Excel EULA question - automated creation of reports

[Rekonn]

Hi, where I work we have several people that run a process, which at the end
requires the creation of a report in excel. This used to be done manually -
people would copy data from tables in sql server 2000, and paste and pivot it
into an excel file. I've recently created an application that automatically
exports the data into an excel file and saves it to a particular folder at
the end of the process.

To work, this program just requires that excel be installed on the server
where the process is run. But, since several people run the process, does
each one of those people have to have a license for excel? Note, I have to
use excel because each report has several sections that we use different
worksheets for.

I'm hoping that what I'm trying to do is legal. Imagine we have 5 guys
processing stuff, and a 6th guy that just creates reports with excel
installed on his pc. The 6th guy gets told to make a report for job xxx, and
then saves it to a folder that the other 5 guys have access to. One of the 5
then emails that report to someone that approves or rejects it. Would the 5
guys have to have Excel installed on their pc in addition to the 6th?

 

[Gord Dibben]

You would have to obtain licences for each user.

For more on Volume Licencing see..........

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/default.mspx

Gord Dibben Excel MVP

 

[Jamie Collins]

You would have to obtain licences for each user.

Say I had a licence for MDAC because it was installed by my Windows OS
but I don't have MS Office. MDAC includes ADO, the OLE DB provider for
Jet and, because it is an older version (say, 2.1), MS Jet itself. I
can use these components to create .mdb (MS Access Jet database) and
..xls (Excel workbook) files. I can use the same components to
query/add/delete/amend rows/columns/tables/constraints etc in these
files. I can use Outlook Express to email these files to a client who
has MS Office. In these circumstances, am I breaking a license
agreement?

Jamie.

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