Microsoft Office Licensing Essay Example for Free

Microsoft Office Licensing Essay The 2007 Microsoft Office Suites can be purchase under different types of licenses according to the requirements of the purchaser. These different types of licensing are Retail or Full Package Product (FPP) licensing, Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) licensing, Volume licensing, and Academic and Academic-Volume licensing terms (Microsoft Office Suites, 2007). When the Office Suite is purchased from a retail outlet or downloaded from the network, it comes with a retail or FPP license. Retail licenses are comparatively expensive and come with shorter period of support from Microsoft. When the software is pre-installed in a newly-purchased computer system, it comes under OEM licensing. The OEM license is bounded with the machine and cannot be used in a different machine. The license loses its validity once the machine is non-functional or stops working. Microsoft volume licensing programs are tailored to meet the requirements of companies of different sizes starting from companies having as few as five desktops (Volume Licensing, 2007). The volume license programs offer increasing savings and other benefits with the increase in number of computer systems. Volume licenses are further classified into Open License, Select License, Enterprise Agreement and Enterprise Subscription Agreement. Microsoft Volume Licensing for educational institutions or Academic Licenses are available to educational institutions having requirements of at least five copies and mores. The academic licenses are offered at discounted prices. There are four types of academic licensing: Campus Agreement for higher educational institutions, School Agreements for K-12 schools and districts and pre-schools, Academic Open for academic institutions of any size and Academic Select for medium to large academic institutions (Education, 2007).