Our company current runs an office software equivalent comparable to Office 2003. I was researching options (licensing!) for stepping up our office to real Microsoft Office product ... and got stuck with that idea ... totally confused at this point.
Am I missing something or the cheapest SMB volume licensing option for MS Office 2013 (Standard, no Access component) is like twice as expensive as the retail equivalent?
I can find retail box of Office 2013 Home and Business for around $190 while the cheapest Open License for similar equivalent seems to be priced at $369 (what!?) ... and that is even without Software Assurance?
Makes it kinda hard to convince management about benefits of VL program over retail ... especially since we are not a Volume Licensed customer (yet) and this purchase *might* make it worth becoming one (does it?).
On top of that I can't even make decision if we should really go with Office 2013 after reading about live/online account requirement for activation, and here a question how does it work in volume licensing version? I assume it will be a great pain with
installs from retail media and activation, but VL should have some tools or workarounds for that, no? I read that Office 2010 didn't have such problems and am sad I didn't push towards it when it was still available on retail market.
Maybe we should go with 2013 subscription for first year and see how that works for us ...
One thing for sure, I've been digging around this subject for weeks and my headache doesn't want to go away.
Open to suggestions.