A UK Government agency will soon scrutinize Microsoft's software under a "value for money review" of their educational licensing programs and their impact in the UK. BECTA (The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) said the review should cover the range, scope and cost of academic licensing models available, assessing the degree to which they met the needs of UK schools and colleges and represented value for money.

The review will focus on Microsoft's subscription licensing models and "the risks associated with non-perpetual licenses". Taking a look at the total costs of existing Microsoft license agreements as well as the alternative risk of "lock-in" should give more feedback to the government if they want to further continue or discontinue the usage of software.

The review will also include a cost-benefit analysis of updating all previous Microsoft software to newer and more useful software releases. BECTA will compare educational advantages of having the new Windows Vista operating system and the Office 12 collaboration suite in schools and colleges.

The report is not fully scaled just toward Microsoft products, it will also give feedback to alternative products to ensure that there's a freedom of choice.

Owen Lynch, Becta chief executive, added, "BECTA has always recognized the importance of ensuring schools and colleges have access to a range of products and services which represent good value for money…In areas where a single supplier is dominant, particular vigilance is necessary to guarantee that this happens and that schools do not find themselves inadvertently 'locked in' to a particular supplier via, for example, a licensing mechanism. It's for this reason we have initiated a review."

The interim report will be out by June 2006.