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the perpetual right to run Office 2007 Standard on five machines. Upon SA expiration on November 30, 2007, the firm decides to let its SA lapse. Three years later, the firm wishes to upgrade the five licenses to Office 2010 Standard. Since SA coverage had lapsed, the firm must purchase new Office 2010 Standard licenses (either with or without SA). The firm can never buy back into SA once the coverage has lapsed. VOLUME LICENSING PROGRAMS • Open License (OL): There are a number of options within OL, but, to simplify, it has very minimal requirements and is highly flexible, generally best for an organization of fewer than 150 people. The only requirement is that an initial purchase of five licenses be made on the first order. Following that, additional purchases of as little as a single license may be made under the same agreement for the duration of its term (two or three years). Two of the most common OL programs are Open Business and Open Value: Open Business runs for a two-year term, and it is the firm’s option whether to put SA on each individual license purchased under the program. Open Value runs for a three-year term, and SA on each license is mandatory. • Select Agreement: Select is targeted at organizations with at least 250 people. It provides a deeper level of discount than is offered under Open. Select is a three-year agreement which has minimum target purchase levels of each pool of Microsoft product (Systems, Applications, and Servers respectively). SA is optional under Select. At the agreement’s anniversary date, Microsoft monitors the firm’s level of spend in each product pool and, if the minimum purchase level has not been met, the firm will lose its ability to continue purchasing under Select and will be relegated to purchasing under OL. 22 Best Practices in Licensing Agreements ILTA Report • Enterprise Agreement (EA): An EA is an enterprise-wide commitment to license all qualified systems in an organization (minimum count of 250) with one, two or all three of: Windows desktop OS, Office Professional, Core CAL (suite of the Windows Server CAL, Exchange Standard CAL, Sharepoint Standard CAL, and System Center Configuration Manager Client ML). In doing so, the organization achieves the greatest possible discount with Microsoft. The contract features additional flexibility, such as the ability to deploy software as needed while addressing compliancy only once per year (at the anniversary of the EA). The EA runs for a three-year term, and SA is mandatory on all EA licenses. An additional benefit of the EA is that it entitles the firm to a Select Agreement with no minimum purchases required. This provides the firm the flexibility to purchase some items without Software Assurance if desired. Select Agreements and EAs can only be purchased through Large Account Resellers (LARs), a small group of resellers who make up a large portion of Microsoft’s VL sales. There are additional nuances beyond the aforementioned that may impact a firm’s preferred licensing route. Working closely with a LAR who is specialized in Microsoft licensing is recommended to ensure the most beneficial outcome for the firm from a cost and technology perspective. ILTA JASON BACK is a Microsoft licensing expert with Softchoice Corporation, a North American IT Solution Provider headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Jason advises many Bay Area law firms on technology acquisition. He can be reached at jason.back@softchoice.com.