Why Purchase Under a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement?

The Microsoft Enterprise Agreement 6.0 is a software volume licensing program designed for corporate clients with 250 or more desktops. As an Enterprise Agreement 6.0 customer, you will be able to standardize on its choice of popular Microsoft enterprise products (Microsoft Office Professional, Microsoft Windows Professional upgrade, and the core client access license) at discounted prices based on a three-year agreement term.

Software Assurance (SA) membership is an additional benefit provided to Enterprise Agreement customers. Software Assurance is a feature within the Enterprise Agreement that entitles participating customers to deploy any future version of their selected enterprise products and additional products released during the term of the Enterprise Agreement enrollment. Software Assurance may offer you benefits beyond merely the ability to upgrade to future version software releases. Having Software Assurance in place across an entire enterprise reduces the amount of time needed to track multiple versions of software and promotes more expedient execution of business solutions due to the reduced need for ongoing management approval to finance new software licenses.

Besides offering a cost-effective method of procuring Microsoft products, Microsoft Enterprise Agreement 6.0 helps you:

• Build a flexible infrastructure. An Enterprise Agreement enables an organization to more easily build and maintain its infrastructure so it can respond rapidly to changing business needs.
  
  
• Drive standardization throughout the enterprise. An Enterprise Agreement can help a company more successfully use standards to reduce the cost of computing.
  
  
• Ensure compliance. The Enterprise Agreement significantly reduces the administration required to show compliance on enrolled enterprise products, thereby mitigating the associated legal risk.
  
  
• Simplify license administration and budgeting. An Enterprise Agreement helps streamline the administration and budgeting processes while improving the accuracy of business planning.

Why CompuCom for Your Microsoft EA?

EAs are purchased directly from Microsoft by corporate clients. When purchasing EA, you must designate a Microsoft-approved Enterprise Software Advisor (ESA) as your business partner. The CompuCom Software Management Team is an ESA and has been an authorized provider of Enterprise Agreements since the inception of the program. Because CompuCom provides an avenue to purchase all necessary IT assets from a single source, CompuCom Software Management Team is one of the few national Microsoft ESAs that can offer clients both valuable licensing management services and assistance in understanding, managing, and deploying Microsoft technologies.

As an ESA, CompuCom Software Management Team will provide comprehensive licensing analysis and decision support to help you gain maximum value from you Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. We also provide assistance and can consult with you regarding the negotiation of all licensing agreements. This assistance continues throughout the term of the contract and is available any time you desire to investigate or clarify an aspect of you licensing portfolio.

A summary of CompuCom's key qualifications as an EA Management partner are below:

• Authorized provider of Enterprise Agreements since the inception of the program and a LAR for Microsoft Select Agreements in the US for 17 years (program started in 1993)
• Authorized LAR and ESA in Canada as of March 2008
• Direct EAs made up 60% of CompuCom’s total Microsoft sales in 2009

In addition, CompuCom currently helps clients manage more than 2,500 Microsoft agreements:

• More than 140 corporate/direct Enterprise Agreements
• More than 300 state and local government (SLG) indirect Enterprise Agreements
• More than 1,350 commercial Select Agreements
• More than 800 SLG Select Agreements

License Tracking and Software Assurance Benefits Management

CompuCom has recognized the fact that when negotiating a new software agreement, clients will often overbuy licenses to meet forecasts for the deployment of new IT assets. At other times, as part of a specific software agreement, an organization may negotiate the right to deploy software licenses immediately based on the understanding that they will report and pay for the licenses by an agreed-upon date.

In either case, it is up to the purchasing organization to keep track of the number of licenses originally purchased, the number of licenses deployed and the number of licenses that remain to be paid for. We have developed a customized set of solutions to help clients address these specific challenges. These include:

• Virtual License Inventory – To help clients that purchase more licenses than they initially need, we have developed a Virtual License Inventory system. The Virtual License Inventory system allows a client to bill back a division for a new license without incurring a cost to the company.
  
  
• Harvesting Licenses – Appropriate licenses are recovered when systems are removed from the company. CompuCom assists the client in redeploying these on other systems. Recovered licenses can be either reassigned to a new user/asset or placed in the client’s Virtual Inventory.
  
  
• EA True-Up Management – When the original EA is signed, you will determine the number of desktops and products to be included on the initial agreement. The next annual payments are then based on this number plus the number of desktops added to your organization in the interim, as reported once each year. It is your responsibility to keep track of the number of new devices with EA-included software added through out the year. Virtual licenses can be used to help clients better manage and plan for true-up.
  
  
• Software Assurance Benefits - Software Assurance composes a large part of the cost of an EA. Ensuring you take advantage of all your benefits specifically, training vouchers, MSDN benefits and deployment service days can be a challenge. CompuCom has a dedicated SA specialist that will regularly run reports and update your account management team on the status of benefits so that they can review with you. Your account team will review this as part of your scheduled business reviews.
  

Ongoing Business Reviews Ensure You Get the Most Out of Your EA

Your CompuCom Software Management expert will meet with you and your staff to review all activity pertaining to the Microsoft environment. Topics discussed can include the status of current software deployments, planned implementations, SA benefits consumption, Microsoft and other publisher technology updates, and CompuCom news and upcoming events.

Additional reports include EA Value Briefings that review the original cost justification of the EA to confirm predicted ROI is achieved, and an EA Renewal Cost Review and Justification that predicts the ROI of a new EA.

A review of existing contracts and renewal dates is included in every scheduled account review. In addition, we will:

• Present you with the most current version of your “Licensing Report Card.” The report contains:
• Listing of existing contracts in place
• Summary of critical dates for the contractual actions and anticipated expenditures, such as potential true-up costs
• Select contract tracking data that details upcoming payment(s) and attainment levels against each pool within a current Select Agreement(s)
• SA Benefits utilization summary
• Any potential compliance issues
  
  
• Review any discounts or contract benefits you may be entitled to and may want to take advantage of either now or at renewal time.
• Examples include discussing upgrade SKU promos
• Software Assurance attach promos
• Early renewal incentives and offers
  
  
• Review upcoming publisher program changes and new product releases that may impact you.

EA Additional Product Purchases Enables Better Patient Care

Challenge
Due to the fact that too few computers were running the needed software, doctors had to hunt for machines that they could use, and this was impacting patient care. To remedy this, the client had decided to expand their Office deployment to additional sets of PCs that previously didn’t have access to Office.

Solution
After working with the client to better understand their current business need and evaluating licensing options, CompuCom recommended that the client leverage their existing EA to account for this growth, about 63% of the original number. In addition, CompuCom helped the client renegotiate their agreement to accommodate the expected 38% additional growth.

Results
The configuration of Desktop Pro gives them exactly what they need and allows them to capture a discount over buying it under a Select Agreement. The client is also leveraging SA training vouchers and Desktop Planning Services to improve efficiency within their IT department.