Microsoft partnership extended

Tuesday, IU announced plans to extend a licensing agreement with software conglomerate Microsoft, which provides students and staff with the company's most popular software, operating systems and other applications. The extension is valid through June 30, 2003.\nThe original deal was a $6 million, four-year deal signed in 1998, and made IU the first university in the country to provide Microsoft software. The extension comes at a cost of $1.5 million, which is distributed among IU's campuses. \nSince 1998, over 250,000 copies of Microsoft software have been distributed at IU at an estimated retail value of $40 million.\n"We have a good partnership with Microsoft, which has revealed itself through the first agreement," said Associate Vice President for Teaching and Learning Garland Elmore.\nThe agreement is being extended for only one year because IU was the first university to have an agreement with Microsoft, and thus is also the first university to have it expire, Elmore said. He also said since other universities' contracts expire in 2003, Microsoft is looking to have a universal turnover of contracts at that time. \nAlso, the technology market changes quickly, and it is hard to see farther into the future, said Sue Workman of the office of the vice president for information technology, who negotiated the one-year extension.\n"The previous contract was wildly successful," she said. "We've already had a return on investment of 645 percent ... and we still have over two and a half years left on the contract."\nIU's agreement is an enterprise contract, which means students actually own the software they receive through the University, said Brian Voss, associate vice president for telecommunications, who negotiated the first deal with Microsoft. No more than 10 other universities in the United States have enterprise contracts.\n"After a student graduates from IU, they own the software," he said. \nBesides the enterprise license agreement, IU has two other agreements with Microsoft. One is the provision that Microsoft will provide bulk price software for special fields and departments. Microsoft also agreed to provide any of its software not included in the software license agreement to students below market price.\nBut most major Microsoft programs are provided by the extended agreement. Popular software such as Microsoft Office 2000 and Windows, including the newly released Windows ME, are free to students. Any new releases of these programs are included in the contract and will automatically be made available.\n"The agreement is a great thing because it makes the software more accessible to students," said senior Alison Temkin.\nBesides providing software, the agreement also provides a uniform platform for all University computers, and makes technical support easier, Elmore said.\n"We look at the deal as purchasing a product at tremendous savings -- nearly $34 million from normal purchase price," Elmore said.\nMicrosoft's contract with IU is non-exclusive. Other companies, such as Corel and Symantec, also have contracts which make software available to faculty and students.\nCompact discs with all of the available software are distributed to new students during orientation. Software is also available from all IU bookstores and online for download from www.iuware.indiana.edu.