Microsoft Schools agreement

[Face-Man]

Hi,

 

We have Microsoft Schools Agreement, long story but it covers the cost of CALs, Upgrades and Office . It's up for renewal and I've negotiated it down to 24.75 per computer. I was wondering if anybody has it any cheaper... (I know Open source but rome wasn't built in a day... first moodle then the world....)

[Ric_]

When I first looked into the MS Schools Agreement I found that it would only really be cost effective if we were always going to use the most up to date versions of the software. This would require up to date systems (obviously) which isn't always viable in a school environment - some of my machines at the time were 5 years old!

 

My calculations at the time helped me work out that it would be equivalent to replacing the licenses approx. every three years - this was using Open Licensing rather than the cheaper Select licensing that is now available to schools from Ramesys, Pugh and LEAs.

 

Anyway... long story short, work out whether it might be cheaper to buy the licenses rather than enter into an Agreement.

[Disease]

We have an SLA for Windows, Office, visio and frontpage including encarta.

 

Cost me 7k a year.

 

We keep our machines under a year old (well theguts of them anyway).

[ArnieJ]

Ours was £23.45 / PC last year.

[alonebfg]

we go for the select agreement as i have found microsoft only relice new software about ever 4 years for us to keep up to date is a waist of time. so we buy the licence it its about £2 more expencive but i dont have to pay every year only when we want new ones and updated software.

[localzuk]

Wow, I just checked what we have been paying and it is £27.41 per machine. Time to investigate other suppliers I think, or push for a reduction from our current supplier. However, is the price you all pay due to you having lots of machines in your schools? We have 162 machines and get that price.

[DMcCoy]

Prices went up due to level changes (2500 points to 2500 machines is rather different).

[Paid_Peanuts]

I am currently investigating the renewal of our Schools Agreement and trying to find the most cost effective way of moving forward.

 

Our scenario is we have 1050 machines we have to licence - all running Windows XP with Office 2003.

Pretty basic stuff, we then licence a few server 2003 licences, SCOM07, MOSS07, ISA2006 all on the same schools agreement.

 

We have been quoted £26.58 for our Desktop all languages (C28-0002) licences totalling £27,909

 

Which to me seems expensive as this is an ongoing cost annually.

We have no plans on upgrading any of the server/workstation operating systems nor do we plan to move to Office 2007.

 

Can any one suggest a more suitable licencing situation? If we have to pay a few more quid for the licences now rather then paying/leasing the licences again next year then we would do that.

 

Can people also let me know how much their licence renewal cost is for C28-0002?

 

Thanks in advance

[Edu-IT]

Have you looked at Pugh? They're meant to be quite good for licenses.

[Paid_Peanuts]

I hadn't come accross them before - any one with any views on how to proceed with the licences?

[CyberNerd]

any one with any views on how to proceed with the licences?

 

buY them outright. MS schools agreement is a rip off, everyone knows it. Becta reported them to the Office of Fair trading (sidetracking, but interestingly the national consumer council is slating EULAs http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7252707.stm)

 

Becta's advice to schools considering moving to Microsoft's School Agreement subscription licensing model is that they should not do so

 

http://news.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=34425&page=1658&catID=1633

[sahmeepee]

But that's advice for schools considering moving to Microsoft's School Agreement, and not of much use to many schools which are already in the agreement.

 

If schools have already entered into a School Agreement licensing model they should consider their renewal and their buyout options alongside any findings the OFT may make.

 

Unfortunately this excellent guidance from BECTA came about 4 years too late. I seem to remember BECTA blowing their trumpets about the excellent deals they'd got for us on schools agreements not so many moons ago. The pricing hasn't changed much for desktops over the last few years judging by our payments to The Man.

[Ric_]

I use Ramesys and have been very happy. Select licensing by the way... you probably will end up with Office 2007 licenses for all your machines so you may as well move to that. I'm not sure whether the Server 2008 licenses are available yet so put it off until the very last minute if possible or go for software assurance for a year just to maximise your investment.

[Geoff]

Select license from Ramesys here too.