Hey, we're trying to work out bulk-licensing and some other software deals for the next year at the bookstore. Sorry this is kind of long.

Current, and somewhat incomplete, list: http://www.fis.ncsu.edu/ncsubookstores/software.html

As far as adobe software, it'll pretty much be the same as the list now except with the new versions. The only questions we have would be about possibly working out the bulk education license deals for additional products. Any interest in things like Production Studio, Acrobat 3D, Audition, Encore DVD, Video bundle.

The bundle products offer the best discount, with the Video Bundle and Production Studio probably running students around 399.95 and 329.95 respectively. The only problem is that they have to be ordered in minimum quantities of about 20 each. These prices are also estimates, and may go up or down by as much as 50 dollars in the next cycle of releases.

Now for the Microsoft stuff...

Microsoft Software (We are mostly sure of these prices)

Office 2007 Enterprise
(Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, Access, InfoPath, OneNote and Groove)
89.95

Office 2007 Basic
(Word, Excel, and Outlook)
24.95

Office 2007 Standard
(Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook)
59.95

Office 2007 Professional Plus
(Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, Access and InfoPath)
74.95

Visio Professional 2007 (IF enough interest in bulk licensing exists)
89.95

Project Professional 2007 (IF enough interest in bulk licensing exists)
129.95

Windows Vista Business Upgrade
79.95

FrontPage 2007
59.95

Visual Studio 2005 Standard
59.95

Visual Studio 2005 Pro
129.95

What I'm interested in is which of the 4 office packages you yourselves are most interested in and what you think other people would be most interested in. I'm uncertain how office basic will do, considering that it does not have powerpoint and will therefore not be recomended to freshmen at orientation. Also, what do you guys think about Professional Plus vs Enterprise? Would you be willing to pay the extra 15 bucks for Groove and One Note?

As far as Vista goes, the only education license availble looks like it's going to be Buisness. OEM Copies of Buisness and Home Premium would be availible to people purchasing Intel Macs for 159.95 and 129.95 respectively.

Any other software people need that hasn't been there? SolidWorks is one I know, but there are issues with qualifying as an education reseller for that one. If enough people would use it though, a petition or group letter might be enough to get university legal, the bookstore managment, and possibly a department or two moving in a direction that would help students get it. That statement goes for most software not availible through normal education distributers.

1/18/2007 9:55:36 PM

im all for enterprise because i use onenote

im probably the only person

there was a professor asking about it today at the counter though

so that makes two

and drop that cheap one, too many professors use powerpoint

[Edited on January 18, 2007 at 10:02 PM. Reason : .]

1/18/2007 9:58:43 PM

Yeah but for only 25 bucks... I mean if you have 3 computers, do you really need powerpoint or whatever on all of them?

1/18/2007 10:06:35 PM

yeah you can always download the powerpoint reader if can pass WGA

you know how people dont know what they want need anyway

if there is a cheaper option and they buy it and then they need powerpoint, they will bitch

[Edited on January 18, 2007 at 10:10 PM. Reason : .]

1/18/2007 10:09:43 PM

Well, let me me first ask, what % of your business comes from students? The following statements I'm about to make assume 85%+ of your business if from students...

-Office 2003 Standard includes Word, Excel and Powerpoint ... most people can find an alternate email client (Thunderbird or Webmail) or an alternate database client if need be for personal use. Get Office Standard for your site-wide license and order Office Professional Plus as you need it per course requirements (i.e. approximate known order amounts ahead of time).

-Unless you guys plan on doing university-wide Office server products, forget Office Enterprise. The CALS and licensing costs alone for some of that stuff will kill you. Also, consider the fact that NCSU as a whole isn't a Microsoft shop ... the benefit from Groove, Live Communications Server, SharePoint Services, etc., are going to be lost in the short-term. Might see something long-term (2010ish maybe), but not short-term.

-Not enough current students care to upgrade to Vista since XP is stable enough. Incoming students will want it bundled with a hardware package.

-Visual Studio is a waste of money as NCSU CSC primarily focuses on Java (with some C/C++ focus), but hardly any .NET. That, and those departments that DO see a need for it will probably offer it via MSDNAA.

- Visio / Project is useful for some senior / several graduate courses. Again, get the orders in ahead of time and you can plan appropriately.

Good luck. Office 2k7 is geared primarily towards communications / interconnecting everybody. So far as I know, that really isn't a huge need for students. Don't go nuts thinking it is and ordering a bunch of crap students really don't need or use.

1/18/2007 10:12:35 PM

Well, since this last year first semester MS Office sales were over 2000 units, mostly pro, I don't think there'll be any problem selling the office bundles ordered. The year-to-year increase in first semester sales of office have been roughly 300% each year (from fall 2004 to 2005 to 2006)

Many parents ask for "the highest" or "the best" office suite and refuse to let you explain why they don't need it anyways. As far as office goes, yes students represent about 85% of the buisness at least. With adobe products it's about 50/50.

We're more concerned about the ratio of enterprise to professional plus. Do you think the $15 difference would annoy people if pro plus was out of stuck and only enterprise was availible for a week or so?

Quote :

"The CALS and licensing costs alone for some of that stuff will kill you."

The prices we've listed include license and media. What other costs do you mean? These aren't site-wide licenses, but special bubble-packed education licenses that must be ordered in bulk (units of 50.) For the microsoft stuff, each package is an individual copy of the software and individual license key.

[Edited on January 18, 2007 at 10:25 PM. Reason : ]

1/18/2007 10:18:19 PM

Quote :

"We're more concerned about the ratio of enterprise to professional plus. Do you think the $15 difference would annoy people if pro plus was out of stuck and only enterprise was availible for a week or so?"

the $10 didnt bother people until there werent any copies of any level left

[Edited on January 18, 2007 at 10:23 PM. Reason : .]

1/18/2007 10:23:24 PM

Heh, well everyone thought the first 300% year-to-year increase was due to the fact that the first time it was offered it was delayed 2 months into the semester because of legal issues. They'll probably order about 1500 coppies total for the first couple weeks of the semester and sell out before the second day of class... again.

1/18/2007 10:27:45 PM

^^^
Ok, that makes a bit more sense. Its actually a physical package that you will be selling and not a burned-CD with a CD-Key given out. You guys acts more like a distributor than a centralized software licensing entity.

I think your largest issue will be deciding how many folks actually need MS Access when they want to buy the product. I'll revise my last statement and say have them pay a bit extra for Microsoft Professional. Assuming they buy this freshman year, they'll probably need the extra features of it at some point in their undergrad years. Assuming they buy this at any other point, they'll need it immediately at that time.

So far as Enterprise goes, that's where you are going to need a backend server support and CALS to really make it beneficial. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office_Groove "From that moment on, Groove keeps all the copies synchronized via the Internet through central servers hosted by Microsoft or the corporate network. When any one member makes a change to the space, that change is sent to all copies for update."). Also, somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but collaboration isn't generally a huge issue with students. Some graduate students and multi-disciplinary / geographically separated teams might benefit from it, but I think those folks are few and far between.

1/19/2007 5:59:57 AM

Sort of on topic, but do you have to be an NCSU student to get the student price at the NCSU bookstore? In other words, can my wife, who is a UNC student get the student discount with her student ID?

1/19/2007 9:45:25 AM

nah

with the microsoft and the adobe stuff you have to have a NCSU ID

she could buy the retail student versions

[Edited on January 19, 2007 at 9:47 AM. Reason : .]

1/19/2007 9:46:55 AM

what's the difference?


Basically I want to avoid having to fork over any of my own money to UNC.

1/19/2007 12:14:42 PM

one is in a retail box ~ $140; this one we can sell to anyone with a collegiate ID and can be installed on three computers

one is a CD in a plastic jacket ~$60; this one is just for people with an NCSU ID, one computer only

this is for microsoft and it works the same for adobe software, there is even more savings on the adobe stuff

all other software is in retail student version boxes

[Edited on January 19, 2007 at 3:29 PM. Reason : .]

1/19/2007 3:22:36 PM

ah, that's a pretty big difference in price.

i guess i'll suck it up and get her to buy from the UNC book store.

1/19/2007 3:37:05 PM

I'm pretty sure, atleast when I worked at the bookstore, that any unc systems id was your ticket to buy software. So you could buy whatever you wanted with even an app state id.

1/19/2007 4:34:05 PM

Quote :

"I'm pretty sure, atleast when I worked at the bookstore, that any unc systems id was your ticket to buy software. So you could buy whatever you wanted with even an app state id."

That's for the normal education boxed versions. The bookstore has, for a long time, carried the same traditional education software packages availible through almost any education reseller. In addition to that, there's now special student licenses from some software publishers (Adobe, Microsoft, ERSI.) These licenses and pricing schemes are specific to each university and involved the bookstore signing a reseller license authorizing it to distribute licenses to students, faculty and staff at NCSU. Since the contract governing these licenses is specific to the university, these special non-boxed deals are only availible to those associated with NCSU.

What's more, because of the very nasty provisions regarding liability in the licensing agreements, the bookstore must be much more strict about how it handles these licenses. Were microsoft, adobe, ERSI, or one of the other companies providing these special licenses to find evidence that the bookstore was in breach of contract and selling the licences to people who did not qualify, we would loose rights to sell the software at all. Additionally, some of these aggreements could result in the bookstore being charged up to $2100 for each innapropriate sale. Since profits from the bookstore go directly into scholarships, this would have repurcussions beyond simply the loss of a couple jobs at the store.

So, basically, unless you've got an NCSU ID of some form or a letter from the McKimmon Center then you will most likely not have accesss to software that's priced much better here than at your own college store. This does not apply to hardware though, as we can sell IBM and Apple products to anyone associated with public education in NC. Yes, this does mean that a high school teacher from Enloe or Broughton could buy a ThinkPad or MacBook through the university and get an education discount.

1/20/2007 9:20:23 AM