Open Value License Plan

By Joshua Erdman
Digital Foundation, inc.

Open Value V. 2 is provides the easiest way to manage your licenses compared to the other Open License plans. It incorporates the ease of membership that came with Open Business and Open Volume but also includes value added features. It does require that you pay for Software Assurance, but SA is much more than just upgrades.

Employee Home Use

Open Value has a special employee purchase plan that allows employees to obtain a free Home Use license of the office productivity software they use at work provided that the employer keeps the Software Assurance Subscription up to date. The employee must pay a small media charge to obtain the software. The software available in the Home Use Program includes:

Microsoft Office Suite
InfoPath
OneNote
Project
Publisher
Visio

Benefits

This program provides added flexibility for remote and home office employees. With a free Home Use License, employee productivity and learning curves are enhanced. The program also ensures compatibility of documents created at work and at home.

Home Use Program License Liability

The employer is also protected against any illegal activity by the employee with the Home Use Software. The employee is solely held responsible for any illegal activity with the software they possess (such as illegal distribution) and it is the employee's responsibility to stop using the software if the employer cancels the Software Assurance Subscription with Microsoft.

Training Credits

Microsoft awards companies with training credits that can be used to send key employees to professional training seminars. Companies can accrue more training credits over time as they buy more licenses.

Employee Purchase Program

If the Employer purchases software using the Company Wide option, employees are given discounts of up to 30% on dozens of Microsoft Products for personal use.

Clue: Open Value is a great program for any company looking to upgrade all their software. The learning credits alone help with the learning curve and future costs are reduced because then the company is only paying for the renewal of software assurance and not the licenses themselves. Many businesses like this because it allows them to plan an annual budget for their software costs.

Payments

You can choose to make 3 annual payments for your Open Value licenses. This turns licensing more into a service expense instead of a company asset. It also helps you streamline your software spending.

Management

What makes the management of the Open Value Plan so much better are the Desktop Pro and Desktop SBS license packages. Instead of juggling the correct number of licensing for Office, Windows and all your CALs (Windows Server, Exchange, SMS, SBS CALs and Share Point) you can get all this wrapped up in the Desktop Pro or Desktop SBS Licenses which also includes a nice discount ~23%.

Digital Foundation, inc is a Microsoft Software Advisor and Value Added Reseller of all Microsoft Software. If you are interested in purchasing Open Value Licenses or need consultation for Microsoft Licensing, please visit:
http://www.digitalfoundation.net to contact us.

Article last reviewed: 06/10/2008

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Created by: Digital Foundation, inc.

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