By Paul DeGroot [bio]
Posted: Aug. 18, 2008

The following is a chart accompanying an article published by Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm focused exclusively on Microsoft strategy & technology. More samples of our content, as well as a list of upcoming articles and reports are also available.

An Enterprise Agreement (EA) is primarily designed to license a limited set of business software commonly used on desktop and portable computers. These products are called "enterprise products" in an EA and are licensed for every computer covered by the agreement. A customer must purchase at least one enterprise product in order to start an EA. Discounted bundles of products are offered as "enterprise platforms."

The top part of the chart shows each of the enterprise products and, where they are a suite, their components.

Note that the Windows license is an upgrade license only; any Windows PC must have a license for a full Windows business OS (such as Windows Vista Business), typically obtained from an OEM when the computer was purchased, before it can be used with volume licensing software or upgrades.

The two Client Access License (CAL) suites differ both in the products they cover and in the rights they confer for those products. The Core CAL suite delivers Standard CALs for the server products it covers, which provide rights for the most commonly used functions of the products. For example, the Standard CAL for Exchange covers use of the product's e-mail and scheduling functions. The Enterprise CAL suite, in contrast, also delivers Enterprise CALs, which are required for use of some advanced server functions. For example, it provides an Enterprise CAL for Exchange, which is required for access to unified messaging, which combines e-mail with voicemail and fax.

The bottom part of the chart shows the components of two EA "platforms" commonly used in Microsoft's EA marketing and price lists. These platforms and any other EA that combines the Windows upgrade, Office, and a suite of CALs are eligible for a 15% discount off the price of components purchased separately.

Generally, customers who buy an enterprise product or platform must purchase it for all PCs. One prominent exception: An organization can purchase Office Enterprise for a subset of its PCs.