Microsoft announce that Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard and Premium customers will be able to purchase Microsoft 365 Copilot through the self-service channel from the beginning of October 2024.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/4e5oS34, and advice for administrators here: https://bit.ly/3XITTnM.
There are updated (September 1, 2024 and September 16, 2024) Microsoft 365 plan comparison documents which now include the Microsoft Entra ID Protection feature and also reflect the rebranding of Copilot for Microsoft 365 to Microsoft 365 Copilot – see our blog for that story here: https://bit.ly/3BkvHiY.
Get the Enterprise flavor of these popular documents here: https://bit.ly/3XIWzBQ, the SMB one here: https://bit.ly/4gqZTJi, the Education one here: https://bit.ly/3zmTLRw, the GCC one here: https://bit.ly/3B6AEM8, the GCC High one here: https://bit.ly/3B2RCLf, and the DoD one here: https://bit.ly/3Zqkvve.
On 16 September, 2024 Microsoft made a whole raft of announcements regarding Copilot: you can watch the launch event here: https://bit.ly/4epu6qq, and/or find the written announcements here: https://bit.ly/3TLq2IZ, or read on for the summary.
First of all, there’s a new member of the wider Copilot family called Copilot Pages. It’s essentially a space where you can easily put content you get from Copilot and then collaborate on it with your colleagues. Find the detail on Copilot Pages here: https://bit.ly/3TyEAvr with a video of it in action. Next up, there’s another family member – Copilot Agents, which is designed to enable anyone to add new knowledge and skills to Microsoft 365 Copilot. Find the detail on Copilot Agents here: https://bit.ly/4gq9vnA. Existing members of the family – like Copilot in Word or PowerPoint, for example – have been enhanced, and you can find detail about that here: https://bit.ly/3TLq2IZ.
And then there’s the rebranding… The old Copilot for Microsoft 365 becomes Microsoft 365 Copilot and that change ripples through to Microsoft 365 Copilot for Sales, Service, and Finance.
If you’re a Licensing School subscriber you can watch our Did You See training session from 17 September, 2024 here: https://bit.ly/4gyS5W5, and if you’re a LicenseVerse subscriber you’ll be glad to know everything’s updated. We’ll have a little lie down now…
Microsoft announce that Office 365 E1 Plus is available through CSP from 1 September, 2024. It’s a special flavour of Office 365 E1 which adds on additional security and management features to Office 365 E1 and is available both with and without Teams. However, it can only be purchased in select markets in LATAM, ASEAN, India, and Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3Zlw6eZ, and a useful FAQ here: https://bit.ly/4gpRR3o. LicenseVerse is updated here: https://bit.ly/3Twqefb.
Microsoft announce that from 9 September, 2024, administrators will only be able to use the Microsoft 365 Admin Center to assign licences, rather than the Entra Admin Center or the Azure Management Portal.
Find details here: https://bit.ly/3TxMGo9, and LicenseVerse updated here: https://bit.ly/4gsnLwb.
There’s an updated (September 2024) Power Platform Licensing Guide with just further clarification added as to the licensing requirements within a managed environment.
Find this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/3ZfHhWC.
There’s an updated (September 2024) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide, with just a few minor changes.
Firstly, the Trials and Service Support information on page 58 has been reconfigured to streamline the information there.
Secondly, there’s text added to the Dynamics 365 Sales use rights table on page 31 confirming that Sales Copilot is a rebranding of Viva Sales.
Find the updated guide here: https://bit.ly/47nOeqE, and understand how Copilot for Sales, Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales, and Sales Copilot all fit together in LicenseVerse here: https://bit.ly/4fhB7L1.
Microsoft add the Python in Excel Add-on to the September 2024 Product Terms. The Python in Excel feature is currently rolling out to customers with licenses for the Microsoft 365 Apps, enabling users to access the power of Python analytics directly from Excel. Users who need faster calculations with premium compute and access to manual or partial recalculation modes need to purchase the Python in Excel Add-on through EA or CSP.
Find the support documentation here: https://bit.ly/3B3Si3b with a useful section on availability, and details in the Product Terms here: https://bit.ly/2OFt7vB. LicenseVerse is updated here: https://bit.ly/3XkrYJm.
Microsoft announce that from August 1, 2024 GitHub Enterprise and GitHub Advanced Security are available to be billed through an Azure Subscription for CSP and MCA-E customers. Billing is on a usage basis – if a user starts consuming a licence seat during a month, then customers pay on a prorated basis for that month with no commitment for future months. EA customers who have been able to purchase regular User SLs for these services can continue to do so if they want to.
Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/4fWzKlm.
Microsoft announce (June 2024) that the next release of Skype for Business Server will be a Subscription Edition (SE) which will be available early in the third quarter of 2025. From a licensing perspective it will follow the same rules as for SharePoint Server SE: you’ll need active SA to use the product – or buy the subscription licences – and if the SA lapses, then you retain rights to the 2019 version of the product.
Find the announcement article with migration path recommendations here: https://bit.ly/3WMVrvf.