Thursday, 6 March 2008

Microsoft Open Value Subscription - Email Consistency Required

We are in the process of setting up a new client on Microsoft's new Open Value Subscription Licensing.

An important thing to keep in mind: When the agreement has been issued via your supplier, the end user, your client, will need to have a Live ID associated with the email address on the agreement.

The order of things:
  1. Purchase Subscription Licensing on behalf of the client
  2. Client receives an email from Microsoft:
    • From: eAgreementz@mmicrosoft.com [mailto:eAgreementz@mmicrosoft.com]
      Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2008 10:05 AM
      To: myclient@myclientsdomain.com
      Subject: Action Required: Your Microsoft License Agreement is ready for signature (Agreement Number: XXXXXXXXXX )

      Dear My Client

      Your Microsoft Volume Licensing Agreement has been created by your Microsoft Channel Partner and is ready for acceptance.

      Initializing Your Account and Accepting Your Agreement

      In order to review and accept your licensing agreement please click the link below and follow the steps to initialize your Enterprise Portal Platform (EPP) account. EPP is the gateway to the eAgreements tool.

      Link here
  3. Click the Link
  4. Sign in with the client's Live ID MyClient@myclientsdomain.com and password
    • If the client does not have a Live ID associated with their email, one will need to be created.
    • If the client's Live ID has a weak password, the system will require that the password be changed to meet complexity requirements.
    • Write the information down in your secure client audit notes!
  5. Client will need to sign the agreement as indicated on the Web page.
One will not be able to sign up a Hotmail or other address just for license management purposes as was possible in the past. All communications from the License service will go to the email address associated with the subscription at purchase time. Thus, it is a good idea to use an email address the client uses on a regular basis.

Once the pending agreement has been signed, the agreement should go active in short order.

Expect any media associated with the subscription to be shipped out once it is active too.

Other than trying to figure out new part numbers and whether to license company-wide or by the seat, setting up the subscription for our client was relatively painless.

One of the benefits of the subscription is the ability to "True Up" on the anniversary date of the subscription. This means that our client can now add more seats to their environment and not need to pay for those seats until the anniversary of the agreement. This is true in the reverse too by the way. Drop a couple of users and one will need to wait until the anniversary of the agreement to adjust the number of licensed seats down.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

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2 comments:

  1. stryqx08 March, 2008 21:03

    A good practice is to make the Live ID e-mail address a Distribution List, rather than have it assigned as an alias to a mailbox, or a mailbox itself.

    You can then add your e-mail address to the DL - with your client's permission of course - to assist with the management of the subscription.

    The DL also makes it easier if the nominated person for the Live ID address leaves the organisation.

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  2. Philip Elder Cluster MVP24 March, 2008 12:13

    What we have done in the past, is create a dedicated email address that would operate as an alias.

    In thise case, we were dealing with a new client, so, we were not able to do that up front. Though, we could have logged into the domain hosting and had it done there.

    We do the above for exactly the reasons you indicate: Keep the email address independent of any particular user.

    Now that we have gone through the subscription process once, we know now how to proceed with others.

    Thanks Chris,

    Philip

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