Understanding Open Value Item descriptions and pricing – Part 1
Part #1: Understanding Open Value Item Descriptions
A few of the big benefits of the Open Value program are the ability to spread payments and the ability to add additional items to an Agreement at any point during the Agreement with the 1 year, 2 year or 3 year remaining Software Assurance SKUs. Open Business does not provide either which means you always have to pay up-front and you always have to pay for 2 years of Software Assurance, even if you only have 8 months of coverage left on your Agreement. (i.e. You only get 8 months of Software Assurance coverage even though you paid the full two-year SA Open Business price). I walk through the differences and why you should only purchase Software Assurance through Open Value in the “Introduction to Open License for Partners” Live Meeting I gave in June for anyone interested.
Because of the additional options (1 year, 2 year, and 3 years remaining) in Open Value, some Partners have asked, “How do I know which item to sell when?” and “How can I tell which item is which in Open Value?” Here is a brief overview to help clear up the confusion.
Let’s use an Office Professional Plus SKU as the example: Part # 269-09046 - Office Professional Plus English Lic/SA Pack OLV NL 1YR Acq Y1 AddProd
If you look at the description, there are several key parts:
1) Product: What product is it a license for?
2) License Type: Is it License + SA or just SA?
3) Coverage: 1Year, 2 Year, or 3 Year?
4) Added to Agreement in which year?: Year 1, Year 2, or Year 3?
5) Company-wide or not: Is it an Additional Product (single purchase) or Enterprise (company-wide)?
For the example product I chose, here is what the description calls out:
1) Product: Office Professional Plus
2) License Type: Lic/SA
3) Coverage: 1YR
4) Added to Agreement in which year: Acq Y1 (short for “Acquired Year 1”)
5) Company-wide or not: AddProd (short for “Additional Product”), so non company-wide
You can disregard the “OLV” and the “NL” as those signify it is an Open License Value (OLV) item and that there is No Level (NL) associated with it since Open Value does not have an “A, B, C, etc.” level.
So when do you use each? Here are the steps…
· Choose the product they want to purchase
· Determine if they are purchasing a License + Software Assurance or just Software Assurance
· If you are starting a new Open Value Agreement or adding to one in the 1st year of the Agreement, choose the “Acq Y1” SKU since you are acquiring it in year 1.
o For spread payments, choose the 1YR coverage since you are only billing for 1 year right now
§ You will bill them for this same SKU again in Year 2 and Year 3 of the Agreement for spread payments (Three 1YR SKUs = One 3YR SKU price)
o For up-front payments, choose the 3YR coverage since you are billing for all 3 years right now
· If you are adding a new item to an existing Open Value Agreement during the 2nd year of the Agreement, choose the “Acq Y2” SKU since you are acquiring it in year 2.
o For spread payments, choose the 1YR coverage since you are only billing for 1 year right now
§ You will bill them for this same SKU again in Year 3 of the Agreement for spread payments
o For up-front payments, choose the 2YR coverage since you are billing for all 2 years right now
· If you are adding a new item to an existing Open Value Agreement during the 3rd year of the Agreement, choose the “Acq Y3” SKU since you are acquiring it in year 3.
o For 3rd year additions, you only have the choice of 1YR coverage since that is all that is left on the Agreement
· Lastly, choose AddProd for non-company wide items or Ent (Enterprise) for company-wide items
So using the Office Pro + product that I chose for the example, here are what the Open Value descriptions mean:
· Part#: 269-09046 - Office Professional Plus English Lic/SA Pack OLV NL 1YR Acq Y1 AddProd
o Office Pro + L&SA purchased in Year 1 of Agreement with spread payments non company-wide (Would bill same SKU in Year 2 and Year 3 for spread payments)
· Part#: 269-09050 - Office Professional Plus English Lic/SA Pack OLV NL 3YR Acq Y1 AddProd
o Office Pro + L&SA purchased in Year 1 of Agreement with up-front payment non company-wide (use up-front payment when utilizing MS Financing)
· Part#: 269-09047 - Office Professional Plus English Lic/SA Pack OLV NL 1YR Acq Y2 AddProd
o Office Pro + L&SA purchased in Year 2 of Agreement with spread payments non company-wide (Would bill same SKU in Year 3 for spread payments)
· Part#: 269-09048 - Office Professional Plus English Lic/SA Pack OLV NL 1YR Acq Y3 AddProd
o Office Pro + L&SA purchased in Year 3 of Agreement non company-wide
· Part#: 269-09049 - Office Professional Plus English Lic/SA Pack OLV NL 2YR Acq Y2 AddProd
o Office Pro + L&SA purchased in Year 2 of Agreement with up-front payment non company-wide (use up-front payment when utilizing MS Financing)
Hopefully this helps clear up some of the terminology used in the Open Value pricelist and when to choose each. In Part #2 of the post, I will answer some of the questions I have received regarding the pricing of the different Open Value SKUs. For instance, how are the YR2 or YR3 SKU prices calculated and why is it not just ½ the price since it is 1 year vs. 2 years (1/2 the time coverage).
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
