Academic Licenses Blog

Academic Software Licensing 101

Just this week I had a customer who knew nothing about academic software licensing. We in the business are always surprised but of course "how to buy software" is not a course you take as part of your Bachelor's Degree in Education.

So, here is the deal.

Software publishers such as Microsoft, Adobe, Symantec, Corel, Quark, McAfee, etc. offer deep discounts on their products through licensing. This means you license your computers for the software and buy one media (DVD/CD) (or download it free if that is available) called a multi-install CD and you load it on your licensed computers. The media itself is not licensed -- for example:

Sally has 17 computers in her lab. She wants to put Office Pro 2007 on each of these computers. She must buy 17 Office Pro 2007 licenses. The media is downloaded for free from Microsoft after she gets her license.

A common misunderstanding about academic software is that it is a limited version. This is NOT the case. The software is the same as what you would buy in BEST BUY for example. Why you ask? I mean isn't this that "there is no free lunch" people are always talking about? Well, no. The software publishers do have a motive. If you teach their software in your schools then students will want it on their home computers and when they grow up (and they do!) they will want it in their offices.

It is very effective, this trickle-up method. Which is why they do it. This does not make it dark and evil -- I heard a few of you out there with your disdainful tsk tsk tsk. They have an agenda and you get the software you want at a great price. So enjoy! Stop with the worry wart!

Microsoft School Agreement: Is it for you?

There always seems to be a lot of confusion about the Microsoft School Agreement -- is it a good deal, will it save us money, etc. Let me clear this up if I can. The Microsoft School Agreement is not built to save you money. It is not the equivalent of a site license that brings the price per seat down the more computers you put it on.

Instead the Microsoft School Agreement makes your licenses extremely easy to manage and keeps all your licenses current --- so that you can roll out the newest versions as soon as they are released (if you want to). Price wise: it depends on your situation. If you update your software every three years then the price is a wash. What you would pay to buy the new versions of Office and Win/Vista OS every three years is pretty much broken down into a yearly installments and that is what you pay each year for three years. Another nice feature is that you if you add computers during the year you don't have to count them until the next year when you renew. Sweet. You don't have to concern yourself with being compliant because every computer is automatically covered.

If, on the other hand all together, you have your technology on a 5 year plan -- where you lock in your operating systems and application software for 5 years, then the Microsoft School agreement is not for you. It would be a huge waste of money.

Hope this helped. I think a lot of folks get discouraged when they first hear about it because they are told it is a "deal". It is a really good choice for a lot of school districts but it is never really a "deal".

Training: Deal or No Deal

Buying training software/videos for the application software you are purchasing: is it a good idea?

Well - if your instructor is well versed in the entire package then the answer is "no".

However, so often the case is more like this: your instructor is really knowledgeable about Dreamweaver (i mean a guru! could have written a book) and relatively competent with Flash (has used it and likes it) but not so much with Photoshop or InDesign. And you just bought the CS3 Design Premium licenses for the lab she is teaching. If your instructor does not get training on these products then you wasted your money. Because without the training the software doesn't get used (or taught) and you might as well have spent your money on something fun like Wacom Tablets. Or pie.

That said - there are a variety of products created just for training. AND there are many products that offer FREE training - you just have to look for them.

Tons of products: Total Training offers a complete line of titles for learning pretty much anything and everything Adobe, lots of things Microsoft, with a sprinkling of other publishers as well. They offer training CDs/DVDs on single titles, on suites (such as the CS3 Suites), 1-yr on-line subscriptions (minimum 5), and K-12 Site licenses on a few of the CS3 Suites.

Adobe products: Firefly Learning offers training videos on Photoshop and Indesign.

Quark offers free training downloads from their website.

Corel offers free training built into there software. For example: CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 4 has 2 hours of training.

Bottom line: Training software is cost effective. Training your instructors is the only way to really get your money out of your software investment.

Budget Blues? Think outside the box

When outfitting a classroom lab it is crucial to consider alternatives when the "dream" is simply not in your budget.

For example: I know you want Adobe CS3 Design Premium for all 14 of your student computers. I know you have big plans for a design class that will give your students marketable skills or even set them on the road to their dream career. But you just told me that your entire budget for this class is around $1,300. At roughly $93 per machine -- it is time to discuss another plan. Oh, you could buy 3 Design Premium licenses. And what? Let the kids work on those computers once a month with a rotation?

There are other less expensive, well known and respected products that are worth considering.

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 4.0 - This is solid creative design software with all the tools you need to teach a design class. Never used it? Corel provides 2 hours of training with the product -- plus all kinds of training resources built into the product.

QuarkXpress 7.0 - For years Quark did not offer academic discounts. Because of this most high school tech people don't even consider it. Quark is, however, the industry standard in creative design and page layout. And the pricing now fantastic -- about $95 each for those 14 computers. It is reported to be really easy to use -- I saw a demo of QuarkXpress 7.0 at a trade show and it did look really intuitive. But no worries -- they offer free training videos on the Quark website.

Still too much money? Then Microsoft Publisher 2007 licenses are $23 each. Creative design for both print and web.

You can find something in your budget -- but you might have to rethink it a little.