OEM Applications Eligible for Software Assurance

Starting with Office 2003, Office applications purchased from OEMs will be eligible for upgrades through the Software Assurance (SA) offering in Microsoft’s volume licensing plans. The move could increase Office 2003 adoption among small volume licensing customers who do not purchase Office in enough quantity to be eligible for large discounts, as these customers see an opportunity to purchase low-cost, preinstalled versions of Office without losing the benefits of their regular volume licensing program. Purchasing SA for the OEM version of Office Professional also gives customers an immediate upgrade to Office Professional Enterprise Edition, which includes an extra application, InfoPath.

Adding Applications

Until now, the only OEM software products for which customers could purchase SA were the desktop PC OS and OEM server products. (Full versions of the client OS are not sold through volume licensing: all client PCs used in volume licensing must already have either an OEM or retail Microsoft OS.)