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Microsoft Academic Volume Licensing 101

May 18, 2015 - Stacey Vanden Boogart-Romenesko
Microsoft Academic licensing offers simplified, flexible volume-based licensing options for academic organizations. With already stretched IT budgets, these discounts go a long way to keep your school’s IT infrastructure up to date, in compliance, and running smoothly. Want to get more software, services and solutions for your money Microsoft Academic Pricing for Schools? Read below to find out how!

Who's Eligible?

Microsoft Academic licensing is available to any educational institutions, administrative offices and boards of educations, and public libraries and museums. This includes options for teachers, as well as students. An Authorized Education Reseller, such as Aventis Systems, will verify your eligibility.

How to Buy?

Microsoft offers two licensing models for Academic facilities: Subscription or Perpetual Licensing.

  • Subscription: Programs like Enrollment for Education Solutions and School Enrollment offer the rights to use the product that you license over the license period, including covered upgrades and downgrades. Licensing is based on the number of staff or eligible PCs, so compliance is as simple and convenient as counting people or computers once per year. Microsoft’s subscription programs offer the latest technology at the the lowest upfront cost, and automatically include software assurance. These programs are particularly well suited for customers interested in subscription-based desktop services.
    • How to Buy? The purchasing process is simple, but can take up to two weeks to confirm the initial subscription enrollment. Speak with a Microsoft Authorized Education Reseller to get the process going. Microsoft recommends that customers submit their software order to your reseller at the same time as your subscription enrollment to avoid delays. Once the software order and enrollment is complete, license information, keys, and downloads are available electronically via the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center.
    • What Should I Know? An account manager can assist in determining eligibility and provide more information. Subscription programs have minimum person or PC counts to eligibility, so it’s helpful to know your full time and partial time staff (including teaching and administration) as well as the count of all eligible PCs to be licensed.
  • Perpetual: Open License for Academic offers a “pay-as-you-go” solution that allows institutions to purchase and own their software licenses. Open license is great for institutions that prefer transactional-based purchases of licenses in specific quantities. Software Assurance is available, but optional for Open License for Academic licenses. Open licenses offer all of the features and functionality as their retail counterparts, but eliminate the costs and packaging of retail software. Many institutions prefer Open License for Academic because of the clear, simple terms for acquisition, flexibility, and easy availability of products.
    • How to Buy? Simply purchase through an Authorized Education Reseller, such as Aventis Systems. After obtaining licenses, software and license keys can be downloaded through Microsoft.
    • What Should I Know? There is a minimum initial order of 5 licenses required to establish a 2-year Open License for Academic agreement. After the initial order, you are able to purchase in any quantity during that 2-year period.

Work smarter with Microsoft software for academic institutions. Microsoft Academic Volume Licensing provides schools and education institutions with simple, flexible & volume-based pricing. Whether you need a virtualized or on-premises solution, Aventis Systems carries perpetual licenses to fit your new or existing server and application needs. Please browse our Microsoft Academic perpetual licenses here, or contact us for more information about subscription based licenses.