EA Subscription Prices Cut

The price of an Enterprise Agreement Subscription (EAS) was reduced 10% in Jan. 2010, as Microsoft copes with an economic downturn by focusing on agreements that cost customers less in the short run.

While a standard Enterprise Agreement (EA) offers perpetual licenses for every PC or user in an organization and always include Software Assurance (SA, Microsoft’s maintenance and upgrade plan), an EAS customer pays an annual subscription fee to use the latest version of the software and get related SA benefits, but does not get perpetual licenses that permit use of the software after the agreement ends. An EAS runs for three years, after which the customer can buy out the licenses for a fee (at 1.75 times the price of their annual fee), or continue the subscription for another term. Because the customer has not purchased perpetual rights to the licenses, prices are substantially lower.

For example, buying the Professional Desktop Platform (perpetual licenses for an upgrade to Windows 7 Enterprise, Office 2007, and Client Access Licenses for four common Microsoft servers) through a conventional EA will cost about US$366 (or less, depending on volume) per PC per year for three years. With the new discount, buying the same software through an EAS will cost about US$267 per PC per year for three years. At the end of the EAS term, customers have the option to buy out the software, and thus gain perpetual use rights for it, for an additional US$467.