In our April newsletter we published two articles which covered off the detail of Windows 7 licensing requirements and the announcement that Microsoft will cease to provide new Select agreements.

Proving the point that IT and software licensing are constantly subject to change the announcements we made in both instances are now subject to amendment as Microsoft has responded to market feedback.

Windows 7 downgrade rights extended beyond the anticipated release of Service Pack 1

When releasing Windows 7, originally Microsoft announced a limited period (window) during which an OEM operating system purchase could be downgraded to prior versions of the operating system – thereby creating additional motivation for customers to plan for deployment of Windows 7 as the standard operating system across the enterprise. This approach has now been reversed and the limitation removed.

Following the announcement of a change we published an interim newsletter covering off the facts and relevance, however, in case you missed that publication we repeat our advice here - OEM versions of Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate will continue to include downgrade rights to the similar versions of Windows Vista or Windows XP Professional.

Going forward, organisations can continue to purchase new hardware and utilise end user downgrade rights to Windows XP SP3 or Windows Vista SP2 until they are ready to use Windows 7. Enabling such rights throughout the Windows 7 lifecycle will make it easier for customers as they plan deployments to Windows 7.

The text from Microsoft is below:

To support our customers’ “unprecedented move” to migrate their PC environment to Windows 7, we have decided to extend downgrade rights to Windows XP Professional beyond the previously planned end date at Windows 7 SP1. This will help maintain consistency for downgrade rights throughout the Windows 7 lifecycle. As a result, the OEM versions of Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate will continue to include downgrade rights to the similar versions of Windows Vista or Windows XP Professional.  Going forward, businesses can continue to purchase new PCs and utilize end user downgrade rights to Windows XP or Windows Vista until they are ready to use Windows 7. Enabling such rights throughout the Windows 7 lifecycle will make it easier for customers as they plan deployments to Windows 7.

What is the impact of the change?  For organisations who have a strong desire to maintain a single OS image across the environment the announcement from Microsoft buys them the time to appropriately evaluate and test Windows 7 ahead of a scheduled rollout. Computacenter doesn’t envisage this will result in shift of priorities for many firms as the majority of organisations have been expected to move forward on a phased basis – creating the need to support more than one end user OS for at least a limited period.

As part of the planning process every organisation should be aware that:

• Free support for Windows XP will cease in 2013
• Windows 7 ultimate is the only OEM edition providing value added features of inherent end point security, VPN, local Caching and multi language user interfaces that also come with Windows 7 Enterprise as a volume licence

Microsoft aid transition by enhancing access to Select Plus

The April announcement that Microsoft was calling time on Select agreements, removing the flexibility of forecasting purchase levels in order to enable a discount structure was received with some resistance by software procurement professionals and budget holders alike.

Having received feedback from the marketplace Microsoft will go ahead with the termination of the Select licence program, however, the ability to enrol in a Select Plus agreement for customers already procuring under Select has been supported by a concession.

Starting on August 16, 2010, the 500-point initial requirement will not be a criterion in activating product pools when setting up a new Select Plus agreement.  Initial orders with less than 500 points will be accepted.

If Qualifying Select Agreement is used:

• Qualifying Select Agreement w/ pricing Level A in a pool

Select Plus agreement using Select as qualifying contract will not be validated to ensure previous 12 months purchase is greater than 500 point

• Qualifying Select Agreement w/ pricing Level B-D in a pool

Select Plus agreement using Select as qualifying contract must follow current process and be validated to ensure previous 12 months purchase is greater than 500 points (if less than 500 points set up at Level A).

Select Plus agreements with effective date from August 15, 2009 to August 15, 2010 with pools on hold due to insufficient points to meet the 500-point requirement will have all pools activated at Price Level A.

In slightly more simple terms ….

When migrating to a Select Plus agreement, your existing Select agreement is used to qualify for the correct price level per pool in Select Plus. So if you’re on level C for a particular pool on a select agreement, you will be on level C for that pool when you migrate.

Price levels are reviewed after each year and not after the three year period.

Impacts will differ across organisations and indeed individual pools, Computacenter recommends that every organisation consider:

• The impact of having a Select Plus pool terminated and up front purchase then required in order to qualify for discounts
• Timing of transition to Select Plus to leverage active Select agreement pools and planned purchases which will enable qualification for Select Plus discounts and maintenance of discount levels for a sustained period.