Microsoft Licensing Update for Small Business

With the release of Windows 2003 as there is now an excellent opportunity for small businesses to take advantage of the savings available with Microsoft Open Licensing purchases.

Do I need to even think about this ?

Well, if you have less than 5 licenced Microsoft software products in your business this opportunity will not affect you at all. (each copy of an operating system or application package counts as a licenced product).

For example: If you operate two computers, each with a copy of MS Windows and MS Office, you have a total of 4 licenced products - therefore, Microsoft Open Licensing does not apply to your existing software and you will be able to buy retail upgrades to the software as before.

So what is this opportunity all about ?

In simple terms, you can save a great deal of money when purchasing your Microsoft operating system and applications software. Most small businesses that have bought computers pre-loaded with Microsoft software, have never bothered to talk to a Microsoft Certified Partner in the past, you have simply bought software upgrade packages as you have seen the need arise. Well, with Microsoft Open Licensing there are some major changes:

• Unless you are enrolled in a licensing scheme volume discounts will no longer be available
• Unless you are enrolled in a licensing scheme volume upgrades will no longer be available
• If you have a copy of Small Business Server you gain automatic entry to the Open licence scheme
• If you have more than 5 Microsoft licenced products you gain automatic entry to the Open licence scheme

So what do I need to decide ?

Well, the simple decision is whether or not to enter an Open licence agreement for your company.

So what is Open licence ?

Open licence is a scheme which provides discounts on volume purchases of Microsoft software licence, note Open licence does not include the actual CDROMs and Manuals, you must decide how many copies of these media packs you need in your organisation and buy them at the same time. Therefore, a company may choose to buy 15 Windows XP Professional and 15 Office XP licence, with a single media pack of CDROMs held by IT staff and 5 manuals, held in a library for reference. But the total cost of that purchase will be considerable less than buying 15 retail packs of the products.

But what about upgrades in the future ?

Well, once again you need to make a decision - how often may we want to upgrade our software ?
If you are unlikely to want to upgrade your software in the next 3-4 years, once again you can simply do nothing. However, if you are thinking of upgrading either your Windows or Office software in the next 3-4 years, then you should consider purchasing Software Assurance. However, there is a special opportunity available at present:

If you buy your Windows 2003 Server licences now, you can also use Windows 2000 Server (under downgrade rights) until you are ready to migrate to Windows 2003; but, the licences are valid for the whole 7 year product life of Windows 2003 Server.

So what is Software Assurance ?

In simple terms, Software Assurance (SA) is a 2 year 'insurance policy' against obsolete software. Once you have purchased SA for a licence you are entitled to use the latest version of the product, any prior versions of the product, and obtain free upgrades to the product for the whole 2 year period, this is a really good pacakge for Microsoft Office applications software purchases.

For example: You have 5 computers, currently running Windows 2000 Professional and Office 2000. If you purchase SA you can upgrade the software on those systems, as and when you need to, for no further licensing charges throughout the 2 year period.

But hang on - you said do I want to upgrade within 3-4 years and SA is for only 2 years ?

Yes, well spotted! But, the pricing of SA versus the full licence costs outside SA means that if you are thinking of upgrading in 3 years time, two lots of 2 year SA is cheaper!

OK - How do I get these new licence ?

You talk to us, or any other Microsoft supplier, and we can help you through the decision process.

Fine, what about costs ?

Well, to give you a feel for the costs we have estimated the licensing fees due for a typical small business network -

• Small Business Server 2000 with 5 Client Access Licences
• 5 Windows XP clients
• 5 Office XP packages

The comparative pricing between using Open Licences purchases to obtain your software and buying full packages for every system is shown below:

Notes:

1. If you already own Windows NT4 Workstation licences the price is reduced.

2. Software Advantage is not included in any of the Retail Package pricing, so that would be an additional cost.

3. This summary is the opinion of Eurocomp and may not be fully consistent with any current or future Microsoft policy changes, for full information please visit the Microsoft website.

4. Prices shown here are illustrative, ex-VAT and are subject to change.