MS
Office Licenses…
PCS
requires that Microsoft Office Professional, which is not included with
the purchase of PCS, be licensed on each PC running PCS. MS Office
licenses and media are available under the Archdiocese of Los Angeles's
agreement with Microsoft. Information is available on the Internet at
http://www.asap.com
If
you have already secured licenses, please retain the receipt, which serves
as proof of license. If you are not sure, you should contact ACC Information
Services
ACCIS@la-archdiocese.org or phone 213/ 637-7699); they have recommendations about how to license the
appropriate software to maximize value while minimizing costs. It is
the responsibility of each parish and school to secure the appropriate
licenses.
Software Sources/Contacts
ASAP 800-248-2727
http://www.asap.com
John Flood x5729
Direct 847-543-5729
JFlood@asap.com
Need ALA 5 Digit Loc#
Insight 800-INSIGHT 467-4448
http://ips.Insight.com/adla
Public Sector (Education)
David Minick x5651
DMinick@Insight.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:
James R. Celoni
Director of Information Services
Archdiocese of Los Angeles
...the parish or
school deals directly with the reseller but takes advantage of the
agreement in place between Microsoft and the Archdiocese. It's not
available to private schools, but private schools are free to contact
ASAP or us since other favorable arrangements can be made. Our
schools and parishes aren't required to participate in this program
(e.g., unfortunately, they can still buy retail), but because of the
advantages especially price, I urge them to do so. Any who have
questions, suggestions, or other comments are encouraged to e-mail
John or me.
Subject:
Microsoft and other
software licensing and procurement--changed 3/1/2003
The Archdiocese of
Los Angeles now has a Select agreement with Microsoft and partner ASAP
Software through which schools and parishes can license Microsoft
software at low "academic" pricing and also obtain media (e.g. CDs).
ASAP can take and fill your order on Monday.
There are several
options when you license (such as getting a new license vs. license
with "Software Assurance"--SA), each with their pros and cons, so I
encourage you to get any questions you might have resolved before
actually placing an order. Please see the end of this message for
relevant web sites and contact info. One thing to remember is that
under this agreement the license, media (CDs), printed manuals, and
technical support are all "unbundled," so make sure you get what you
need. For example, if you don't already have CDs, ordering licenses
isn't enough, but you only need one set of CDs per location--but you
normally do need one license for each PC. Since the Microsoft printed
manuals are thin and basically a subset of the online documentation,
if you like printed manuals you might prefer third-party or Microsoft
Press materials to the ones available under Select. Finally, there are
many avenues for technical support, including colleagues, resellers,
and web sites (including Microsoft's own online Knowledge Base at
http://support.microsoft.com);
many are free. If you want to call Microsoft for phone support for a
product licensed under Select, a charge will apply. So far everyone
has preferred to license under this program instead of working
directly with another reseller or retailer because of the drastically
lower license fees, but I want to make sure you understand how it's
different from driving to your local computer superstore and picking
up a box of software, which likely includes license, CD, slim manual,
and the right to one or two tech support phone calls. But remember,
academically priced software has to belong to your school or parish,
not an individual, and be used only for your ministry, not for
personal use.
Regarding licensing
of Microsoft Office, consider licensing "Office XP Pro with FrontPage"
even if you'll be using an earlier version for now. I believe you can
buy the CDs (separate from licenses) for and install either Office XP
Pro or an earlier version (e.g. Office 2000 Premium). If someone is
running Word only (and not Excel or Outlook or PowerPoint or Access
etc.) and you don't mind keeping track precisely of which individual
packages are licensed on which PCs, you wouldn't need to license the
whole suite (just the components installed), but that's not usually
the case, and the few dollars you save on licensing a component
instead of the suite could be effectively lost on extra time/hassle.
Similar
considerations apply to operating system (OS) licensing (e.g. Windows
XP Professional or Home vs. Windows 2000, NT, ME, 98SE, 98, or 95),
with the key difference that only OS *upgrades* are available under
Select: in other words, if you have a PC running one version of
Windows, you can license an upgrade under Select, but if you have a
box that was never licensed for any flavor of Windows, you can't. Your
best bet for new PCs is to get the OS licensed and preinstalled from
the manufacturer or reseller, then when necessary upgrade via Select.
Under Select you can
order Software Assurance on new licenses and, until the end of March,
renew any SA you already have. The term will be through February 2006,
and you can either pay for it up front or break it out into 3 yearly
payments, pay 1/3 now, 1/3 next Feb, and 1/3 in Feb 2005. The same
payment arrangements are available for licenses you procure together
with SA. Remember, without current SA, to get a new version of
Microsoft software you need to license it again--no more "upgrade
licenses". But the argument against SA is that the current version may
work well enough for you and you may have better things to do than
keep track of which of your software packages on which PCs are covered
by SA.
ASAP can help you
with all other software publishers including but not limited to Adobe,
Symantec, Veritas, Computer Associates etc. They also sell add-on
hardware and have some great deals. To take the best advantage of
those programs, start with a good idea of what packages you want on
how many PCs, because some publishers offer multiple licenses (e.g.
10-packs) and licenses for suites less expensively than individual
units. For example, Adobe Publishing Collection including Acrobat,
Illustrator, PhotoShop, and PageMaker is cheaper than getting them
separately. ASAP is in fact running a special on Adobe Acrobat,
extremely aggressive pricing for education now until 3-31-03. Please
contact Kevin or Stephanie for more information. ASAP's pricing may
not be the best for hardware (and possibly non-Microsoft software), so
you may wish to check out alternatives before ordering.
For questions or more
information you can contact our Account Executive or her inside
partner. Stephanie Mohlman is our outside account rep, so if you need
a on-site visit, she'll be happy to meet with you. Kevin Murphy will
handle placing orders and setting up your account as well as providing
quotes.
Stephanie Mohlman
(310) 426-2155 SMohlman@asap.com
Kevin Murphy (800) 883-1043
KMurphy@asap.com
If you have any
questions about the program that ASAP Software (http://www.asap.com)
and Microsoft (e.g.
http://www.microsoft.com/education/?ID=Select)
can't handle, feel free to e-mail John Graham <mailto:JGraham@la-archdiocese.org>
or me.
I really don't like
it when folks eligible for academic pricing buy retail and pay so much
more for essentially nothing. The new rules make academic volume
licensing more complex, but I believe the deep cost savings and
upgrade protection (when desired) are worth it. Thank you. *j
James R. Celoni
Director of Information Services
Archdiocese of Los Angeles
