Generally most suitable for home users and organisations with less than five desktop PCs. The licence itself - called an End User Licence Agreement (EULA) - is displayed electronically at the time of software installation. The software discs will be found in the pack along with any documentation (documentation is mostly electronic now).

Currently applies only to Office 2010. Computers may now come with Office 2010 pre-installed by the hardware supplier for a trial period. The user can then turn that trial into a single full use edition of Office (Home and Student, Home and Business, and Professional editions only) by the purchase of a PC Attach Key. The licence is not transferrable.

Gives PC manufacturers and System Builders the ability to provide a limited range of key software pre-installed on a new desktop PC. OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and OEI (Original Equipment Installer) software (such as Windows Desktop, Windows Server and Windows Small Business Server) has more restricted terms and conditions applying to it than if licensed via FPP or Volume Licensing. OEM software cannot be transferred which means that it lives and dies with the machine it was installed on. OEM software must be preinstalled and then resold to another party, the system builder supplying the new PC is responsible for supporting the PC and must issue end user license terms to the third party acquiring the PC.

Provide an easy way for organisations (e.g. leasing companies and Internet cafes) to rent, lease, or outsource PCs to third parties with licensed, qualifying Windows operating system and Microsoft Office software installed. Microsoft introduced Rental Rights licenses because Windows and Microsoft Office licenses acquired through Microsoft Volume Licensing, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), Microsoft Authorized Refurbishers (MARs), or at retail as Full-Packaged Product (FPP), do not permit renting, leasing, or outsourcing the software to a third party. Rental Rights Licences, are available only on Open Licensing and Select Plus and are ‘additional’ to the underlying normal Windows Professional OEM, Retail or Upgrade licences & Office Professional Plus and Standard volume licences. They are one-time licences that are valid for the term of the underlying software agreement or the life of the PC.

Are suitable for organisations with 5 or more PCs, though some schemes require a higher level of commitment. There are various options available in perpetual or non-perpetual forms to cater for the different needs of organisations. Where a subscription benefit is part of the product, that component lasts only for the term of the scheme. Volume licensing programmes are an easy and generally more economic way to buy multiple Microsoft software product licences. With volume-based licensing, licences are viewed and administered on a centralised Microsoft licensing site (VLSC - Volume Licence Service Center).

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Subscribing to the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) enables development teams to reduce their development software management challenges. Visual Studio with MSDN provides cost-effective software development and test licences for organisations developing for the Microsoft platform. MSDN is a subscription service available as an FPP product and/or through the volume licensing schemes - which are generally the more advantageous way to obtain the subscription.

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There are a range of flexible licensing programmes available for customers from academic institutions. These programmes aim to meet the different requirements of staff and students in qualifying educational institutions: universities, colleges or schools. A small number of these programmes extend the benefits to bona-fide Charities and non-profit organisations.

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There are a range of flexible licensing programmes for customers in the public sector including the Microsoft Open Value Licensing Programmes for Government and the Select and Enterprise licensing schemes. Microsoft has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding which defines which entities in the UK are considered public sector entities by Microsoft in relation to its volume licensing programmes.

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The ISV Royalty Licensing Program offers Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) a convenient and more economic way to integrate Microsoft products into their software business applications, into a unified solution, and then replicate and distribute a fully-licensed solution to their customers. Grey Matter Ltd is an authorised ISV Royalty Licensing Program distributor in and for the UK and Ireland. We can provide the necessary ISV Royalty License and Distribution Agreement documentation, and assist you in completing and submitting it. Grey Matter is then responsible for providing pricing and for managing your account, receiving your reports and payments. Agreements through an ISV Distributor are known as Indirect Agreements.

Visit our dedicated ISV website for further information.

Traditionally, software is installed, used, managed and supported locally on a computing device within your organisation’s environment. By contrast, with Online Services, a critical portion of the software generally resides with a service provider outside your organisation’s IT environment and the service provider is responsible for managing the operation, upkeep, and maintenance of the software on their systems. Microsoft Online Services, including Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, are subscription-based offerings, and include Office 365, Windows InTune and Azure.

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Bing Maps is a web mapping service offering maps of the world, street map search, route planner, directions, satellite and aerial images, Birdseye view and 3D cities. It can be licensed to be incorporated into public web sites or intranets/extranets and packaged applications. The Bing Maps platform enables developers to get a rich set of tools (APIs) that help them incorporate mapping in their applications. Bing Maps licences are available through certain volume licensing schemes (e.g. Open Value and Select) but Grey Matter is also an authorised Partner Distributor for Bing Maps for Enterprise. The volume licensing options are not suitable for GPS Asset Tracking or customers who want to replace the basemap or imagery or use Ordnance Survey or OS derived data. Bing Maps for Enterprise has those additional features and offers three licensing models – transactional, known user and tracked assets.

Visit our dedicated BING maps microsite for further information.

SPLA is an agreement used by service providers supplying hosted solutions to 3rd-party clients. Service Providers may be at liberty to rent/sell time on their hardware, but normal Microsoft licences do not permit the licence holder to sell or rent the use of their software to 3rd-party clients. The SPLA scheme allows the rental of the software to clients on a monthly charge basis. Grey Matter is not able to offer the SPLA agreement but we can direct you to one of the few authorised suppliers.

Software Assurance is a volume licensing scheme feature offering a broad range of benefits in addition to the basic software product licence. On some volume schemes it is an option to be taken at the time of the licence purchase (Open Licensing, Select and Select Plus) on other schemes it is a standard inclusive part of the offering (Open Value, Enterprise, School and Campus). As well as giving upgrade entitlement, it combines the latest software with tools and resources to help you deploy, manage and migrate your software.

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With the release of SQL Server 2012 Microsoft have made some changes to both the edition line up and the licensing models available. There are now 3 main editions of SQL; Standard, Business Intelligence (BI) and Enterprise. The Workgroup and Datacenter editions have been dropped and the Web edition is now only available through the SPLA [SA1] channel.

The Server and CAL licensing model is still available for the Standard Edition and requires a licence for the server and client access licences (CALs) for any users or devices accessing the server. The Standard edition is also available in the per core model which has replaced the per processor model previously used for SQL Server 2008 R2. Under the per core model each core must be assigned a licence with a minimum of 4 cores needing to be purchased per processor. So for example, if you had a server with 2 processors, each with 2 or 4 cores you would need to purchase a total of 8 core licenses.

The Enterprise Edition includes all of the functionality included in the Standard and BI editions and will soon only be available to purchase under the per core licensing model. Again, each core must be assigned a licence with a minimum of 4 cores needing to be purchased per processor.

The Datacenter edition is no longer available and so anybody needing unlimited virtualisation is now required to purchase Enterprise Core licences with software assurance for all of the cores in the physical server (again the minimum of 4 cores per processor rule applies). Virtual servers can be licensed individually based on the number of virtual cores/threads assigned to the VM, again with a 4 licence minimum for each Virtual Operating System Environment (VOSE).

Licence mobility is now a software assurance benefit so if this is required software assurance must be purchased with the licences.