If I add computers to my company after I have a Small Business Desktop Advantage Agreement, do I need to cover those too?

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Here is another question I received following my “Preview and Sneak Peek of the new Small Business Desktop Advantage and Volume Licensing Sales Kit” Live Meeting session that I thought I would post here along with the answer in case others out there may have the same or similar question. Here was the question:

“I understand that all desktops in the company must be "bought into" the deal when a customer enters into the Small Business Desktop Advantage contract, but what about desktops that the customer may purchase in the future? Is the customer also entering into the obligation to have ALL future desktops "bought into" this program as well?”

For those of you that attended any of the weekly “Small Business Desktop Advantage Sales Forums” I presented throughout this past fiscal year, you heard the answer to this question during each of these sessions.

The Small Business Desktop Advantage is a Company-wide offering through the Open Value Licensing Program. Because it is a Company-wide Agreement, it means you are covering your computers “company-wide,” which means all computers in your company. As such, as you add additional PCs to your company, you are increasing the number of computers in your company, so you would need to increase the number of Small Business Desktop Advantage licenses you have on your Open Value Licensing Agreement. This would be the case for as long as your Small Business Desktop Advantage Agreement is in place. So your initial Open Value Agreement is a three year term which means you would need to cover all computers you have in your company during that three year period. If you renew your Small Business Desktop Advantage Agreement for an additional three year term at the end of your initial three year term by renewing the SA only component of the Small Business Desktop Advantage licenses you have, you would need to cover all computers in your company for that three year period as well. For those of you that received the Small Business Desktop Advantage and Volume Licensing Sales Kit, if you view or listen to the, “What Happens After the 3 Year Open Value Term” items (Video, MP3, or WMA) in the Multimedia section of the DVD, I explain how renewing Software Assurance at the end of the initial three year term works, plus, I did Blog about this earlier in this post from April.

NOTE: This is the same thing for all Company-wide Agreements, not just the Small Business Desktop Advantage. So if you were to purchase a Company-wide Agreement for just Microsoft Office Small Business, you would need to cover every computer in your company for Office Small Business for the entirety of your Agreement.

Also remember that this pertains to additional computers you add to the company during your Agreement, not replacement computers. If you replace PCs with new PCs, you can transfer your Volume Licenses to the new PCs since Volume Licensing does have transfer rights and replacing computers does not change the total number of computers in your company. For instance, if you have 18 computers today and you replace 5 of them with 5 new computers, you still have 18 computers, so your Agreement for 18 Small Business Desktop Advantage licenses would still cover all computers in your company.

If you have not attended any of the weekly “Small Business Desktop Advantage Sales Forums” I presented this past year, I would suggest viewing one of the recordings of these presentations as this question is covered in each one including adding additional PCs and replacing PCs when you have a Small Business Desktop Advantage Agreement.

For those of you that received the Small Business Desktop Advantage and Volume Licensing Sales Kit, you can view or listen to any of the following items included in the kit for more information on this topic:

1) “Small Business Desktop FAQ – Flyer” : Collection of Frequently Asked Questions regarding the SB Desktop located in the “To Partner” section of the kit.

2) “Small Business Desktop Advantage Quick Reference Sheet” : A two-sided quick reference guide featuring agreement examples and a cost savings comparison located in the “To Partner” section of the kit.

3) “Additional PCs Example” items (Video, MP3, or WMA) in the Multimedia section of the kit

4) “Replacing PCs Example” items (Video, MP3, or WMA) in the Multimedia section of the kit

5) “Important things to know about Small Business Desktop Advantage” items (Video, MP3, or WMA) in the Multimedia section of the kit

6) “Small Business Desktop Advantage Sales Forums” items (Video, MP3, or WMA) in the Multimedia section of the kit

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UPDATE: As of October, 2008, platform options (such as the Small Business Desktop Advantage) are now handled through the “Build Your Own Platform” model. Here is the post that explains this new option for you.
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Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman
Microsoft US Senior Manager
Small Business Community Engagement
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights