REDMOND, Wash., April 6, 1999 — Microsoft Corp. today announced new licensing programs that will make it easier for educational institutions in the United States and Canada to offer the most current versions of networking, operating system and productivity software to faculty, students and staff. The new Microsoft® School Agreement for K-12 schools is modeled on the successful higher-education licensing program, Microsoft Campus Agreement, launched six months ago. In addition, enhancements to Campus Agreement will give colleges and universities more flexibility and options when bringing the latest software to campus. Microsoft School Agreement and Microsoft Campus Agreement version 2.0 officially start May 10, 1999.
Developed in collaboration with educators, School Agreement will allow K-12 schools to run a platform of popular software products at a single, affordable price based on the number of school- or district-owned computers used by students, faculty and staff. With Campus Agreement version 2.0, Microsoft added critical enhancements that higher-education customers asked for, including easier distribution of software to students and extension of the licenses to students after graduation.
“Microsoft believes that providing students and faculty with access to state-of-the-art technology is one of the greatest challenges educators face today, so we are committed to working with our education customers to find new ways to help them make the technology decisions that best fit the needs of their schools,” said Elizabeth W. King, general manager of the Education Customer Unit at Microsoft. “These software licensing programs will help schools maximize their technology dollars and provide faculty, students and staff with the most current software for teaching, learning and administration.”
School Agreement Designed to Meet the Needs of K-12 Educators
Microsoft School Agreement is based on months of discussions with K-12 school leaders to understand the unique licensing needs of schools, districts and states. The result is a simple, 12-month subscription program that provides licenses for the Microsoft products that schools use most frequently at a single price based on the number of eligible PCs. School Agreement also allows teachers at participating schools to use the licensed software on their home computers.
School Agreement includes Microsoft Office Standard Edition and Professional Edition, Microsoft Office Macintosh Edition, Microsoft Works Standard, Microsoft Windows operating system Upgrade, Microsoft BackOffice Server Client Access License, the Encarta® multimedia encyclopedia Reference Suite and Encarta Online, the Visual Studio® development system Professional Edition, and Microsoft Office Starts Here® /Step by Step Interactive by Microsoft Press. Schools or districts that sign a School Agreement also can choose to add licenses for other products, including Microsoft Project, the FrontPage Web site creation and management tool, and Microsoft Press® training tools such as Windows 98 Starts Here, Windows NT® Workstation Starts Here, and Web Publishing Step by Step Interactive.
“School districts are faced with the challenge of finding a software licensing solution that helps us abide by copyright laws, makes it easy to manage our software purchases, and offers flexibility,” said Daryl Ann Borel, assistant superintendent of technology and information systems for the Houston Independent School District and a member of the educator advisory committee that helped Microsoft design School Agreement. “Microsoft really listened to our needs and came up with a licensing program that is aggressively priced and flexible enough to work for any school district, whether it’s a small district or a large, urban district like Houston. In addition, options such as allowing teachers to use the software at home are another example of Microsoft’s strong commitment to education.”
Schools participating in School Agreement can license the software including all its upgrades and downgrades throughout the term of the agreement, for 12 months. At the end of that period, the schools can renew the license agreement, exit the program by purchasing perpetual licenses, or remove the software from their machines if they choose not to continue to participate.
Microsoft Campus Agreement Version 2.0: More Efficient and Flexible
Since the introduction of Microsoft Campus Agreement in October 1998, nearly 150 colleges and universities worldwide have signed up to participate in the agreement to bring the latest software to students, faculty and staff. Campus Agreement version 2.0 makes the process of licensing software easier and more flexible for higher-education customers, whether they are as large as Monterrey Tech, which serves 60,000 students throughout Mexico, or as small as an individual department at an institution such as the University of California at Irvine’s Graduate School of Management, which works with nearly 500 MBA candidates.
Campus Agreement version 2.0 allows colleges and universities to obtain licenses for Microsoft Office Standard Edition and Professional Edition, Microsoft Office Macintosh Edition, Microsoft Windows operating system Upgrade, Microsoft BackOffice Server Client Access License, FrontPage, the Visual Studio development system Professional Edition, and Microsoft Office Starts Here/Step by Step Interactive by Microsoft Press, based on the number of full-time equivalents (FTEs) of faculty, staff and students. Higher-education customers also can add licenses for other products, including Microsoft Project and Microsoft Press training tools such as Windows 98 Starts Here, Windows NT Workstation Starts Here, and Web Essentials Starts Here.
One of the enhancements colleges and universities were most interested in was an option that would permit students to continue using their Microsoft software after graduation. Campus Agreement version 2.0 allows students to legally use the software after they leave school, as long as the college or university still has a Campus Agreement in place. In addition, colleges and universities can now distribute Office 2000 and FrontPage 2000 software to students via CD-ROM, as well as through the current library checkout method and secure server downloads.
“Like any large educational institution, we have long been concerned about the temptation among students to use unlicensed software. That’s why we wanted an agreement that would help us eliminate the practice – and show students, by example, that there’s a better way to get software,” said Eduardo Salcedo, director of educational technology at Monterrey Tech. “We also desperately needed an easier way to keep track of software licensing throughout the university as a whole, and now the Microsoft Campus Agreement allows us accomplish both effectively and efficiently.”
If a college or university decides before the end of its contract that the program no longer meets its needs, Campus Agreement Version 2.0 includes an option that allows a school to end its agreement by paying an upgrade price for all machines running the licensed software. This will allow a college or university to go from an annual subscription to a license ownership plan.
“In addition to being extremely cost-effective, Microsoft Campus Agreement allows us to provide students with the most current technology tools, and we’re thrilled that now our students will be able to continue using their software after graduation,” said John Clarke, director of computing for the University of California at Irvine’s Graduate School of Management. “Information technology is central to our school’s mission. This is the software that corporate America is using, and it’s what we want our students to use for learning.”
The Microsoft Campus Agreement allows colleges and universities to install and use the software obtained via the license agreement for one year from the date it was acquired. The cost for the Microsoft Campus Agreement is a flat rate based on a college or university’s total FTE for students, faculty and staff. In addition, individual departments or schools at a college or university can sign a Microsoft Campus Agreement. At the end of the year, they can renew the license agreement based on an updated count of full-time equivalents for students, staff and faculty.
Microsoft Offers a Variety of Licensing Options for Education
In addition to the Microsoft Campus Agreement and Microsoft School Agreement, all education customers have the option of participating in Microsoft’s other volume licensing programs, which include the Open License Program, for customers with five or more computers, and the Select License Program, which offers a two-year agreement for customers with 1,000 or more PCs. The Open License Program provides discounts based on the amount customers acquire at the beginning of their term and gives customers two years to reorder at the same rate. The Open License Program is available from any Microsoft Authorized Education Reseller. Select discounts are based on customers’ ability to forecast their license needs over a two-year period. Customers can aggregate purchases from multiple sites in the same country or around the
world. The Select License Program is available only through the Large Account Reseller channel.
For more information about the Microsoft Campus Agreement or Microsoft School Agreement, or to locate an area Microsoft Authorized Education Reseller, visit http://www.microsoft.com/education/pricing/ .
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
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