Microsoft Open License Overview

A minimum purchase of just five licenses.

Discounts off the retail price of software.

A one-time transaction, so that you can pay at the time you purchase software.

The rights to create a standard image and deploy it on multiple machines, and rights to transfer licenses from one machine to another.

The ability to obtain licenses from multiple locations through a worldwide reseller channel.

The ability to track and manage licenses by using online tools.

Access to Microsoft Software Assurance, an enhanced maintenance program that helps you get the most out of your software investment.

A single authorization identification number that can be shared with qualified affiliate organizations.

Open Value is designed specifically to give you simplified license management, better management of software costs, and greater control over your IT investment. The Open Value option includes Software Assurance, an enhanced maintenance program from Microsoft that provides you with access to added benefits such as training, deployment planning, software upgrades, and product support.

The Open Value program offers three options: subscription, company-wide, and non–company-wide. Each is designed to meet different business needs. The subscription option is for organizations that prefer to subscribe to software products. For organizations that prefer to purchase software licenses, Open Value provides company-wide and non–company-wide purchasing options. The company-wide option offers simplified license management and additional discounts.

Learn more about Open Value

Open Business is ideal for organizations that want to pay for software licenses as they need them. This option helps give your organization the flexibility to grow as your business needs increase.

Open Volume is designed for organizations that want to increase their up-front purchase in one or more product pools to gain deeper savings. The Open Volume option uses a system of product pools and points to establish purchase minimums for discounted prices.

With Open Volume, software products are grouped into three product pools: applications, systems, and servers. You can combine similar Microsoft software products in the product pools to receive volume pricing discounts. The applications pool includes products such as Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office Project, Microsoft Office Visio, and Microsoft Visual Studio. The systems pool includes Microsoft Windows operating system upgrades such as Windows Professional Edition. The server pool includes products such as Microsoft Windows Standard Server Edition and Microsoft Exchange Server.