Open Value Subscription – How is it purchased?

In my New Year’s Day post, “Big news: Open Value Subscription launching in the U.S. and Canada!” I mentioned that “every reseller out there will be able to offer Open Value Subscription to their clients through the same Volume Licensing Distributors you use currently, just like with the current Open Value Program offerings available today!” Since the post; however, I have seen some questions and remarks from a few Partners that seem to suggest a misperception about how Open Value Subscription will be transacted and how Microsoft Partners fit into that process. To help alleviate these misconceptions, I am posting this follow-up to directly address these questions.

All of the Open License Programs Microsoft offers are through-Partner licensing models (see diagram), meaning that customers acquire their software licenses from a Microsoft Reseller, who in turn, acquires the licensing from a Microsoft Volume Licensing Distributor. With the introduction of Open Value Subscription here in the US, this model will remain the same. Customers will acquire their Microsoft Open Value Subscription Agreements through a Microsoft reseller and the Microsoft resellers will acquire the Open Value Subscription Agreements for their clients from a Microsoft Volume Licensing Distributor. As noted in my original post, every single reseller out there will be able to sell the Open Value Subscription Licensing option to their clients upon launch in March, if they choose to. Just like the other Open License Programs, resellers do not need to obtain any special authorization to sell these licenses to their clients. So as you can see, all Open Value Subscription License Agreements will be transacted through Microsoft resellers, just like Open Business and Open Value Agreements are today.

I hope this helps clear up any confusion around this point regarding the introduction of the Open Value Subscription program. Also, remember that we are running a series of Partner training seminars on Open Value Subscription in January where you can learn much more about the program and how it works. All of the dates, times, and registration details for these sessions are included in my original post.

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