I’ve taken all this information from the Microsoft webcast on this topic at http://bit.ly/15elDBr. If you like to learn by watching a video then proceed with all haste to this link. Otherwise read on for the key points which act as a follow on article to my introductory post on this topic.

Program Availability

• The Add-ons will be available through the perpetual EA first, then the program will be extended to the Subscription EA as needed
• There are no changes to the Select Plus program at this point in terms of making these Add-ons available

SKU Notes

• A customer needs either Core CALs or Enterprise CALs as the underlying licences to purchase these Add-ons and in all cases they’ll need to specify whether they are adding to an underlying Device or User CAL. All Add-ons are USLs
• Core CAL customers can choose to add on E1
• Core CAL and Enterprise CAL customers can purchase an E3 or E4 Add-on with or without Office Pro Plus. There is obviously be a price difference, and customers are able to mix the Add-ons within their estate
• Note that because the customer is maintaining their full CAL there is no need for a Bridge CAL which is required in a transition for the components that aren’t covered by the Office 365 plan

Transactional Notes

• The Add-ons are Additional Products in the EA, and by default are co-terminous with the EA
• There is no minimum purchase quantity for the Add-ons, and they may be added by the licence reservation process and then reconciled at the anniversary in the usual way
• The Add-ons are valid until the end of the contract; at renewal the customer can move to a full USL (via transition) or they can continue to use Add-ons at renewal
• Customers may mix models (transition and Add-ons) although it’s not necessarily advisable as it may be confusing to manage…!
• The Add-on is added on for the Primary User of the existing underlying licence and is for a single user if there are multiple people using a device; at no time can you have more Add-ons than underlying licences
• The standard Online Services terms remain in place, such as cancellations being allowed within 30 days

Pricing

• All Add-on prices are monthly prices that take into account the customer’s existing investment. In other words, an E1 Add-on USL to Core CAL is cheaper than the full E1 USL for customers who have not invested in Core CAL
• There are different prices for the different EA Levels, as usual
• Customers can add pricing for the Add-ons at any time and if they want locked pricing they should use a Supplemental CPS, as usual
• The Add-on price is the same for L&SA and SA-only EAs

Rights

• If a customer has, for example, the Enterprise CAL Suite with Office Professional Plus and adds on the E3 Add-on then he retains the rights of the Office Professional Plus licence (perhaps continuing to downgrade to Office 2010) AND receives the rights for Office 365 Pro Plus (such as the multiple install rights)
• However, the customer must make sure that there is always the underlying licensing in place for the base EA; so any new Qualified Devices must be covered with their own licences rather than using the multiple install rights of an Office 365 Pro Plus licence assigned to another device. The additional rights should be used (as usual) for non-qualifying devices such as mobile devices or in BYOD scenarios

Microsoft are running a series of free, live training sessions on the EA and Office 365 Add-ons. Register here for a choice of dates throughout August and September: http://bit.ly/13DSNsv

Starting on 1st August 2013 customers will be able to add Office 365 Add-ons to their Enterprise Agreement. Hurrah! Er, actually, why might they want to do this? Well, it’s a brand new model to help customers move to the cloud – let’s take a look…

Previously, customers HAVE been able to move to the cloud in their EA by transitioning their on-premise licences to Office 365 User Subscription Licences (USLs). The simplest example was a Core CAL customer who wanted to transition to Plan E1 who, in effect, traded in his Core CAL licences for E1 USLs and Bridge CALs to cover those components not included in E1 (the Windows CAL and Endpoint Protection). This worked well for customers who were committed to the cloud and didn’t need to retain perpetual rights to on-premise licences, and indeed transitioning will remain a licensing option for customers.

However, for the customer who wants to evaluate the cloud or who does want to move to hosted services, but feels uncomfortable about losing their perpetual rights to existing licences, the new Add-ons are a good solution.

Let’s take an example of a customer who has an EA with 500 Core CAL and Office Professional Plus licences who wants to move 50 users to the cloud and thinks that Office 365 Plan E3 will best meet his needs. He simply purchases 50 E3 Add-on USLs. The structure of the existing EA remains exactly the same with these add-ons which means that he still retains the rights to the underlying licences (downgrade rights, SA benefits etc) and if he decides that E3 isn’t for him, he simply cancels the subscription at anniversary and his licensing position is intact.

I’m sure that you’ve got lots of questions on this! Check our next blog post where we’ll look at the next level of detail on this.

Office 365 Add-ons are available through the EA from today. Watch this webcast for some great information: http://bit.ly/15elDBr