Microsoft License Pricing ?

[Blake]

Ok, I have this assignment, the scenario is (basically) this:

…the Chatswood office has recently requested their PCs to be upgraded and connected in a simple peer LAN.

…

Ten new PCs with network cards are being delivered to the office to replace the old PCs, and contractors are already at work providing a switch and UTP cabling to each desk.

Ok, one section of the assignment requires me to determine the licenses required, and to make a firm recommendation—including costs.

That last bit is the problem. I have decided that a Microsoft Open Value License would be the best license to use, but I cannot find any sites that give prices. Any ideas?

 

[donbenni]

Just get all the PCs installed with Windows 2000 and explain very reasonably that you would rather the PCs all had a well known and supported OS that costs a little bit more than to spend less on a package which may not provide what the company needs. As you can't find out now how much it is, you can include that in your assignment and say that companies aren't interested in "Value Licenses" enough that you can't actually find places that sell it. They'll be impressed that you actually bothered to look around.

You can probably pick up a company license that covers all 10 PCs for OS and for Office. You may want to consider virus protection too considering it sounds like this the first time many of the PCs have been connected to a network.

 

[Blake]

4 hours later—I have discovered the Harris Technology website. That has all the pricing information I need.

Thanks for your input donbenni. 👍

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Ha ha! Welcome to the world of real IT!

Douglas Adams once wrote that (paraphrasing) the universe was infinitely complex, and if Man ever fully understood it, it would immediately collapse and be replaced by something infinitely more complex.

And this is how it is with Microsoft Volume Licensing. As soon as you get a handle on it, they bin the program and come up with something even more impenetrable. And the thing is, half the time, the MS Account Managers don't really understand it!

 

[DQuaN]

I taked it you have looked at Per-Device or Per-User Licenses?

 

[donbenni]

Douglas Adams once wrote that (paraphrasing) the universe was infinitely complex, and if Man ever fully understood it, it would immediately collapse and be replaced by something infinitely more complex.

"... Some say that this has already happened"

I apologise for the offtopicness but was that the same quote as written at the start of Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (changed slightly)?

 

[Pako]

Ha ha! Welcome to the world of real IT!

Douglas Adams once wrote that (paraphrasing) the universe was infinitely complex, and if Man ever fully understood it, it would immediately collapse and be replaced by something infinitely more complex.

And this is how it is with Microsoft Volume Licensing. As soon as you get a handle on it, they bin the program and come up with something even more impenetrable. And the thing is, half the time, the MS Account Managers don't really understand it!

Thank you for that spot on analogy.