Software for work computers

This information is primarily intended for those who are relatively new to the role of DSA/Licence Manager at an institution, but may also be useful for those who have been in this role for some time.
Annual billing takes place in January for rental licences and in February for Adobe licences. Rental licences comprise a group of several licence agreements, such as SPSS, NVivo and others.

The full list is available on the staff portal. The agreements in the group naturally have different renewal dates, and the work relating to these agreements is handled separately from the Adobe agreement, with billing taking place on the two occasions mentioned above

These are ordered and cancelled via the Service Portal by submitting a request to the licensing department. Cancellations can be made at any time. If you wish to cancel a rental licence, this must be done in mid-November (around 15 November); otherwise, the licence will be charged for a further year.

A reminder is sent out every year around 1 November. Each department then has nearly two weeks to review its licences. Compare your own records with the information registered by IT on Qlik, to which all DSA/licence administrators must have access. Please note that Qlik is not an online database but is updated approximately once or twice a month, though more frequently around the turn of the year.

These can also be ordered and cancelled via the Service Portal. Cancellations can be made at any time, as with rental licences. Please be aware, however, that if an Adobe licence is cancelled in, for example, March, it remains valid until the end of September, which is the anniversary date of the Adobe agreement. In other words, SU rents this licence on an annual basis and it cannot be terminated during the term of the agreement.

The department may then choose to retain this licence and see if anyone else in the department wishes to use it, or return the licence to the Licence Office, which can allocate it to another user at a different department in need. In such cases, the departments themselves may agree on the cost of this particular licence if deemed necessary.

The anniversary date of the current Adobe agreement is 1 October. Cancellation must be made by approximately 1 September; details of the exact date are provided in August each year. If cancellation is not made, the licence will be extended for a further year. As described above, it will then take until February for the annual invoice to be sent out.

At present, there is no internal charging system for Microsoft licences. Currently, the department purchases licences, such as a Visio licence, via the licensing function. When the licence is renewed on 1 May – the anniversary date of the Microsoft agreement – The IT department currently covers this cost, but it is not passed on.

This is currently under review and will most likely be changed to the same internal charging model as that used for Adobe licences in the future.

Prices for rental licences are adjusted at the start of each year. The price for the new year is set to cover the annual cost per licence agreement. The price of a single rental licence may increase, even though the total price for that agreement has been reduced. This is because, for example, the cost is spread across fewer users compared with the previous year.

Prices for Adobe licences are set in October in conjunction with Adobe’s anniversary and are not charged until February, as mentioned above.
The price for a rental licence can be found below.

Prices for Adobe and Microsoft licences are not displayed on the staff portal as these prices are confidential. Furthermore, prices change frequently. To find out the price of an Adobe or Microsoft licence, submit a request via the Service Portal to the Licence Function. Use the ‘Question for the Licence Function’ form.