Where do you get your volume licenses?

[InlineFive]

Hey all,

My small company is starting to acquire more computers so that we should soon be in the middle 10s. I am familiar with the benefits of a volume license but it seems like most places want a lot for their Windows XP Professional and Office licenses (as compared to NewEgg OEM).

Where do you get your licenses from for the best price?

Thanks!

I5

 

[ITJunkie]

Well, a VAR is a good place to start. A company like CDW, though I never use them personally.
You might find it cheaper, up front anyways, to just purchase what you need with new PC's as they come in. Of course, you have to store all the media for each one but...

 

[Lord Evermore]

Originally posted by: ITJunkie
Of course, you have to store all the media for each one but...

If he even GETS media with them.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: Lord Evermore

If he even GETS media with them.[/quote]

Very good point! Many come with the media installed and backed up in a hidden partition on the HDD. But - I guess that solves the storage problem.. suggest a master list (backed up) of all of the key ID numbers for each machine.

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: corkyg

Originally posted by: Lord Evermore

If he even GETS media with them.

Very good point! Many come with the media installed and backed up in a hidden partition on the HDD. But - I guess that solves the storage problem.. suggest a master list (backed up) of all of the key ID numbers for each machine.

[/quote]

I would love to do that but I don't remember any of my new Dells having the sticker on the side with the key. And all of them use a single key that Dell provides, so I can't find anything unique about each.

 

[manly]

I'm pretty sure OEM (non-supported, non-transferrable) licenses are (significantly) cheaper than MS Open Business.

 

[nweaver]

We don't use VL for any corp stuff, only for testing, and ours comes with our MSDN kit

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: manly
I'm pretty sure OEM (non-supported, non-transferrable) licenses are (significantly) cheaper than MS Open Business.

Well if I was just going to order computers without OSes that would be a great option but as it is it is cheaper to upgrade to Professional from Home with new Dell systems.

But as I pointed out, they don't have a unique sticker on the side anymore that I can track with.

Originally posted by: nweaver
We don't use VL for any corp stuff, only for testing, and ours comes with our MSDN kit

Wow, I thought that a lot of businesses used Volume Licensing. How do you take care of RIS?

 

[Slowlearner]

I have bought some 40 Dells in the past five years and each and every one of them came with individual XP stickers (this is a Msft requirement).

 

[networkman]

Originally posted by: Slowlearner
I have bought some 40 Dells in the past five years and each and every one of them came with individual XP stickers (this is a Msft requirement).

Our work purchased 300 Dell systems in the past few months and every single one came with both media and the XP sticker on the side of the case. Not that it mattered much since we'd already purchased VL via our Microsoft rep, and built up a couple of master images which we then Ghosted out onto the PCs.

 

[DarphB]

Well, Dell requires the PC's to be sold with a license.

2nd, with an OEM license from Dell, Gateway, etc, when the PC dies/gets thrown, the license is technically gone with it..

Volume on the other hand, you own the license, and can put it on any one PC at a time.

 

[RebateMonger]

Volume Licenses ARE pricey. Last time I checked, an XP Professional Volume License was about twice the cost of OEM XP Professional from Newegg.com.

In terms of software cost only, an XP VL license might make sense right now because it'd give you a free upgrade to Vista. And there are other reasons why VL might make sense. But you won't save on initial purchase cost over OEM or Retail XP.

 

[networkman]

In our case, because we're a library system, we qualify for both education and government pricing. And yes, a significant reason was the upgrade protection for when Vista gets released too.

 

[InlineFive]

Wow, I was under the impression that SA only deducted 33% of the Windows Vista cost.