do microsoft just expect us to be fair
Taz

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It depends. If you have a select agreement with Upgrade Assurance - then - absolutely nothing - you are paying for Microsoft Office - period - not the version.

If it does not include Upgrade Assurance then you will be licensed for the product AND the version. Therefore it will catch up with you at some point.
Two select agreements are pointless - in fact I am not sure you will be able to have two on the MS System - so you are probably talking about a mixture of full product and Select for that scenario to happen. I have seen this when people are moving from full purchase to select, but not the other way round.