Microsoft Enterprise Agreement

The Enterprise Agreement gives you the flexibility to choose among on-premises software and cloud services to best suit your user needs, and helps you optimize your technology spend as business priorities change.

New improved flexibility for cloud services
The Enterprise Agreement (EA) provides you with the best overall pricing based on your organization’s size, the benefits of Software Assurance, as well as simplified licensing management via your organization-wide agreement. With a single agreement, you can enjoy the flexibility of being able to choose on-premises software and cloud services for different user needs, optimize your technology spend, and streamline management of your Microsoft purchases.

Volume pricing with flexible payment options
The Enterprise Agreement is appropriate for your organization if you have more than 250 PCs, devices and/or users and want to license software and cloud services for your organization for a minimum, three-year period. At the onset of your agreement, pricing is based on a tiered volume discount structure, meaning the greater the size of your organization, the less you’ll pay for individual licenses. In addition, the cost of your EA may be spread across three annual payments, helping you predict future budget requirements. Finally, Microsoft Financing offers even greater payment flexibility by providing custom payment options that let you bundle software, services and equipment in a single investment.

Enrollments for cost-effective licensing
With the Enterprise Agreement you can take advantage of various Enrollments. These can be a very cost-effective way to purchase software and solutions to address key organizational objectives such as building secure and well managed data centers, maintaining line-of-business applications, or standardizing on Microsoft’s popular productivity software and comparable cloud services across your organization.

Enterprise Enrollments and Subscription Programs
You can choose to either purchase your software licenses via the Enterprise Agreement Enrolments or subscribe to licenses through the Enterprise Subscription programs. Based on a three-year term, with the ability to add and adjust products and cloud services over time, the Enterprise Agreement offers pricing advantages beyond standard license and subscription pricing. Should you add new users or devices during your EA, you can equip them with software and online services you are already using and then account for these changes once a year, through an annual reconciliation process known as “True Up.”

Enterprise Subscription programs provides similar advantages as the Enterprise Agreements Enrollment with lower annual costs based on a three-year subscription and the ability to increase or decrease licenses and subscription counts on an annual basis. This ability to grow or downsize subscription counts may be appropriate, especially if you expect significant fluctuations in workforce size and IT requirements. However, unlike the Enterprise Agreement Enrollments where you retain perpetual use rights for the licenses you purchase, with subscription programs you gain access to Microsoft software and cloud services for as long as you maintain your subscription.

Software Assurance plus optional Premier Support
All Enterprise Agreements include Software Assurance for on-premises software to help you boost productivity across your organization with new software versions, deployment planning, 24x7 phone and web support, training and unique technologies such as Windows® 7 Enterprise Edition and the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack. Finally, to your Enterprise Agreement you may add a variety of Microsoft Premier Support offerings to provide the optimum level of pro-active and reactive support for your Microsoft software environment.