Government of the Yaroslavl Region
Microsoft Home Use Program Eases theTransition to New Version of MicrosoftOffice Professional Plus 2010 forYaroslavl Region Authorities
/ Using MS Office under the Home Use Program does not involve any complicated procedures. Owing tothe program, personnel of the Yaroslavl Region executive authorities are now able to manage documents in the same environment both at work and at home. It also made it easier for them to learn the new features of Office 2010 and improved their overall performance. /
Vladimir Ionov,
Deputy Director, IT and Communications Department at the Government of the Yaroslavl Region
Staff of the Government and other authorities of the Yaroslavl Region use Microsoft products extensively in their work. In 2010, faced with the task of migrating a new version of Microsoft Office, we decided to participate in the Microsoft Home Use Program (HUP) that makes this transition as easy as possible. This program is part ofthe Software Assurance subscription and provides an opportunity to install licensed copies of Microsoft Office applications on home computers of employees at the lowest price ($ 9). Thanks to the simplicity and convenience of HUP, users were able to install new software at home on their own, without requiring assistance from IT professionals. Full deployment of Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 at the organization helped to provide access to Office documents from anywhere and to improve employee productivity.
The Client
The Yaroslavl Region belongs to the Central Federal District, and unites 100 municipalities, 3 urban districts, 17 municipal districts, and 80 rural settlements. Its administrative center is the city of Yaroslavl.
The Government of the Yaroslavl Region is a permanent supreme executive government body formed by the Governor. The main tasks of the government are drafting the regional budget and programs ofsocio-economic development, ensuring their implementation and preparing progress reports, as well as forming other regional bodies of executive power.
The Case
According to Vladimir Ionov, Deputy Director of the Department of IT and Communications atthe Government of the Yaroslavl Region, a few years ago government officials in the region used the Open Office productivity suite in their work. They often had problems when working with documents coming from partners: these documents did not always display correctly because of the different formats.
To solve this problem and at the same time provide users with a comfortable work setting, it was decided to use the Microsoft Office productivity suite. To this end, in June 2009 the Department of IT and Communication at the Government of the Yaroslavl Region and Microsoft concluded an Enterprise Agreement. This agreement is a corporate licensing program created by Microsoft for organizations that have 250 or more computers, have chosen the Microsoft platform as the corporate standard, and intend to develop IT cooperation.
The enterprise licensing agreement enables an organization to use various versions of Microsoft Office, so the Department of IT and Communications at the Government of the Yaroslavl Region decided to conduct an experiment.
"When Microsoft Office 2010 came out, we installed it on the computers of several volunteer users. After several weeks of work, none of them had any desire to return to the previous version. And then we decided on a full-scale roll-out of Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010," saysVladimir Ionov,
Deputy Director, IT and Communications Department at the Government of the Yaroslavl Region
The Solution
A Microsoft partner, Yaroslavl-based company ALAN, which had prior experience with successful implementation of several Microsoft infrastructure software products at the government bodies of the Yaroslavl Region, was invited as a consultant for the deployment of Microsoft Office 2010.
To make the transition to the latest version of Microsoft Office suite of applications as fast and efficient as possible without increasing the burden on the IT professionals at the Department of IT and Communications (as it is usually they who have to provide advice to staff on using the new software) a decision was made to participate in the Microsoft Home Use Program.
This program enables employees to obtain a copy of the Microsoft Office applications for which corporate licenses were purchased at a minimal cost ($ 9) for installation on home computers. Owing to this, they can work from home with the same version of the software product that they have at work. This gives the staff confidence in the compatibility of documents created by them, and also facilitates the transition to a new version of software, because the employees can study it both at home and at work. There are no restrictions on product use – the employee can use it for both work and for personal purposes. The number of employees eligible for home-use software is determined by the number of corporate licenses purchased.
According to ALAN Director Alexander Yelin, the deployment of Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 was carried out in three simple steps. The first step involved activating the Home Use Program and receiving an access code. To do this, an organization employee who was designated as the primary contact person at the signing of the corporate agreement registered on the enterprise license support center portal (Volume Licensing Service Center, VLSC), and entered the license number, having selected Home Use Program from the list of suggested options. At this time he also entered the domain names of addresses of employees participating in the program.
At the second step the distribution packs were transferred to users. To this end, the same person who had activated Home Use Program, sent the employees messages with an access code and a link to where they obtained the key and the distribution pack of Microsoft Office.
The third and final step involved user training in product installation using specially prepared Instructions for Home Use Program Installation.
As Vladimir Ionov noted when discussing the specifics of deploying a new version of the product, to avoid overloading the network with a large number of Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 distribution package downloads, the first copy of the distribution package was transferred to designated employees in every agency of executive power, and they in turn distributed it among the employees of their organization.
"Participation in the Home Use Program is easy and transparent, it does not require any complicated procedures. The executive authorities of the Yaroslavl Region employ professionals with varying levels of competence in information technology, but not a single one of them had any significant problems with installing software on their home computers," says Vladimir Ionov.
Advantages
To date, more than 1,200 users at the public authorities of the Yaroslavl Region work with Microsoft productivity applications. Each employee can use Microsoft Office Professional Plus2010 on his or her home computer.
"Most of our employees have computers at home, and they sometimes take some work home with them. Now they do not need to take mount out of their pocket to buy office applications sothey can work with documents on their home computer. We purchased Software Assurance licenses for the Microsoft Office family of products and this enables our employees to use them on their home PCs at the price of a distribution pack," says Vladimir Ionov.
Discussing the benefits of the new version of Microsoft Office, Vladimir Ionov pointed out improvements such as an improved Microsoft Outlook calendar, new ways to manage email, andsignificantly advanced multimedia editing capabilities, including video, in Microsoft PowerPoint. Microsoft Office 2010 enables fast preparation of documents by using the Microsoft Office Backstage view that provides a basic set of commands. The new Sparklines function in Microsoft Excel allows a user to build mini charts that can be placed inside cells for better visualization of data dynamics.
"Not only do improvements in Microsoft Office 2010 enable employees of the government of Yaroslavl region to solve problems such as complicated data visualization and fast tracking of dependencies between components, collaboration, and use of outdated programs that do not meet modern requirements, but also to plan better and make better use of their time,"believes Vladimir Ionov.
Migration to the new version of Microsoft Office also solves the problem of accessing documents from any location with Internet access. Such a possibility appears with online applications - lightweight versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote, running in a browser.
"I would especially like to acknowledge the well-designed interface of Microsoft Office applications, as this is the most important issue for an average user," says Vladimir Ionov.
Microsoft Office 2010 greatly expands co-authorship opportunities, when several users located any distance apart can simultaneously edit documents in Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, or Microsoft OneNote.
"Collaboration in Microsoft Office 2010 will have a very positive effect on productivity", saysVladimir Ionov.
"By participating in the migration of the government authorities of the Yaroslavl Region tothe new version of Microsoft Office, our company has once again been convinced of the quality and ease of use of products designed by Microsoft, of their compliance with modern requirements, as well as the convenience for the corporate clients of special programs such asthe Home Use Program," Alexander Yelin summed up.
Discussing the plans for the future, Vladimir Ionov said that in 2011 the Department of IT andCommunications intends to renew the license agreement for Microsoft software used atthegovernment agencies of the Yaroslavl Region.
The Partner
Established in 1993, Yaroslavl-based firm ALAN ( has substantial successful experience in the IT market. The range of services provided by ALAN now includes development and supply of hardware and licensed software. An important line of the company's business involves implementing integrated solutions for a paperless office, collaboration, integration of remote offices and branches, design of access control and business data security systems based on Microsoft products, IT outsourcing and consulting. The company aims to provide tools for efficient operation of public and municipal institutions and corporate sector enterprises.
ALAN has the highest Microsoft partner status – Microsoft Partner with Gold competency and fourteen Silver competencies in the following solutions: Silver Content Management, Silver Data Platform, Silver Desktop, Silver Digital Marketing, Silver Identity and Security, Silver Midmarket Solution Provider, Gold OEM Hardware, Silver Portals and Collaboration, Silver Search, Silver Server Platform, Silver Software Asset Management, Silver Systems Management, Silver Unified Communications, Silver Virtualization, Silver Volume Licensing.
Microsoft products
- Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007
Additional information
Information about other projects implemented using Microsoft technology is available at: (Russian)
or (English).
For more information about products and services, contact Microsoft Information Center at (495) 916–71–71 (Moscow) or (800) 200–80–01 (all Russia).
Microsoft on the web:
(English), (Russian).
For more information about the project (solution), visit:
For more information about the client, visit: