Select Plus Frequently Asked Questions

Select Plus Frequently Asked Questions

Table of Contents

Select Plus Is Being Retired

Select Plus Overview and Benefits

Software Assurance and Select Plus

Affiliate Structure

How to Sign Up

Pricing Levels and Points

Price Level Adjustment

Government and Academic Customers

Purchasing Model

Online Services

Migrating from Other Volume Licensing Programs

Volume Licensing Keys

Financing

Media

Resources

Select Plus Is Being Retired

The Microsoft Products and Services Agreement offers Online Services and software purchasing through a simpler and more flexible agreement compared to Select Plus, and will be available worldwide in July 2015. The MPSA also offers an improved Software Assurance experience, which helps customers better understand and use their Software Assurance benefits. New Select Plus commercial agreements will no longer be sold starting July 1, 2015. If you have a commercial Select Plus agreement and want to move to a Microsoft Products and Services Agreement, view the frequently asked questions about the retirement for more information. This does not apply to Select Plus agreements for government and academic customers.

The Select Plus retirement will happen in two phases:

1. Starting July 1, 2015, Microsoft will no longer offer new commercial Select Plus agreements.

• Select Plus customers can choose to migrate to the MPSA and maintain their current Select Plus price level.
• Existing Select Plus customers can continue to renew their Select Plus agreement for 1 year after this date.

1. Starting July 1, 2016, commercial customers will no longer be able to renew Select Plus agreements, or make new purchases through their existing Select Plus agreements following the next agreement anniversary.

In the event that the MPSA is not available in a country by these dates, Select Plus will continue to be offered for 90 days after the MPSA becomes available.

The MPSA offers enhanced features over Select Plus:

• Gives customers more options with the ability to create Purchasing Accounts, which let you define how you want to purchase (by affiliate, division, department, or any other group you define in your organization).
• Integrates purchasing for Online Services, software, and Software Assurance, reducing the administrative overhead associated with managing multiple agreements.
• Can save time and money by combining purchase points across software and Online Services for the best price level.

For more information about how the Microsoft Products and Services Agreement compares to Select Plus, or to move to the Microsoft Products and Services Agreement, contact your licensing partner or visit the Microsoft Products and Services Agreement webpage.

Select Plus Overview and Benefits

What is Microsoft Select Plus?

When it comes to buying software licenses and getting the most value from your software investment, the Microsoft Select Plus program offers flexibility, asset management, and a way to balance growing technology needs with predictable costs.

Driven by customer research, Microsoft Select Plus is for midsize or larger organizations with multiple affiliates that want to purchase their software licenses and services at any affiliate level, while realizing advantages as one organization. Since the agreement never expires, customers do not need to renegotiate and renew agreements.

Is Select Plus available for my organization?

Select Plus is available for enterprise, academic, and government organizations.

What are the benefits of Select Plus?

Beyond reducing the price that organizations pay for software licenses over full-packaged product prices, Select Plus offers many other opportunities to maximize the value organizations receive by participating in the program. Helping organizations get the most value from their software investment, Select Plus benefits include:

Simplified purchasing agreements. Organizations are provided with a single agreement under the Master Business and Services Agreement (MBSA). This agreement never expires for transactional purchases, providing more flexibility, while eliminating the need to renegotiate and renew every three years. For government and academic customers, the MBSA does not apply.

Organized purchases. Select Plus purchases are associated to a unique customer ID per affiliate. All purchases are tied to a single agreement and Lead Affiliate customer ID that allows organization-wide reporting or detailed affiliate level reporting.

License management. Enhanced self-service, online tools give customers and partners better management capabilities.

Save money. Simple, automated, volume-based discounts can be applied to licensed product purchases across the entire customer organization at the corporate and affiliate locations.

More value from Microsoft Software Assurance. Organizations can buy and receive the full value of the covered months of benefits, with proration of price based on purchase timing.

Make a seamless transition. Organizations can renew or sign a new agreement under the Select Plus program. Software Assurance covered by a Select License agreement still applies to the licensed products until its original expiration, and it may be renewed under Select Plus—so you can accrue the full value of Software Assurance starting with the new agreement.

Cross language use rights. These rights can help enhance a commercial organization’s global presence by ensuring that staff located in different countries can easily communicate. Note that you may not license in one language and deploy that licensed product in another language with a higher value.

Downgrade rights. Organizations can also standardize on versions. Downgrade rights offer the right to purchase the latest software version available, yet still run a previous version.

Training and evaluation software licenses. These licenses help organizations budget for software training and evaluation, and include 20 copies per software title for use in a dedicated training facility and 10 copies per software title for a 60-day evaluation.

Re-Imaging rights. Providing added convenience during product rollouts, these rights allow you to use certain licensed product media for copying software onto multiple devices from one standard image.

Whyshould I choose Select Plus?

Organizations can choose to purchase software licenses through the Microsoft Volume Licensing program that best meets their needs. The advantages to Select Plus include a unique customer ID per affiliate that helps a customer better track and manage their software assets. Select Plus also has a non-expiring agreement that eliminates renegotiation and renewal. Organizations can take advantage of the improved features of Select Plus with no price change. Because customers just have to issue a purchase order at the program price from a reseller, they do not need to negotiate a new agreement.

Does Select Plus reduce licensing complexity?

Microsoft is listening to customers and simplifying licensing. Over time, Microsoft hascontinued to evolve Volume Licensing by reducing the number of programs and product licensing models, the number of SKUs and price points, and made the agreements easier to read.

With Select Plus, Microsoft offers more licensing choice and flexibility to helpmidsize or larger organizations better track and manage their assets, purchase anytime, and receive automatic tiered volume pricing across multiple affiliates.

You can easily upgrade your existing Select License agreement and take advantage of:

A single agreement and Lead Affiliate customer ID for tracking and managing your software assets.

A non-expiring agreement that eliminates the complexities of contract renegotiation and renewal.

Consistent pricing and morestreamlinedpurchasing across all affiliates; they simply issue a purchase order to the reseller to acquire licenses.

Software Assuranceand Select Plus

What is Software Assurance (SA)?

Software Assurance (SA) for Volume Licensing offers a range of tools and resources to help your company deploy, manage and maximize your volume licensing purchases. The program covers Microsoft technologies and services, and includes new product version rights, training, deployment planning, and support. SA is designed to help improve productivity of your IT pros and end-users, and help your organization extend the value of your technology investment.

Can I buy Software Assurance with Select Plus?

With Select Plus, you have the option to include Software Assurance with your software licenses. When you add Software Assurance, Microsoft will automatically prorate your coverage to your third affiliate anniversary, regardless of time of purchase, so you only pay for the coverage you are using.This can help ease the need to track multiple Software Assurance coverage expiration dates.

What paymentoptions are available for Software Assurance via Select Plus?

With Select Plus, you have the option to pay the full amount upfront at the time of your order, or spread payments across anniversaries. If you prefer to use the anniversary option,Select Plus offers both Affiliate Anniversary (similar to Agreement Anniversary), which allows you to spread out payments annually with any proration of cost on the first payment, and Order Anniversary, with any proration of cost on the last payment, which allows you to spread out payments across full-year increments. This can help reduce initial up-front costs and provide annual budget predictability.

How do I renew Software Assurance that was purchased under Select Plus?

Because Software Assurance benefits purchased under Select Plus are prorated and aligned to a common anniversary date, when renewing Software Assurance through Select Plus, you will always receive 36 months of Software Assurancecoverage.

How do I renew Software Assurance that was purchased under another Volume Licensing program?

If Software Assurance purchased under another program is about to expire, you can renew it into your Select Plus Agreement by working with your authorized reseller to place a renewal order under your Select Plus Agreement.

How are training vouchers managed with multiple purchase periods?

The training vouchers are managed the same as they are for other volume licensing programs, like the Enterprise Agreement.The difference is the end dates for the training vouchers are at different times. However, there is a system rule in place that will always use the training voucher with the earliest expiration date first.

Does Select Plus have a different end date for Software Assurance benefits?

Yes. Microsoft has reporting available for you to see benefits and their expiration dates. The benefit will have the same life as the purchase order that accrues the benefit.

Can I grant administrative access to contacts outside of my organization for Software Assurance benefits administration?

Yes. This process does not change for Select Plus.

Affiliate Structure

How do affiliates join, and how do they count toward the company-wide price level?

The one-page Select Plus affiliate registration form identifies purchasing affiliates within the organization and registers them in the program. As a result, they can acquire software licenses and services under the Select Plus Agreement. The Licensing Solutions Provider (LSP) that works directly with the affiliate is also identified on the affiliate registration form. Having a separate Select Plus Agreement and Select Plus affiliate registration structure allows greater flexibility for registered affiliates located in different countries and regions. Although purchasing is conducted independently, all licenses are consolidated under one master agreement.

Is there a compliance check to ensure that the affiliates are associated to the correct lead affiliate?

No. However, a notice is sent to the lead affiliate when any participating affiliate registers.

After affiliates are registered, do they have to submit an order?

No obligation exists in the Select Plus Agreement to place any orders. The annual compliance check ensures that the pool is placed on hold eventually if there are no orders under the program by any of the registered affiliates.

How is the affiliate notified if the lead affiliate decides to remove an affiliate or cancel the Select Plus Agreement altogether?

A termination/cancellation notice is sent to the impacted affiliate. If a lead affiliate cancels the Select Plus Agreement causing all additional affiliates’ registrations to be canceled as well, this notice goes out to all impacted parties.

Can my organization’s division or department level be an affiliate, not the company level?

Yes. You can describe yourself through the contracting process.

How do I elect the order anniversary instead of affiliate anniversary?

The first order determines the order anniversary month. These are billing options available at each line item if the Purchase Order Line Item (POLI) has a coverage period. Up front is the only option for “License only.”

Are up-to-date points accumulated by a lead affiliate published in the Volume Licensing ServiceCenter (VLSC), and will they be visible to registered affiliates?

Yes. This is agreement-level information that is visible to all affiliates.

Is the lead affiliate notified of the new price level?

Yes. A notice will be sent to the lead affiliate, all registered affiliates, and their partners whenever the pricelevel is changed.

Are all affiliates responsible for compliance with the Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) of the agreement?

Yes. All affiliates are bound by the T&Cs of the Select Plus Agreement. In addition, the lead affiliate is responsible for their registered affiliates’ compliance (T&Cs, not purchase volume compliance).

Can a registered affiliate submit multiple affiliate registrations with different LSPs?

Each registration is tied to a single customer and partner, as each customer is represented by a unique customer ID that exists in our systems today called the Public Customer Number (PCN). If an affiliate generates multiple PCNs, the affiliate could register each PCN with a differentLSP, but each PCN can only be registered once.

Can I change my reseller?

Yes. There is a Change of Channel Partner (COCP) process in place.

Do registered affiliates receive media?

Select Plus ships media at the affiliate level. Each affiliate can choose their media preference (download only or physical). In Select Plus, Microsoft only ships media if an affiliate orders the product and selects the physical media option.

How to SignUp

How do I participate in Select Plus?

For commercial organizations, a Select Plus Agreement has three components that the customer needs to complete: (1) the Microsoft Business and Services Agreement (MBSA); (2) the agreement itself; and (3) the Select Plus affiliate registration form.

For academic and government organizations, a Select Plus Agreement consists of two components: (1) the agreement itself; and (2) the Select Plus affiliate registration form.

Pricing Levels and Points

How are price levels established for commercial organizations?

Select Plus categorizes software products into three distinct product pools: applications, systems, and servers. For commercial organizations, the price level for each pool is based on product points that the organization earns for automatic tiered discount levels. For academic and government organizations, there is a single price level.

How many points do I need to begin purchasing on a SelectPlusAgreement?

You need to reach the 500-point minimum within 12 months of initial order.

Customers can purchase under single pools. If you purchase under multiple pools, you must qualify with a minimum of 500 points per pool.

Customers that have an existing Enterprise Agreement (EA), Enterprise Subscription Agreement (EAS), or Campus and School Agreement (CASA) do not need to comply with annual point minimums. Customers also do not need to comply if the existing agreement is linked with the Select Plus agreement.

If you have an existing Volume Licensing agreement other than EA, EAS, or CASA, and have acquired 500 points or more in the past 12 months, the initial price level is determined based on the points purchased in the qualifying Volume Licensing program.

Is there a difference in price between Select and Select Plus?

No. The price for each level in Select Plus is the same as for Select.

Note: As of July 1, 2011, Microsoft no longer sold new Select License Agreements.

What are the price levels for commercial organizations?

For commercial organizations, there are four price levels, and the points for each are listed below.

Select Plus Price Level – Commercial / Annual Point Minimums Per Pool
A / 500
B / 4,000
C / 10,000
D / 25,000

For government organizations, pricing is based on purchasing across all government entities in a country and is generally set at Select Plus Level D. For academic institutions, pricing is set at the same single price level (Level A) as for Select License for Academic.