The major changes to this very useful document are the inclusion of the alternative ordering terms for both licences with Software Assurance and Online Services. How do these work? I\u2019ve explained them below, but you can find the information on page 6 of the Manual if you\u2019re interested in the official wording.<\/p>\n
First of all, Software Assurance. We\u2019re used to SA purchases aligning to the third Purchasing Account Anniversary and this has the benefit that all of your SA purchases in a single year will be due for renewal at the same time \u2013 which is nice and easy to manage of course. The alternative option now is to purchase a full 36 months of SA \u2013 which over time could potentially mean that you\u2019ve got SA renewal payments to make every month. However, it\u2019s an option if customers want it, and for both alternatives they can pay in full upfront, or upfront annually on the Purchasing Account Anniversary or the Order Anniversary.<\/p>\n
And then there\u2019s Online Services. In the beginning, these subscriptions were always aligned to the first Purchasing Account Anniversary and then renewals were for a full 12 months. Now this remains one option but you can also purchase a full 12 months at any time. If you buy more subscriptions for the same service within a Purchasing Account then it will align to the original order of the service.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not all because last year some of the Online Services were made available to be purchased for two or three years and these were always aligned to the second or third Purchasing Account Anniversaries. Again, this is still an option but you can also choose to purchase full 24 or 36 month subscriptions if that\u2019s better for you. And the payment options? Well, it\u2019s the same as the SA options \u2013 you can pay for the whole period upfront, or upfront annually on the Purchasing Account Anniversary or the Order Anniversary.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s still not all! The other change to Online Services, which is documented in the Manual, is the introduction of short-term subscriptions. This is where you can buy anything from 1 to 11 months of a service with no alignment to a Purchasing Account Anniversary. With this option, subsequent orders of the same service DON\u2019T have to align to the first order.<\/p>\n
The other changes that the Manual contains are small in comparison: some customers will now be using the Microsoft Business Center (MBC) as their management portal rather than the Microsoft Volume Licensing Center (MVLC) and you\u2019ll see that change on page 4. There are notes throughout that certain SA benefits (Planning Services, Training Vouchers, Problem Resolution Support, and Enhanced Hotfix Support) are not available for Academic Purchasing Accounts, and the final change is that the Office Multi-Language Pack is removed as an SA benefit since the rights to it are now included with the licence.<\/p>\n