The Enterprise Advantage option is designed for businesses with 250 to 2,399 users or devices and will roll out as a three-year contractual option in early 2017, Microsoft said in its announcement last week. The Microsoft Products and Services Agreement (MpSA) is a transactional license agreement for commercial, government, and academic organizations with at least 250 users/devices. MPSA is best suited for organizations that want to obtain on-premises licenses of Microsoft software, cloud services, or both on demand, with no enterprise-wide commitment under a single, non-expiring agreement. Software Assurance is optional. Under the Enterprise Advantage option, branches of an organization can purchase Microsoft software as needed, and then the overall purchasing power is recognized across the enterprise. Perpetual licenses and subscription licenses can be combined under this plan in the same agreement, “without registrations”. Previously, organizations had to have separate records for both types of licenses, Nowlan explained, and they had to have separate documents. Yes. Software Assurance Purchasing and Benefits Management is available. Existing Software Assurance coverage and the benefits of another volume licensing program (for example. B, Microsoft Select Plus, Microsoft Enterprise Agreement, or Microsoft Open License) are not assigned or associated with a new MPSA. For more information, see Software Assurance through MPSA.
The Microsoft Products and Services Agreement (MPSA) is a transactional license agreement for commercial, academic, and government organizations. It is an ongoing agreement signed by a legal entity designed for organizations with at least 250 users/devices that consolidates Microsoft Cloud Services, Software, and Microsoft Software Assurance. The key to MPSA FLEXIBILITY is how you set up your purchase accounts, which fall under the agreement and are signed by a legal entity. These allow you to effectively divide your organization by department, region, or country as you wish. Every time you purchase a license or service, you earn points. You must earn at least 500 points for at least 250 users within each product pool up to one year after the first signing of your MPSA. Yes. The novelty of the MPSA is the possibility of having several types of organizations – commercial, academic or governmental – in a single agreement with the use of purchasing accounts. When the Enterprise Advantage option is introduced in 2017, Microsoft won`t try to force its customers to make the transition, Nowlan said. Microsoft has just announced in advance that it will come. This is something that should be taken into account for renewals or new agreements. Microsoft does not recommend switching to Enterprise Advantage in the medium term, Nowlan said.
It`s possible that companies with more than 2,399 users or devices could use Enterprise Advantage “if their agreement is simple enough to be well filled with enterprise advantage on MPSA,” Nowlan said. He explained that large organizations tend to have more complex agreements with Microsoft. The program won`t necessarily grow until Microsoft is sure it`s having a good initial customer experience at its current limits. Microsoft has evolved its licensing agreement programs over time, with the idea of moving to a “unified approach” where customers can use an agreement to buy all the products and services they want, Nowlan explained. It aims for “more modern licensing” with MPSA, as well as the next step Enterprise Advantage, he added. For organizations with the required number of users or devices, the Enterprise Advantage option may be more cost-effective than current MPSA or Enterprise Agreement (EA) approaches. The main reason that may be true is that Enterprise Advantage enables the “enterprise-wide purchase” of software and services in a contract. EA is Microsoft`s traditional flagship agreement, but MPSA was created about three years ago to offer more flexibility given the introduction of Microsoft`s various service offerings. An EA is a fixed three-year contract that has the advantage of reducing software costs. An EA offers price protection, discounts, and true-up and true-down rights.
The MPSA has more flexible terms with the ability for companies to buy what they need. When an organization reaches 500 users, the Enterprise Agreement (EA) offers some benefits that the MPSA does not offer, but the MPSA also offers some flexibility that the EA Agreement does not offer, so at this level, you need to decide which one is best for you. Microsoft`s software licensing process consists of contractual agreements and software purchase elements called “registrations,” which apply to subscriptions and perpetual licenses. .