Action Pack and more! Save money!

[luggage]

Just signed up and paid for the Microsoft Action Pack. For £199 you get £16,000+ worth of software - a years subscription to...

Product Title Number of Licences Number of Client Access Licences
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition 1 10
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Web Edition 1 10
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition 1 10
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Standard Edition 1 10
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services Enterprise Edition 1 10
Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition 1 10
Microsoft Mobile Information Server 2002 Enterprise Edition 1 10
Microsoft Office Sharepoint Portal Server 2003 1 10
Microsoft Windows Sharepoint Services Standard 2003 1 10
Microsoft Project Server 2003 1 10
Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003 1 10
Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 1 10
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition 10 Not Applicable
Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 10 Not Applicable
Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 10 Not Applicable
Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2003 10 Not Applicable
Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003 10 Not Applicable
Microsoft Office Publisher 2003 10 Not Applicable
Microsoft Business Solutions CRM Professional 5 Not Applicable
Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 10 Not Applicable
Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 10 Not Applicable
Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 10 Not Applicable
Microsoft Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2003 10 Not Applicable
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3a 10 Not Applicable
Microsoft Windows XP SP2 10 Not Applicable
linky (http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/sales%5Fand%5Fmarketing/actionpack/)

Sorry about the formatting.

We also signed up for the Empower program. £300 for...

Up to five software licences for:
Microsoft Windows® XP or 2000 Professional

Microsoft Office XP or Microsoft Office 2003 (Premium or Developer Edition)

One software licence and up to five Client Access Licences (CALs) for:
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server™ (Standard or Advanced Edition) or Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 (Standard or Enterprise Edition)
Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server (Standard or Enterprise Edition) or Microsoft Exchange 2003 Server (Standard or Enterprise Edition)
Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 (Standard or Enterprise Edition)
Microsoft SharePoint™ Portal Server

One MSDN® Universal Subscription media kit and five user licences* including:
one MSDN Universal Media kit (DVD)

a single user licence for development and testing purposes that includes Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET Enterprise Architect Edition, the full range of Microsoft Windows Server System™ integrated server software, all Microsoft operating systems and Microsoft productivity applications (Office Developer Edition, Microsoft Project, FrontPage®, Visio®, and MapPoint®)

access to Software Developmentn Kits (SDKs), Driver Development Kits (DDKs), and the MSDN Library

priority access to new product releases, updates and betas through the MSDN Subscriber download centre

MSDN Online Managed Support Newsgroup (English only)
Ask software, hardware and related technology questions in the Microsoft Support Professionals supported newsgroups

MSDN Online Concierge trial (English only)
This service helps users find articles and resources within MSDN. It is available worldwide and provides real-time responses.

linky (http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/partnering/isv/empower/)

You have to sign up to be a partner but this doesn't cost you anything if you do the bottom rung.

[Nutter2000]

We signed up for the Action pack a couple of years ago and it has been incredibly usefull and cost effective for us so I'd certainly recommend it.

How useful is the Empower program?
(sounds like a electricity company to me ;) )

[luggage]

We're going to buy a couple more machines and want to get Visual C++ .NET on them, along with XP and Office. It's cheaper this way - you get 5 licenses for VC as well as sourcesafe.

The version of Visual Studio you get is worth $2,499 alone - and you get 5 licenses.

I'll post again with a better idea of what's in the empower lot when it arrives.

[Nutter2000]

cool, cheers.

I think I'll wait till Visual Studio 2005 is out then sign us up.

[nascent]

When you enter the Empower Partner Program you have the right to get up to five MSDN subscriptions for $375 per year and Microsoft will do it again for the second year, but all of the software you get is not yours to keep.

It's a subscription based licensing scheme, so all those software licenses turn to dust like so many vampires sleeping off a night of drunken debauchery on the beach when the sun rises on the second anniversary of your entering the program.

The intent is to get startups hooked on all of those cool Microsoft software tools that they would otherwise have probably tried to get by without - sort of a heroin inspired marketing program.

The barrier to entry is having a website with your contact information on it (really low), so it's a real boon if you want but don't already have all those licenses and actually need several of them across a small team, but if you are a one man show and all you need is an upgrade to Visual Studio 2005 Pro, you could go to PageComputer or SecureMart and get the upgrade for just under $472, use and own it until your hair falls out and your nails crack and yellow. About $97 more than a 1-yr subscription, but about $278 less than two years. Of course you still wouldn't have all of the team tools, MSDN subscription, etc. I'm just pointing out the lease vs. buy aspect of the licenses involved.

Cheers!