ATUS Website :: Home ATUS Website :: Home Issue 39, Winter 2008
AS Bookstore Offers Promotions for Students
The AS Bookstore recently implemented an Adobe Student Purchase plan making selected Adobe software, including Creative Suite 3, available to students at highly discounted prices similar to the departmental prices available through Software Services. A special promotion makes this program available to faculty and staff through March 15, 2008. This is for personal use with some limitations, such as one title per individual per year. Western ID will be required for purchase. Go to the AS Bookstore or contact Michael Bakse at 650-3652 for more information.
The AS Bookstore also sells Microsoft software to students and staff with educational discounts. A new option just for students is a limited time web promotion for Microsoft Office 2007 for the price of $59.95. For information about this promotion, go to http://theultimatesteal.com/home.asp.
by Susan Brown
Licenses and maintenance and contracts! Oh, my! No, they aren't lions and tigers and bears (Oh my!) but they are all complex items to be managed at Western.
There are three primary software distribution points on campus: ATUS Software Services, Purchasing, and the AS Bookstore. And as we all know, departments and colleges have some differing procedures and protocols too. You might find yourself asking, as Dorothy did "Now which way do we go?" There isn't exactly a "yellow brick road" to software purchasing at Western, so when you're ready to consider a purchase, start at the beginning by calling ATUS Software Services for initial guidance.
In general, ATUS Software Services purchases and distributes the most widely used software, including all Microsoft and Adobe acquisitions and all software that is site licensed. Budget transfers are the only method of payment accepted.
The Purchasing Department processes "specialty" or less commonly used software, with Susan Banton as the primary coordinator of this process. If you use your PCard to purchase software, be sure to get authorization from Susan Banton first. She can be contacted at 650-2430 or email Susan.Banton@wwu.edu.
For individuals who wish to purchase software for non-WWU purposes, the AS Bookstore sells personal-use software.
All three purchasing units work together to obtain the most beneficial software purchasing options for the Western community, including coordinating educational and volume discounts. A list of software and pricing available through ATUS Software Services is available at www.wwu.edu/computersoftware.
Please call ATUS Software Services at 650-3159 if you have questions about how to obtain any specific software.
A software license is as essential to software usage as the heart desired by the Cowardly Lion. When you receive software, it is the license to use the software that you acquire, and each manufacturer has its own licensing agreement with its own specific terms of use. Most licenses are "perpetual" meaning that you can use that specific version of the software for as long as you like, in perpetuity. Some licenses require an annual fee. Some software is available to faculty and staff at no charge through donations or site licenses (paid centrally or with costs distributed between cooperating colleges or departments).
Some software actually is free but may have conditions of use. Some software vendors offer reduced pricing for upgrades, and some offer optional "maintenance plans" which generally require an additional fee at the time of purchase to qualify for upgrades. Some software includes "work at home" rights, again with terms specific to each agreement.
The "click through" agreement required for installation, often barely scanned, usually includes the terms of the license, but at Western we may have a contract with slightly different terms, sometimes including additional benefits.
We aren't Wizards, but when you obtain software through ATUS Software Services, we will try to let you know all the benefits and contractual obligations associated with that software. If your request for software installation or re-installation takes longer to process than you think it should, it may be because we need to verify the terms of your license.
In addition to software purchases, Software Services maintains a database of software licensed through our office. It is required by many of our vendors to record the licensee, and it is important for managing updates, reinstallations, and transfers of licenses.
If you get a new computer we can provide a list of the software you already have licensed, as well as the installation media and codes necessary for re-installation.
If an employee leaves or ceases to use licensed software, it usually can be transferred to another employee. Let us know if you'd like a list of the software licensed to you. Departmental staff can get a departmental summary which can help to be sure that all currently licensed software is in use.
The yellow brick road of software management at Western does have some forks, but we hope it gets you to your destination with software in place that you can use effectively (hum along now) because because becaaaause because of the wonderful things it does.
Sometimes working at home is the most effective way to complete required tasks and objectives. A number of software products licensed for business purposes include "work at home" rights. These licenses have specific licensing terms. Sometimes use is limited to the licensee. Often the software cannot be used for commercial profit. Work at home software always remains the property of the University and must be uninstalled when association with the University ends.
For more information about software acquisition, distribution or tracking at Western, please contact me at Susan.Brown@wwu.edu or 650-7388.
For more information about work at home rights, click the Work At Home link at www.wwu.edu/computersoftware.
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01.25.2008