Microsoft Select License is a flexible, volume-based, transactional program that offers a simple way to acquire licenses at a competitive price based on your volume forecast. It is the ideal choice for business and government organizations with 250 or more PCs, mixed Microsoft product requirements, decentralized purchasing and the ability to forecast purchases over the course of the three-year term of the agreement.

Benefits

• Convenience - Select License offers a simple transaction model for ordering licenses.
• Flexibility - You simply acquire and pay for your Licenses and optional Software Assurance on an as-needed basis.
• Compliancy - Select License provides you with a secure website to track your license purchase history.

Select License - How it Works:

• Minimum of 250 PCs
• Volume discount with flexible, as-needed ordering
• Perpetual licenses with optional Software Assurance
• SHI provides pre and post-sales support and you purchase your licenses from SHI directly

Microsoft Select Agreement

• Duration - 3 years
• Determines the product pools and license levels
• Can be renewed for an additional one or three years

Microsoft Select Enrollment

• After you have signed an Agreement, you can sign an Enrollment at any time during the three-year term.
• Purchases placed under the Enrollment will count toward the forecast determined by the Agreement.
• Choose a single Enrollment or multiple Enrollments so each affiliate, department or subsidiary can have it's own.

Forecasting Your Points

Qualification for Select License is determined by a forecast of the number of products in each product pool that you plan to purchase throughout the term of the agreement. Over the term of the agreement, a minimum of 1,500 points must be forecast for each product pool, with at least one third fulfilled each year.

Every product in a particular pool is assigned a point value. In some cases, a single license is worth more than one point. If a license is worth two points, for example, this does not mean that you will own two separate licenses. It simply means that two points will be received toward the forecast requirement. If the minimum number of points cannot be forecast for a particular product pool, that pool will not be covered under the Select agreement.

If you are able to forecast a larger number of points, you may be entitled to greater discounts for a particular pool. There are four discount levels, listed below with the corresponding point requirement:

It is possible that you will be able to forecast a different number of points for each product pool. In that case, you may have a different level for your applications than you will for your servers, for example. This is completely allowable under Select License.

Overview of Microsoft License Offerings and Product Pools

Here are the license offerings that are available under Academic Select:

• License only (L) - Gives you the rights to the current version of a particular product.
• License and Software Assurance (L & SA) - Gives you the rights to the current version of a particular product, as well as eligibility for the most current version of the product released during the term of your agreement. Customers who choose Software Assurance Membership (SAM) to receive the additional benefits of SA must purchase SA on all of their licenses.
• Software Assurance (SA) - Enables you to always be eligible for the most current version of the product released during the term of your agreement. Can only be purchased without a license under one of the following conditions:
  • May be purchased within 90 days of the purchase of the current version of a server or system license from a retail package or OEM.
  • May be purchased within 90 days of the purchase of an Office System OEM license.
  • May be purchased as a renewal to your existing SA coverage.

Qualification for Academic Select licensing is determined by a forecast of the number of products in each product pool that you plan to purchase throughout the term of the agreement. The three product pools are:

• Applications - For desktop application products such as Office, Excel, Project, etc.
• Systems - For desktop operating systems such as Windows Vista (These are only available as upgrade licenses under Microsoft volume licensing. New licenses must be acquired either via OEM licenses or full package product.)
• Servers - For products that run on a network server such as Windows Server and Exchange Server. Client Access Licenses (CALs) for the server products are also included in this pool.

Software Assurance Benefits

In addition to new version rights and the ability to spread payments, SA offers Select License customers the following benefits:

• Windows Vista Enterprise and Virtual PC Express - Windows Vista Enterprise licenses help you to maximize your desktop investments with powerful tools and technologies that help reduce IT costs and the complexity of managing corporate PCs. It helps protect sensitive data and intellectual property on lost or stolen PCs. It also includes integration of all worldwide Windows languages (MUI), which helps reduce the cost of managing a single, global system image for your PC hardware. Virtual PC Express is a feature of Windows Vista Enterprise that lets you run legacy applications on legacy operating systems in a single, virtual machine.

• Training Vouchers - Training vouchers offer training on select Microsoft courses from Microsoft Certified Partners for Learning Solutions. More than 1,600 learning partners worldwide offer official Microsoft instructor-led, online and self-paced courses and consultative learning services to help you improve productivity and reduce training costs.

• eLearning - Help your users to become educated on new products. Microsoft's eLearning delivers a comprehensive student experience, using streaming audio and video software demonstrations, hands-on exercises and courses designed by professional instructors. Employees can take interactive modules and tutorials on various applications at any time at their own computer, even offline.

• Home Use Program - Increase employee productivity and ensure compatibility between documents created at work and at home when you grant your employees the rights to Microsoft Office System products to install on home computers for personal and business needs.

• 24 X 7 Problem Resolution Support - Enjoy phone support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for business-critical outages on all Microsoft-supported products including all server editions, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office applications. Phone support includes Microsoft server, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office System products and editions, even if the specific license requiring support does not have Software Assurance coverage. Product must be in mainstream phase of the product lifecycle and eligible for SA Benefits. Visual Studio, Developer editions of Server, or Home and Entertainment products not included. SA awarded incidents can be converted to Premier support incidents which allows you to receive Premier service levels. In addition, server products covered by Software Assurance receive unlimited web support.

• SA Exchange Server Applications - Block unwanted junk email and help your employees work more productively. SA Exchange Server Applications includes Exchange Server-based tools and technologies as well as Intelligent Message Filter to combat the influx of unsolicited commercial email.

• Cold Server Backup for Disaster Recovery - Protect valuable data without buying a new license. Software Assurance grants you the right to install server software on a cold server for the purpose of disaster recovery in the event of an emergency.

• TechNet Plus Managed Newsgroups and Subscription Media - Increase your efficiency for finding solutions. IT professionals have access to TechNet Plus Subscription content, featuring resources such as the knowledge base, utilities, drivers and how-to articles to help them succeed. The TechNet Plus Subscription Media also includes access to beta release candidate software and evaluation copies of the latest applications.

• Extended Lifecycle Hotfix Support - Request hotfixes for products in the Extended Lifecycle Support without signing up or paying an initial fee prior to determining a need. This means you do not pay for extended support unless hotfixes are required. As always, security fixes are automatically guaranteed.

Select Software Assurance Membership

If you commit to being a Software Assurance member in a particular product pool when you sign your Enrollment, you are required to purchase SA with every license. This commitment entitles you to the following additional benefits of SA.

• Desktop Deployment Planning Services for the Enterprise - DDPS is a discovery session conducted by Microsoft Consulting Services or Microsoft Certified Partners who have demonstrated their proficiency with deployment solutions. These engagements will help you to understand the business value of upgrading, the cost of migrating and a deployment roadmap designed specifically for your organization. The length of these engagements ranges from one to fifteen days depending on your Software Assurance purchases.
• Windows Pre-Installation Environment - Windows PE is a powerful deployment tool that streamlines the installation and troubleshooting process, eases the administrative burden and makes IT professionals more productive.
• Employee Purchase Program - Provide discounts to your employees on dozens of Microsoft products for their personal use. Employees can get the flexibility of using the same software at home that they use at work, as well as save money on great software products for home management and entertainment. Best of all, your organization is not responsible for the end-user’s compliance – the end-user license agreement is between the end-user and Microsoft.
• Enterprise Source Licensing Program - Receive read-only access to Microsoft Windows source code for internal development and support. IT staff can make adjustments and improvements to systems and related applications, and implement improved debugging to help maintain security and protect against viruses.
• Corporate Error Reporting - Control deployment of fixes and resolutions. Microsoft Corporate Error Reporting gives your IT professionals a clear and easy way to monitor and review error information. It allows applications and the operating system to collect and report on crashes in the system, and gives IT staff the ability to control the types of reports sent to Microsoft.
• Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PC's - A Windows-based operating system designed for customers with legacy PCs who are running legacy operating systems but are not in a position to purchase new hardware.  Windows Fundamentals provides the same security and manageability as Microsoft Windows XP SP2 while providing a smooth migration path to the latest hardware and operating system.

To Enroll in Select License

Contact your dedicated SHI Account Executive at 888-764-8888 for pricing and further information. Found out how your institution can benefit from Microsoft's Select License Program.