Microsoft Licenses

[localzuk]

It is fast approaching the time of year where we have to renew license agreements for Microsoft Software. However, this year we feel that the Schools Agreement won’t be the best solution for us.

 

The reason for this is we no longer wish to run a uniform system across the site – with every machine running MS Office, on Windows XP etc… Instead we now have a split site with thin clients, and Windows XP machines, some which will be running MS Office, and others will be running OpenOffice.

 

What we are thinking of doing is this:

 

70 copies of MS Office

200 copies of MS Windows

100 Terminal Service CALS

300 Windows Server device CALS

5 Windows Server Enterprise Licenses

 

The issue I currently fear is that we’ll go ahead and buy licenses for Vista and 2008 server, and then Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 will be released. So, we need to make sure we have software assurance if that is at all possible.

 

What licensing paths do people advise for this? If we continued with the School Agreement, we'd be hitting about £7500 in licenses I reckon. Which is far too much to be paying yearly.

[ServersPlus]

I'll be happy to get one of our specialist Microsoft licensing guys to give you a call and go through the options with you - PM me your number if you're interested

 

Cheers

[leco]

Yes that time of year again - how does it come round so quickly? I'm a little annoyed though that I've been sent a 90 day reminder but cannot get a price until late July and cannot order until August:(

 

We have a School Agreement that includes Software Assurance, works for us because we run MS throughout. It has meant that we can stay with Office 2003 and XP and only need to move once the newer solutions are steady (er). I do think however, that it is expensive but for peace of mind it's fine.

 

I might add as a rider that we don't have anything like as many devices or pupils as you do.

[dgsmith]

Our's has just been paid and came to £8857! Did take a while to get the "all clear" mind - not surprisingly, and it'll be the same next year of course! How is the cost-per-client worked out? We have the OS, as well as office and exchange cals.

 

We have renewed licences for 340 workstations (which on the up each year)..

[Gatt]

Waiting for my "All Clear" and will be around the 8k mark too

Got til end of June though!

[ServersPlus]

Thanks localzuk, one of our specialists will be in touch with you shortly!

 

If anyone else needs a hand with MS licensing, get in touch - PM me your contact details and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

 

Cheers

[rayfleming]

One of the perennial favourites on our Microsoft UK Schools blog is:

 

How to get the best deal on Microsoft software in Education

 

which draws quite a bit of web traffic from other sites pointing towards it - as well as people coming from Google (other search engines are available ).

 

I have been thinking that it's time to update it, and see how I can make it more helpful.

 

If anybody feels like telling me what you think should be there, then this is an open invitation for feedback!

 

Ray

[localzuk]

One of the perennial favourites on our Microsoft UK Schools blog is:

 

How to get the best deal on Microsoft software in Education

 

which draws quite a bit of web traffic from other sites pointing towards it - as well as people coming from Google (other search engines are available ).

 

I have been thinking that it's time to update it, and see how I can make it more helpful.

 

If anybody feels like telling me what you think should be there, then this is an open invitation for feedback!

 

Ray

 

I've taken a look but it seems like it is missing some information. Namely, information about Software Assurance with Select agreements. I know this is available, but it isn't discussed.

[Soulfish]

One of the perennial favourites on our Microsoft UK Schools blog is:

 

How to get the best deal on Microsoft software in Education

 

which draws quite a bit of web traffic from other sites pointing towards it - as well as people coming from Google (other search engines are available ).

 

I have been thinking that it's time to update it, and see how I can make it more helpful.

 

If anybody feels like telling me what you think should be there, then this is an open invitation for feedback!

 

Ray

 

Information on the differences between how you have to treat Students and Teachers/Staff for licensing things like CALs and the different options we have available would be great.

[rayfleming]

I've taken a look but it seems like it is missing some information. Namely, information about Software Assurance with Select agreements. I know this is available, but it isn't discussed.

 

It was your OP, when you mentioned it, that made me think it needs updating

 

Especially true at the moment, when there's new version around the corner.

[localzuk]

Well... After getting numbers back that made my boss have kittens, we've decided to carry on with Schools Agreement for another year.

 

Microsoft seem to have us over a barrel at the moment!

[localzuk]

I've decided to write a blog post about all this... So, for those interested, http://www.edugeek.net/forums/blogs/localzuk/152-microsoft-licensing.html

[Oops_my_bad]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but with regards to work at home rights for employees of schools with a schools agreement - how does this work? Am I OK to just give staff the same licence key we use from MVLS?

[powdarrmonkey]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but with regards to work at home rights for employees of schools with a schools agreement - how does this work? Am I OK to just give staff the same licence key we use from MVLS?

 

No. The last time I looked at this (about a year ago) you had to buy another pack of media from Microsoft. I don't remember about the license key, I have a feeling it came on the pack.

[dwhyte85]

Your agreement will state... you can install for them and have it setup with the same MLV but you can't distribute the software on CD with the key to staff or students. I think the idea is you can't have a totally stand alone unit (desktop) at home for a teacher with the software but you could do it with a laptop (installation, not distribution).

[rayfleming]

You mentioned Work at Home rights, which allows you to give your staff software to use on their home PC. In discussions with schools, many of them don't use this, because of the obligation on the school to keep a reasonably tight rein on the software - for example, to ensure that staff have removed it if they leave school. And the other issue that comes up is that technically staff are only permitted to use this at home for school work.

 

If you've got a School Agreement, or Campus Agreement, or subscribe to Software Assurance (which means this will apply to a few thousand schools) then there is an alternative way to help staff get Office for home use, and it is a darn sight easier to manage (and more flexible).

 

It's called Home Use Programme, and it allows the school licensing administrator to tick a box on a web page, and then staff go independently to a website and order the Office Enterprise themselves. It costs about £13 per copy, and staff pay with their own credit card, get the software shipped directly to them (and can Microsoft for support, in the same way that they could if they'd bought a retail version).

 

You (the school) are obliged to tell them that they should stop using the software if the school discontinue your School Agreement, or if they leave the employment of the school. But you aren't responsible for managing their licence, and they aren't restricted to only using it for school-related work.

 

You can also place a bulk order, and then distribute to staff. And at the moment, if you order bulk copies on behalf of staff, you pay £6 per copy as long as you order 20 copies. And of course, under this way of buying, you'd probably charge staff for their copy - it's just an easy way to bulk order

 

Blog post, and all the relevant links, are here

[7andY]

I think you'll find that for the MS Select agreement, you have to licence every machine that could run Windows. You don't have the option of just licencing those you will run Windows on. This should include all your Intel-based Apples running MAC OS X...

 

Oh, and stop whingeing about your measly little £8K costs - last year ours was £15K+

 

Cheers, 7&Y

[localzuk]

I think you'll find that for the MS Select agreement, you have to licence every machine that could run Windows. You don't have the option of just licencing those you will run Windows on. This should include all your Intel-based Apples running MAC OS X...

 

Oh, and stop whingeing about your measly little £8K costs - last year ours was £15K+

 

Cheers, 7&Y

 

You do not have to license every computer you could run windows in with Select agreement. You only have to license the ones you want to run the software on.

 

The MS Schools Agreement has the requirement that you license all the machines that could run Windows.

 

Also, I bet your school is a lot larger than ours, namely a secondary with equivalent levels of secondary funding. We are a middle school, so have 2 years of secondary and 2 of primary. So a lot less funding...

[CyberNerd]

The MS Schools Agreement has the requirement that you license all the machines that could run Windows.

 

I recall MS retracted that clause after Becta complained to office of fair trading

n October 2007 Becta complained to the UK competition regulator – the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) - alleging:

 

* anti-competitive licensing practices by Microsoft in the schools software marketplace

 

About Becta - Becta refers its interoperability complaint to the European Commission - Becta

Edited May 21, 2009 by CyberNerd

[localzuk]

I recall MS retracted that clause after Becta complained to office of fair tradingto Trading standards

 

About Becta - Becta refers its interoperability complaint to the European Commission - Becta

 

Not according to every Microsoft licensing reseller I have spoken to. The clause still stands - MS Schools Agreement = Every computer *capable* of running Windows. (Not including ones sat on shelves and not being used at all etc...)

 

The only odd one is Terminal Server CALs. If you are like us, with 100 thin clients, which won't run XP/Vista/7 then you would think you wouldn't have to license them to use it, but the rule is that if we want to use Office on them, then we also have to pay for the Xp/Vista license too. If we don't want to run Office, then we don't have to pay for the extra 100 XP/Vista licenses.

[CyberNerd]

Not according to every Microsoft licensing reseller I have spoken to. The clause still stands - MS Schools Agreement = Every computer *capable* of running Windows. (Not including ones sat on shelves and not being used at all etc...)

 

 

ouch.

Our thin clients are 1.6Ghz atom mobos with 2GB ram. I guess that puts them into the MSTax bracket.

 

Any chance you can link me to a document that says about the TC's:

but the rule is that if we want to use Office on them, then we also have to pay for the Xp/Vista license too.

I thought I just needed an MSOffice licence for each device I wanted to run MSOffice on. Surely not an XP/Vista license as well if I already have a TS Device CAL and an Office Licence ??

[localzuk]

ouch.

Our thin clients are 1.6Ghz atom mobos with 2GB ram. I guess that puts them into the MSTax bracket.

 

Any chance you can link me to a document that says about the TC's:

 

I thought I just needed an MSOffice licence for each device I wanted to run MSOffice on. Surely not an XP/Vista license as well if I already have a TS Device CAL and an Office Licence ??

 

This is what I've been told by 3 MS sellers now - all having had to check with the MS licensing team about it.

 

It is the same as with any license under MS Schools. eg. You want to run Encarta and Office, you have 200 desktops and 100 thin clients connecting to a farm of 2k3 servers you would need:

 

300 Windows Desktop Licenses

300 Office Licenses

300 TS Cals

300 Server CALs

300 Encarta licenses

 

ie. you have to include the TS's in the count if you intend to run them with any software...

[torledo]

You do not have to license every computer you could run windows in with Select agreement. You only have to license the ones you want to run the software on.

 

localzuk, do you have any information on how software assurance can be purchased when MS licences are purchased from the local authority, who obviously tend to have an existing enterprise/select agreement in place.

 

Presumably software assurance is purchased at the point they buy from their suppliers and the LA alone receive the relevant registration details/PIN numbers [whatever is provided to allow registration on the MVLS site], but not provided the individual school purchasing the licensing. Is that correct ?

 

How do schools who purchase through their LA's get software assurance on the licenses they purchase ?

 

And if they can get SA via LA licensing purchases do these still provide free upgrade to next version rights ?

[CyberNerd]

@localzuk

Does this only apply to MSSchools agreement - If I had bought MSOffice and TSCAls on a perpetual license, would I also need the XP/Vista.

 

Are you sure the MSresellers are not just trying for some extra commission, it just doesn;t sound right/legal to me.

[localzuk]

How do schools who purchase through their LA's get software assurance on the licenses they purchase ?

 

And if they can get SA via LA licensing purchases do these still provide free upgrade to next version rights ?

 

I'm afraid I have no idea, we don't purchase things through our LA. What I was told regarding the Select Agreement stuff I looked at though is that the Select Agreement deals for schools is under a master contract held by Becta (which runs out in Sept), and the contract schools and LAs purchase into is actually a sub-contract of that Becta one. So, it should be set up with its own agreement number etc... to use via the MS Licensing site. The access to it from an LA contract would be down to the LA to deal with I guess.

 

@localzuk

Does this only apply to MSSchools agreement - If I had bought MSOffice and TSCAls on a perpetual license, would I also need the XP/Vista.

 

Are you sure the MSresellers are not just trying for some extra commission, it just doesn;t sound right/legal to me.

 

Yes, this only applies to Schools Agreement. Select licenses are completely separate. And yes, I'm sure they're not just trying to get more commission. It doesn't sound right, because it isn't - that's why Becta have reported them to the OFT...