SA Benefits Trimmed

A Software Assurance (SA) renewal grace period and an SA benefit that gave employees discounted Microsoft software have been eliminated. The changes may signal that Microsoft is taking a closer look at SA benefits that do little to promote SA but raise Microsoft’s costs.

The changes affect two elements of the SA program, the Employee Purchase Program (EPP) and the SA renewal grace period.

EPP Benefit to End

The EPP will expire Nov. 15, 2010. It lets an organization’s employees purchase a broad range of business and consumer software and hardware (including Xbox games and Zune music players) from a Microsoft Web site. EPP overlaps with the Home Use Program (HUP), another SA benefit that continues to be available, which lets employees purchase a copy of Office for home use. The EPP offered employees a greater choice of software than the HUP, and the HUP offered less incremental value, since even without SA, Office Standard and Professional Plus users have the right to install a second copy of Microsoft application software on a portable computer.