Share via

Introduction to Open Value

Introduction and objectives

Open Value (OV) and Open Value Subscription (OVS) programs vary in several ways. These include eligible customers, program length for initial terms and renewals, license type, and coverage. They also differ in ordering process, eligible products, available discounts, billing options, fulfillment options, and pricing levels. In this module, you examine the key differences between the OV and OVS programs, including more guidance for Academic customers. You also learn about the key benefits of each program to enable you to provide guidance as needed. This training is intended for:

  • All hires in a partner organization whose role involves ordering products under the Open Value or Open Value Subscription programs.

This module enables you to do the following:

  • List the differences between the OV and OVS program features
  • Communicate the requirements for student licensing
  • Outline how academic institutions can obtain Microsoft Imagine or Live@Edu memberships
  • Summarize the benefits of the OV and OVS programs

2015 overview of Open Value and Open Value Subscription

OVS-ES: Additional information for Academic customers: Student licensing

The OVS-ES contract doesn’t need academic customers to differentiate between licensing faculty and staff or licensing students when completing the OVS-ES agreement. Should an academic institution wish to license students, they select the student SKUs when placing the order per the regular order cycle. In order to license students, they have to meet the five full-time employee (FTE)/license (three for Japan) minimum for OVS-ES. This has to be through either faculty and staff or students but not through a combination of both.

For example, an institution with two faculty and three students don’t qualify to enroll on OVS-ES. They need to meet either the five-FTE (three for Japan) minimum for faculty and staff, or the five-license (three for Japan) minimum for students. If an institution meets the five-FTE minimum for faculty and staff (three for Japan), they can order any number of student SKUs. However, they must ensure that 100 percent of the student population in the defined organization is licensed.

Student license confirmation

Upon graduation, students who are licensed through OVS-ES orders are granted perpetual use rights on the selected OVS-ES program products. These were submitted in their student SKU orders.

An institution is responsible for making sure that graduating students with perpetual use rights receive a student license confirmation when they leave the institution.

The institution must have student SKU orders in place at the time the student graduates to issue the student license confirmation. This form doesn’t need to be submitted to the relevant Regional Operations.

Work at Home (WAH) and Home Use Program (HUP)

Two methods are available for supplying faculty and staff with media to WAH. Institutions may not use both WAH and HUP to supply the same media. Even if the media is available through both, institutions may only use just one method.

WAH:

  • For no added cost, WAH license rights are available for all of the Application, System, and CAL products ordered for Institution use.

  • These rights allow the primary user of a campus or school computer to use the software on a home computer for work-related purposes.

  • Users aren't licensed to use the WAH software at home for personal use.

  • The school might incur some costs for obtaining and issuing software for WAH.

  • WAH media is available digitally as part of the electronic software distribution initiative. Note: WAH is just for users with a current 2015 Open Value Subscription for Education Solutions (OVS-ES) agreement. The WAH program retired on October 1, 2017, and is not in the 2017 OVS-ES agreements.

HUP: HUP is a Software Assurance benefit that can be activated through the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC). With HUP, faculty and staff members can get the Microsoft desktop application software to use on their home computer for both work and personal use at a small cost. Institutions shouldn’t give software of the same title to an individual faculty or staff member through HUP and WAH. To activate the benefit, the institution should enter the benefit’s contact details and applicable domain(s). When this is activated, they see a 10-digit alphanumeric program code on the benefits details page. The institution can then give their employees this program code and point them to the HUP site to make their purchases. When the institution activates the benefit, they get an email template to distribute in the institution.

Complimentary Microsoft Imagine (Microsoft Developers Network Academic Alliance) membership

For each OVS-ES agreement, Microsoft gives one complimentary Microsoft Imagine membership. Institutions still get the complimentary Microsoft Imagine membership on renewal or submission of anniversary orders.

For an institution with a one-year OVS-ES licensed term, Microsoft Imagine membership can be extended when renewing (or extending) OVS-ES and can be used as long as the agreement is active.

An institution with a three-year license term must meet the anniversary order commitment to continue the complimentary Microsoft Imagine membership.

While we give complimentary memberships to customers with an OVS-ES agreement, Microsoft Imagine memberships are separate from the OVS-ES agreement. The software licenses given through the Microsoft Imagine memberships carry some restrictions which the OVS-ES agreement doesn’t.

OVS-ES customers get details on Microsoft Imagine in their OVS-ES acceptance notification from Microsoft. This includes where to register for their complimentary membership with their enrollment number.

The acceptance notification gives a special promotion code which they use when they register their membership.

When the registration has been processed, the customer gets a welcome email to access their Microsoft Imagine subscription. All licensed product updates are posted on the Microsoft Imagine download center.

Live@Edu

Live@Edu is included as an option for OVS-ES customers in countries where Office isn’t available. Read about the Live@Edu benefits and offering.

OVS-ES customers don’t need to sign a separate addendum to activate the Live@Edu benefits. The terms and conditions are referred to in the OVS-ES agreement. All customers who sign an OVS-ES agreement are signed up to Live@Edu as part of a new contract. They get a Live@Edu notification email with deployment instructions.

When the OVS-ES agreement is processed and Live@Edu is activated for the customer, the notices contact on the agreement receives an electronic notification. This gives them the provisioning details and instructions. Note that channel partners aren't copied on this notification.

Customer support information

For Microsoft Live@Edu deployment and general program support, the EDU desk, ed-desk@microsoft.com, is available during business hours, Pacific Time. This is the customers’ main source of support for Live@Edu.

Customers get free access to Microsoft Premier online support. This is available 24/7 365 days a year for emergency services.

For specific questions and issue escalation, customers can contact edues@microsoft.com.

2017 overview of Open Value and Open Value Subscription

OVS-ES: Additional information for academic customers: Student licensing

The OVS-ES contract doesn’t need academic customers to differentiate between licensing faculty and staff or licensing students when completing the OVS-ES agreement. Should an academic institution wish to license students, they simply select the student SKUs when placing the order per the regular order cycle. In order to license students, they have to meet the five full-time employee (FTE)/license (three for Japan) minimum for OVS-ES. This has to be through either faculty and staff or students but not through a combination of both.

For example, an institution with two faculty and three students won’t qualify to enroll on OVS-ES. They need to meet either the five-FTE (three for Japan) minimum for faculty and staff, or the five-license (three for Japan) minimum for students. Should an institution already have the five-FTE (three for Japan) minimum under faculty and staff, they can order any number of student SKUs so long as 100 percent of the student population in the defined organization is licensed.

Student license confirmation

Upon graduation, students who are licensed through OVS-ES orders are granted perpetual use rights on the selected OVS-ES program products. These were submitted in their student SKU orders.

An institution is responsible for making sure that graduating students with perpetual use rights receive a student license confirmation when they leave the institution.

The institution must have student SKU orders in place at the time the student graduates to issue the student license confirmation. This form isn’t required to be submitted to the relevant Regional Operations.

HUP

HUP is a Software Assurance benefit that can be activated via the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC). With HUP, faculty and staff members can get the Microsoft desktop application software to use on their home computer for both work and personal use at a nominal cost.

To activate the benefit, the institution should enter the benefit’s contact information and applicable domain(s). Once activated, they see a 10-digit alphanumeric program code on the benefits details page. The institution can then provide their employees with this program code and point them to the HUP site to make their purchases. Once the institution activates the benefit, they receive an email template to distribute within the institution.

Complimentary Microsoft Imagine (Microsoft Developers Network Academic Alliance) membership:

For each OVS-ES agreement, Microsoft gives one complimentary Microsoft Imagine membership. Institutions still get the complimentary Microsoft Imagine membership on renewal or submission of anniversary orders.

For an institution with a one-year OVS-ES licensed term, Microsoft Imagine membership can be extended when renewing (or extending) OVS-ES and can be used as long as the agreement is active.

An institution with a three-year license term must meet the anniversary order commitment to continue the complimentary Microsoft Imagine membership.

While we provide complimentary memberships to customers with an OVS-ES agreement, Microsoft Imagine memberships are completely separate from the OVS-ES agreement. The software licenses given through the Microsoft Imagine memberships carry some restrictions which the OVS-ES agreement doesn’t.

OVS-ES customers get details on Microsoft Imagine in their OVS-ES acceptance notification from Microsoft, including where to register for their complimentary membership with their enrollment number.

The acceptance notification also gives a special promotion code which they use when they register their membership.

When the registration has been processed, the customer gets a welcome email to access their Microsoft Imagine subscription, and all licensed product updates are posted on the Microsoft Imagine download center.

Live@Edu

Live@Edu is included as an option for OVS-ES customers in countries where Office isn’t available. Read about the Live@Edu benefits and offering.

OVS-ES customers don’t need to sign a separate addendum to activate the Live@Edu benefits. The terms and conditions are referred to in the OVS-ES agreement. All customers who sign an OVS-ES agreement are signed up to Live@Edu as part of a new contract. They get a Live@Edu notification email with deployment instructions.

Once the OVS-ES agreement is processed and Live@Edu is activated for the customer, the notices contact on the agreement receives an electronic notification. This gives them the provisioning details and instructions. Note that channel partners aren't copied on this notification.

Customer Support Information

For Microsoft Live@Edu deployment and general program support, the EDU desk, ed-desk@microsoft.com, is available during business hours, Pacific Time. This is the customers’ main source of support for Live@Edu.

Customers get free access to Microsoft Premier online support. This is available 24/7 365 days a year for emergency services.

For specific questions and issue escalation, customers can contact edues@microsoft.com.

Key Benefits

Key Benefits of the Open Value program

Like Open License, Open Value provides perpetual licenses. Once paid in full, the end customer may use the software forever.

Note: To obtain new versions, Software Assurance must be acquired at the time of the initial purchase (L/SA) and must be renewed prior to the end of the current agreement term.

The benefits of the Open Value program are as follows:

  • Provides optional product standardization

  • End customers who decide to standardize desktop licenses via the organization-wide option are rewarded with lower prices.

  • Provides three-year price protection to the distributor on Enterprise products (organization-wide commitment). Customers can plan a three-year budget because they know how much they are paying for licenses that they obtain today or in the next three years.

  • The cost of licenses and Software Assurance are amortized across three years, minimizing the impact on a customer’s cash flow.

Key benefits of Open Value Subscription program

The Open Value Subscription program provides Volume Licensing benefits for companies with five or more desktops (three for Japan). The Open Value Subscription offering for Academic customers, OVS-ES, is based on the FTE minimum for academic institutions as opposed to desktop minimums.

The benefits of this program are as follows:

  • Planned annual software costs through price protection for all products
  • Lower initial cost through Subscription Licensing with annual payments
  • Anniversary order and payment process for all Enterprise products
  • Customers can reduce the quantity of products on their anniversary order
  • Enterprise commitment
  • Possibility of ordering other Microsoft products through the program
  • Online services (OLS)

Note: Open Value Subscription customers may convert their licenses to perpetual licenses using the buy-out option. (Buy-out option is not available for OVS-ES in Japan.) Note: Open Value Subscription customers are entitled to a first-year up-to-date discount (UTD) of 50 percent for the latest version and/or latest version minus 1 of Enterprise offering software. This is built into the UTD at SKU level.