Microsoft Open Volume Licensing – What are the benefits
Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 12:42PM There are several things that differentiate Open Volume Licensing from boxed and OEM licensing products. Neither Volume Licensing or OEM comes with a media disk anymore. Volume licensing however does provide a method of downloading the software from your Microsoft account site.
The OEM package, or PKC package as it is called now with the release of offiCe 2010, is installed by the Original Equipment Manufacturer at the time of purchase. All you get is a license key to insert as an activation code that determines which package you are activating.
Box product is more expensive than OEM or PKC product and Open Licensing is around the same price as box product as well. One of the biggest benefits of Open Licensing now is that its license is a user based, which follows a single user rather than be assigned to an individual PC as an OEM Software.
Box product allows you to install the software on your primary work machine plus on one of mobile device. Open licensing allows the same benefit plus you may also install it on that employees home machine so they can use the software at home as well. So if you have an employee that has a desktop at work, a notebook computer and a home desktop workstation, then that employee needs only one open license product to have the license in all three locations.
If you were purchasing OEM product licenses you would need all three machines to have their own license. The end result would be that it would cost two times as much and you cannot move any of the licenses off of the original system if you replace that system in the future and place it on a new machine. The OEM licensing is pinned to the machine it was originally purchased for.
Microsoft's Open Licensing Products have many different programs, so it is important to run your particular situation by a Microsoft Licensing Specialist to ensure that you get the best possible fit for your organization.
To learn more:
Watch the open programs comparison video (WMV 3:30 minutes)
Download the Microsoft volume licensing reference guide (PDF 1.58 MB)
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