BizSpark and Visual Studio Online

Question

I have a ‘Visual Studio Premium with MSDN’ account with which I created a VSO project in September 2013. Last month, we got a BizSpark membership. I now want to convert some of the ‘Early Adopter’ members on my project to ‘MSDN Subscriber.’ When I do this and that person goes to sign in to VSO they get an error that ‘Sorry, but UserName <email> does not have a valid license to access this account.’

According to this link http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/46981eb4-6fe4-43b6-88c6-8826789cde59/team-foundation-service-pricing-small-team-with-bizspark-membership?forum=TFService, ‘You get VS Ultimate with MSDN Subscriptions for 8 users with BizSpark. So, your team can use Visual Studio Online (formerly Team Foundation Service) at no charge as part of your subscription benefit, even after the Early Adopter period ends.’

But according to this link http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/9a6654de-e22f-4ebf-90c5-a3b37ff5207c/tfs-and-dreamspark?forum=TFService, ‘Team Foundation Service is not included in MPN, BizSpark, DreamSpark or WebsiteSpark subscriptions.’

First question, is Visual Studio Online included with BizSpark. Two Microsoft answers give different information. If it is included, then how do I get it to work? What does a user need to do to be recognized by VSO as a valid MSDN license?

Thank you,

WordRake

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WordRake

Answer 1

Hi WordRake,

Thanks for your post. For your first question, you may notice the two replies posted in different time hence you can refer to Esther's reply. Visual Studio Online (formerly Team Foundation Service) changed a lot in last year. To get it work, you can change your Early Adopters to Eligible MSDN Subscribers so Visual Studio Online can recognize their subscriptions correctly. Learn more aobut Early Adopter program here.

Best regards,

 

 

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Answer 2

Correct, both BizSpark and MPN now include Visual Studio Online. There might be a little delay recognizing subscriptions and make sure they use a Microsoft account (previously Windows Live ID) that's linked to their subscription.

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Esther Fan | Visual Studio | If a post answers your question, please mark it as the answer. Thanks!