A Standard Operating Environment (SOE) specifies the software that is to be consistently used on all computers within an organisation. It is common practice for large organizations to use a SOE because it reduces their total cost of setting up, managing & supporting their computer infrastructure.
An SOE simplifies technical support by minimising the number of permutations of what can go wrong. Also, an SOE makes it much easier for staff to share computers when necessary, as the computers will have the same “feel’ if they’re running the same operating systems & applications.
One of the advantages of purchasing software as a license is the allowance to “downgrade” to earlier versions.