What Is the Business Administration Center (BAC)?

What is the Business Administration Center (BAC)?

Q What is the Microsoft Learning Business Administration Center (BAC)?

A The Business Administration Center (BAC) is a free Web-based tool for organizations that have subscriptions to Official Microsoft E-Learning courses either through Software Assurance for Volume Licensing or Online Services under a Volume Licensing agreement. You can use the BAC to pull reports on how your organization uses Microsoft E-Learning courses.

Note BAC reports do not include data on other Microsoft Learning Solutions products found in Online Services in Volume Licensing, such as Microsoft E-Reference Libraries or Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) exam vouchers.

Q Why did Microsoft Learning develop the BAC?

A Customer feedback indicated that businesses need a reporting system on Official Microsoft E-Learning courses. The reports will help businesses gain a deeper understanding of their usage of Microsoft E-Learning courses and therefore, a better understanding of their value.

Accessing the BAC

Q Who can access the BAC?

A The BAC is available to any business that has subscriptions to Microsoft Official E-Learning courses through Software Assurance and/or through Online Services under its Volume Licensing agreement.

Q How can I access the BAC?

A Visit the BAC site to access the tool.

Access the BAC tool

Q How can I learn more about licensing?

A Log on to the Microsoft Volume Licensing Services (MVLS) Web site and check out the Licensing Highlights section.

Log on to the MVLS site

Q What do I need in order to access the BAC?

A You must have the following:

Access to a Volume Licensing agreement with an active Microsoft E-Learning subscription.

Designation as an Admin or User, User + VLK (Volume Licensing Keys), or Benefit and Online Service Admin Only associated with your Windows Live ID.

To find out which agreement(s) you can access, log on to the MVLS Web site and click Agreements under the Resources section on the left. If you do not see an agreement available to you, please request access to the necessary agreement(s) for your organization. If you have issues, click Support/Feedback under Help on the left.

· Visit the MVLS site

Q How do I obtain access to an agreement in Microsoft Volume Licensing Services (MVLS) if I do not already have access?

A You must request access from your company administrator.

· Find out how to request access

You can also request access by logging on to the MVLS Web site and clicking Request Agreement Access under the Resources section.

Q I am an administrator and I want to provide BAC access to other individuals in my organization. How can I provide additional access?

A Log on to the MVLS Web site, and then click Manage User Access under the Administration section on the left. You can invite a new user by clicking Invite New User. Enter the user's e-mail address, select the appropriate language, and include a personalized message to accompany the invitation. Click Send. The following access levels can be used when managing Microsoft E-Learning subscriptions:

Benefit and Online Service Admin Only

User

User + VLK

Admin

Troubleshooting the BAC

Access issues

Q I am having difficulty accessing the tool. How can I get this resolved?

A To access reporting, you must have the following:

An agreement associated with your Windows Live ID on the Microsoft Volume Licensing Services (MVLS) Web site.

Visit the MVLS site

One of the following access levels:

o Benefit and Online Service Admin Only

o User

o User + VLK

o Admin

If you continue to have difficulty accessing BAC, please contact MVLS Support.

For help, contact Support

Be sure to inform your support person of the steps you have already taken to troubleshoot your issue.

Missing data

Q No data appears when I run a report. How can I resolve this issue?

A This can occur for several reasons:

No employees have accessed a Microsoft E-Learning subscription. To validate whether a Microsoft E-Learning subscription has been activated by an employee, do the following:

o Log on to Microsoft Volume Licensing Services (MVLS) site by using your Windows Live ID.

§ Log on to the MVLS site

o Click Online Service Administration or Software Assurance Benefits under Administration on the left.

o Under Activated Benefits and/or Activated Online Services, determine whether a Microsoft E-Learning subscription has been activated by reviewing the details associated with any E-Learning Course Library benefit or service (Users Eligible, Current, Remaining)
Note: No data is stored for Microsoft E-Learning collections codes.

Be sure your employee is accessing the Microsoft E-Learning courses through the Microsoft E-Learning for-business site. E-learning courses accessed through other Web sites are not eligible for BAC.

o Visit the Microsoft E-Learning for Business site

The dates selected to view reports in BAC might not include dates during which an employee has accessed a Microsoft E-Learning subscription. Please select a larger date range and rerun the report.

The data might not be updated in BAC. BAC is updated every 24 to 48 hours. Therefore, activity that occurred within the last 24 to 48 hours might not have been processed at the time the report was run. Wait one day and rerun the report.

You might see data that does not have an employee name associated with it. This occurs when an employee has not accepted the Data Sharing Notice. Refer to the “Invalid or missing employee details” section later for details on the Data Sharing Notice.

If you have validated that you have access to the tool but continue to have issues, please contact MVLS Support. Let your support person know the steps you took to validate your access.

Invalid or missing employee details

Q There are only blank lines in the First name, Last name, and E-mail address fields. How do I get this resolved?

A Your employees must accept the Data Sharing Notice in order to see employee data associated with the Microsoft E-Learning courses being used. If your employee has not accepted the Data Sharing Notice, you will see which Microsoft E-Learning courses have been used, but not which specific employees are taking the courses. Due to privacy laws, this data can only be viewed after your employees have agreed to allow you to access the information. For employees who have already activated a Microsoft E-Learning subscription, they will not be required to accept this Data Sharing Notice in order to continue to use their subscription. For employees who activate a new subscription, they cannot access their Microsoft E-Learning subscription without first accepting the terms of the Data Sharing Notice.

Q The First name, Last name, and E-mail address fields are filled in as Private. How can this be resolved?

A If the First name, Last name, and E-mail address fields are filled in as Private, Private, and , respectively, this means the employee’s Microsoft E-Learning subscription has been expired for 30 days or more. Due to privacy laws, the employee data has been removed and replaced with the generic private data. To reactivate the user data and repopulate the fields with appropriate data, the employee must activate a new subscription by using his or her Windows Live ID and then log on to a Microsoft E-Learning course.

Q I see the First name and Last name fields as Software Assurance and Customer. How can this be resolved?

A When the employee logs on the next time and accepts the Data Sharing Notice, the information associated with his or her Windows Live ID replaces Software Assurance and Customer.

Q I am receiving reporting data for people who are no longer in my organization. How can I have their information removed?

A Since the employee was previously part of your organization, this data remains for historical reporting purposes and cannot be removed from the reports. If you want to reassign a Microsoft E-Learning subscription acquired through Online Services that previously belonged to a former employee, you can submit the request through the MVLS Support Center.

Submit a request through the MVLS Support Center

Microsoft E-Learning subscriptions acquired through Software Assurance cannot be reassigned.

Working with BAC reports

Kinds of reports

Q What kind of data do BAC reports contain?

A You have access to three types of reports: Assessment reports, Course Activity reports, and Log-in Activity reports. The reports contain the following information:

Assessment Activity Report: Assessment data on a particular Microsoft E-Learning course including, but not limited to, start date, completion date, score, and date and time of assessment.

Course Activity Report: Data on the progress associated with a particular Microsoft E-Learning course including, but not limited to, course title, topics completed, date and time course was accessed, and date and time course was completed.

Log-in Activity Report: Data on log-on activity, including the date that users logged on, time (in minutes) logged on, and first and last logon.

Note: For all three reports, no name or e-mail address appears in the report until the individual accepts the Data Sharing Notice. If the Data Sharing Notice has not been accepted, reports display the information without the names or e-mail addresses.

Data Sharing Notice

Q What is the Data Sharing Notice?

A The Data Sharing Notice is an agreement that each Volume Licensing or Software Assurance Microsoft E-Learning subscription end user must accept prior to activating a Microsoft E-Learning course subscription. This notice complies with privacy laws. The following is the language found in the Data Sharing Notice:

I agree that Microsoft may share with my employer my E-Learning usage data for any Microsoft online training I access from this point forward or have accessed through my employer’s current license agreement(s). I understand that my employer is providing me with the use of the E-Learning subscriptions in conjunction with these agreements and that by agreeing to share my usage data, I am allowing my employer to view reports on my progress and activity in these online training materials.

I also understand that, should I change employment and activate a new E-Learning subscription, I need to create a new Windows Live ID. If I use the same Windows Live ID after changing employers, I understand that both my previous employer and my current employer will be able to see all E-Learning usage data associated with that Windows Live ID.

Creating, exporting, and working with reports

Q How do I create a report?

A For instructions, see the Quick Start Guide

Q Can I export a report?

A You can export a report in any of the following formats: Microsoft Office Excel (.xls or or .xlsx), Microsoft Office Word (.doc or .docx), Adobe Acrobat (.pdf), XML, CSV, MHTML (Web archive), or TIFF.

For instructions, see the Quick Start Guide

Q How often are the reports updated?

A Reports contain the most recently updated information available. However, time delays in reporting can occur due to factors such as:

The time delay between the report request and the report output. During this time, a user might have accessed Microsoft E-Learning course subscription(s) without information being updated in the report.

The Microsoft E-Learning course subscription activation request has not been completed. This is the process in which the subscription is activated and a code(s) is generated for your employees to use.

The Microsoft E-Learning course subscription code(s) might have been distributed to employees, but the employees have not activated the codes or logged on to their Microsoft E-Learning subscription.

Q What if I think the reports are invalid and the reason is not due to a time delay (cited in preceding question)?

A Contact the MVLS Support Center for assistance. Tell the support technician that you have access to the BAC Web site, and include the steps you took to retrieve a report.

Contact the MVLS Support Center