It's no secret that Microsoft licensing is challenging, it always has been and it's even becoming more complex as new technologies are added. To ease license management the majority of larger organizations, in both commercial and public sector, have an Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft. It provides benefits like simplified license management, discounted pricing, spread payments and software assurance (e.g. rights to latest versions).

To help organizations to prepare for their upcoming Enterprise Agreement renewal MAP License provides an "EA Renewal Service". The first step is to do an inventory of the software installed and reconcile this against the associated license entitlements. Since deployed versions are reconciled against the version release entitlement levels, informed decisions can be made whether software products should continue to be part of the Enterprise Agreement or that certain products can be left out of the agreement.

Business requirements and expected technology use, such as cloud computing, subscription services and the use of virtualization, should be taken into account when reconfiguring the Enterprise Agreement.

Deliverables from the Enterprise Agreement Renewal Service:
• Baseline software inventory of deployed Microsoft products
• Reconciliation of used/deployed software against software entitlements
• Inventory and analyses of "unused software rights"
• Review of future deployment needs (both from a business- and technology perspective)
• Financial renewal scenario's for Microsoft licensing costs (based on six year horizon and/or two software refresh cycles)