Using Microsoft Office Open License
TLDR;
This article is a rewrite of an old article written by me in wordpress. I will share about my experiences in using Open License for Microsoft Office in a corporate environment. I do not know it this article is still relevant because currently people usually bought Microsoft Office 365 subscription time based, but I hope it will help someone out there.
Different Types of License
There are several types of licenses that provided by Microsoft for its Microsoft Office software, two of which are OEM License and Open License (OLP). To be noted, Open License is in no way a freebies.
Using OEM, license will attached to the hardware. Meaning if we bought an OEM Microsoft Office for a laptop, then that license can only be used on that laptop. If someone change its laptop, then it have to buy another license for its Microsoft Office. The problem here in a corporate context is that people come and go in a company. And laptop for employees are usually change every several years. That is why some corporate did not like the inflexibility of this kind of license.
This is where OLP license prevailed. With this kind of license, we can migrate license from 1 hardware/laptop to another hardware. For example, if an employee changes its laptop, the old license of Microsoft Office can still be used on the new laptop. This kind of flexibility is great, but it has its downside, which is cost. OLP licenses is more expensive that OEM License.
Getting Your OLP License
From my experience, this is how you buy OLP License for your company:
1. Contact Microsoft Reseller
2. Procure the license from the reseller
3. If the procurement is done, you will get an invitation to register to Microsoft website (usually this link)
4. Register on that web using your work email
After finishing the registration process, you can check your licenses in License Summary page
In “download and keys” menu, we can check the license code that we have. In there, you can also check “seat/activation” data. For example, if we buy 5 licenses, the seat/activation that Microsoft give you will be far greater than 5. I think this is to anticipate for cases like people change their laptop and we have to use the same license in the new laptop.
That is a brief experience from me using Microsoft OLP License. If you have any feedback, feel free to comment on this article. Thanks for reading this article.
