The most critical requirement in an Enterprise Agreement

Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) has a fundamental requirement known as a “platform commitment.”

It streamlines licence management but, if not carefully considered, carries the risk of overpayment.

What is a Platform Commitment?

A platform commitment requires you to select and license a specific Microsoft product (or set of products) across your entire organisation.

In an EA, there are two enrolments:

Enterprise Enrolment is the fundamental enrolment type for desktop software and related products. It’s a standard component of most EAs. You commit to licence all users or all computers with a set of desktop products.

Server and Cloud Enrolment (SCE) is optional, covering Microsoft’s server and cloud technologies. You may choose to “standardise” on operating systems (Core Infrastructure Suite), databases (SQL Server), development tools (Visual Studio Enterprise), or a combination.

How Platform Commitment Works

Before signing any Enterprise Agreement, you must commit to licensing a specific “platform product” or set of products within each enrolment type.

“Committing” means acquiring the chosen products for your entire organisation: desktop products for all users or desktops, server products for all servers.

For Enterprise Enrolment: Before Microsoft 365 online subscriptions, standardisation meant committing to a set of products (Windows OS + Office Professional Plus + Enterprise CAL, for example) for all desktops. Now, with Office 365 and Microsoft 365, you must ensure every user has a suitable subscription, even if you choose different packages for different users.

For Server and Cloud Enrolment: If you choose a platform product like Core Infrastructure Suite, you must licence it for all your servers.

And you must stick to this promise for the entire agreement term.

The two financial pitfalls

With the simplicity of the platform commitment comes the risk of duplicate licensing costs, particularly if your organisation has already invested in licences through alternative agreements like Select or MPSA.

Since the proliferation of Microsoft 365, such risks are less relevant to desktop products, but organisations still make the same mistakes with server licences.

There are two scenarios where you lose money:

Loss of existing investments (at signing). If you currently have substantial server licences purchased through Select or MPSA agreements, an SCE’s platform commitment mandates re-purchasing those licences. Standardisation brings benefits: simplified licensing, access to newer versions, enhanced security features, and up to 15% additional discounts. But it renders your existing licences redundant.

Unintentional licensing waste (during the agreement). Without proper awareness, your procurement team might continue purchasing new server licences through alternative agreements. I see this frequently in independent departments and subsidiaries that don’t know about the platform commitment requirements. The licences are legitimate but useless.

Avoiding duplicate licensing

Before committing to an SCE, run a proper cost-benefit analysis. Weigh the advantages against the potential loss of existing licence investments. Be clear about why you want an SCE in the first place: upgrade rights, security, standardisation, or something else.

Then centralise your licence procurement and make sure everyone involved understands what the platform commitment means. Accidental purchases of redundant licences happen more often than you’d expect.