News
Microsoft Fine-tunes Software Assurance Program
- By ADT Staff
- September 19, 2005
Microsoft has upgraded its Software Assurance maintenance offering, with eight
new benefits for deployment planning services, training and support.
New Software Assurance benefits that support the deployment stage of the software
life-cycle include a Desktop Deployment Planning Services voucher that customers
with either Select or Enterprise license agreements can redeem for an onsite
consulting engagement of up to 10 days—based on the volume of Microsoft
Office software that is licensed with Software Assurance. This engagement includes
education on the latest technology and tools for deploying desktop software
applications, as well as a customized desktop deployment plan for the organization
by a Microsoft Certified Partner of the customer’s choice, the company
says.
Information Work Solution Services are pre-defined service offerings delivered
by Microsoft Consulting Services or Microsoft Certified Partners to help customers
get more value from investments in the Microsoft Office system. They include
a 1-day Information Work Value Discovery Workshop that helps business people
develop a prioritized list of projects that will have the greatest impact and
lowest risk on their business. They also may include a two-day Information Work
Architecture Design Session that helps IT specialists and technical decision-makers
understand the architecture required to implement those solutions.
“This feature alone could save an IT shop thousands of dollars just in
terms of personnel hours” as a result of learning how to more rapidly
and easily deploy a new version of Microsoft Office," says Laura Didio,
a Yankee Group research fellow who participated in today’s Software Assurance
Webcast. “What’s more, Desktop Deployment Planning Services can
enable IT staffs to do smoother, more efficient upgrades with fewer errors and
less down time.”
Customers with Software Assurance on their client operating system will have
access to Windows Vista Enterprise, a new edition of the next generation of
the Windows operating system scheduled for final release in 2006 with the full
Windows Vista product line, and to Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs, a new
Windows-based operating system solution designed to help customers reduce the
total cost of ownership and improve security and manageability of their legacy
hardware.
In addition to the new Windows Vista Enterprise, Virtual PC Express and the
Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs benefits, Software Assurance customers with
30,000 or more Information Worker or Client licenses will receive additional
vouchers for IT professionals that can be used for training in selected courses
from Microsoft Certified Partners for Learning Solutions. Microsoft also has
increased the cap on the number of training vouchers a customer can receive
to provide additional flexibility, as well as scale to better meet the needs
of larger organizations.
The company has also expanded its support benefits so that customers are no
longer required to track their Software Assurance coverage by licenses to use
phone support.
Last, Microsoft has included its Extended Hotfix Support Agreement as part
of the Software Assurance benefit.