Volume Licencing for beginners

Cochise...

When we launched Microsoft CRM 3.0 back in December 2005, we changed the way customers purchased licenses and moved to the standard Microsoft volume-license programs. This made it much easier to purchase licences through our worlwide network of Distributors and Large Account Resellers (LAR), but many of my CRM partners are finding it difficult to understand which license options are right for their customers.

We have options for:

• Business & Educational Customers
• Customers with less than or more than 250 PCs
• Upfront payments or installments
• Owned or leased licenses
• Company-wide or add-hoc licenses
• etc...

The license options I can remember off the top of my head are:

• Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)
• Full Packaged Product (FPP)
• Academic FPP
• Student & Teacher
• School Agreement
• Campus Agreement
• Academic Select
• Open
• Open Value
• Open Value Company-Wide
• Open Value Subscription
• Multi-Year Open
• Select
• Enterprise Agreement
• Enterprise Subscription Agreement
• Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA)
• Royalty License Agreement

No wonder there's a lot of confusion out there. I guess that this is the downside of a flexible licensing program, that can meet the needs of the most customers. I have been looking for some resources that can help clear up much of the complexity for people who don't have time to specialise in our licensing options, but who need to understand the licensing impact when designing CRM solutions.

I found a couple of recently recorded webcasts which are pretty easy to understand:

• Momentum Webcast: Microsoft Licensing Briefing: Enterprise Agreement (Level 100)
• Momentum Webcast: Microsoft Licensing Briefing: Open Value (Level 100)

I just watched both of these and things make a little more sense, so I thought I would recommend them to you if you have a couple of spare hours.

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