We are pleased to announce the signing of a sector-wide Microsoft software volume licensing agreement for higher education in British Columbia.

The landmark agreement helps establish a strategic alliance with Microsoft and supports technology innovation for the sector through a shared service agreement.

This is a red-letter day for the higher education sector in British Columbia, says Michael Hrybyk, President and CEO of BCNET. All 26 of our higher education member institutions have signed the agreement, which offers them optimized pricing for Microsoft software licensing, as well as customized solutions, simplified asset management, and lower total cost of ownership through our value-added reseller, Long View Systems.

BCNET partnered with Microsoft and Long View Systems to negotiate the agreement with the intention of reducing member costs on software licensing and establishing a strategic alliance with Microsoft.

The estimated spend of the three-year agreement is $9M with projected savings of $1.5M and volume purchasing of more than 33,000 desktop licenses. It offers the lowest pricing for the sector and also allows institutions to leverage the full potential of new Microsoft Academic Value Add Programs such as Office 365 and DreamSpark. The product offering includes Campus EES and Select Agreements, Windows Server, System Centre, Exchange, Lync, SharePoint, Project, Visio, and more.

At Microsoft, we invest heavily in Canadian education and it is one of our most strategic verticals, claims Mat Burke, Account Executive, Microsoft. Our vision is to help students and educators around the world by enabling them to realize their full potential. We will work closely with Long View to lead higher education initiatives in the province and to share best practices on technology priorities such as Office 365 Deployment, Lync Unified Communications, SharePoint, System Centre, and more.