For the two readers that aren't close-friends or reluctant relatives, I work at a Church. We do all kinds of charity work which gives us some super-cool buyability over at the compu-hut in Redmond.
I won't name names or list prices, but we'll just say the average charity organization pays about 15% the cost of a popular professional version of office-type software.
Now, how does the average charity organization go about doing this? Well, the first step is to see if you are really a charity organization. The best way to do this is to call someone "in the know" and ask "Are we really a charity organization?". Hopefully, the person will know and can tell you.
Next, you take the documents the guy gave you along with the puzzled yet strangely sympathetic look. (I think he considers you "special" because of the silly questions you've been asking of late... but for some reason that doesn't prevent him from handing you copies of legal tax documents. Let's remember not to trust him with important stuff in the future, he is obviously a spotty judge of character.)
You then find an authorized reseller that can sell charity licenses. I found one that we'll just call Computer Distribution on Wheels, or "CDW" for short. (completely random naming, just a variable)
So our guy at "CDW" says he can sell them at price x. I say "cool, if we buy a ton of this, like I'm hoping we will, can I get a couple of gigs of RAM for my laptop thrown in for free, so I can start testing Vista for the company?" He says, "Sure, what kind of laptop do you have?".
After much thought, consideration, and a french press (That's coffee, not an easily escaped wrestling move...) I called our rep back and said, "Actually, could you just try and stay in that budget and throw as many extra licenses of Office for Windows as possible so we can upgrade more computers?"
His response:
"I will still try to get the memory in on this one." (and he linked to the quote)
In the quote, he had added 6 licenses!
I just checked the local megalomart and they are charging just shy of $500 for the same software (retail)!! That means retail I saved $3,000. But for my purposes I saved closer to $500. Either way, that is a lot of money for a Charity organization to save!
Not to mention possibly getting some ram for my laptop so I can test Vista! (Which also saves my company the cost of buying a new vista capable machine for me!)
This was just too cool of a savings to not mention it. If you work for a Charity organization, please please please avoid buying retail or even OEM copies of software. OEM operating systems that come with your PC are perfect if you don't plan on building your own computers in the future, but buying office software as OEM means once your computer breaks, you cannot transfer the license to a new computer!!
Charity licensing is definitely the way to go, and finding a company to handle a majority of your tech purchases can make things much easier, especially when they beat some of the big box stores and are willing to haggle for an even lower price!
Hope this helps, or at least made you smile, or made you want to give me a dollar, which will make me smile.
