Author Archives: licensingschool

74-678 Licensing Tools & Resources Revision Questions Available

This is the second of our sets of questions to help you check out whether you know enough to pass the 74-678 exam. See if you’re up to scratch on the Product List, PUR, VLSC and all of the other key tools with 10 questions randomly chosen from our big bank of questions.

We reckon you should be aiming to get at least 70% correct and you can try it out here: http://bit.ly/74-678. Don’t forget to register if you want to know when all of the other resources become available.

74-678 Product Licensing Revision Questions Available

Exam 74-678 sample product licensing test questions available! The first of our resources to help you to prepare for and gain the new Microsoft Volume Licensing accreditation are here. One of the key areas you’ll be tested on is the licensing of the Microsoft products and our sample questions will help you to see if your knowledge is up to par.

There’s a big bank of questions and you’ll get a random 20 questions each time you take the test. Good luck!

Find it here: http://bit.ly/74-678.

Office on Demand to be Retired

Microsoft announce that Office on Demand will no longer be a part of Office 365 ProPlus subscriptions from November 2014.

Read the full post (http://bit.ly/1yvU59H) and get an overview of the alternatives: Office Online, Shared Computer Activation, and Azure RemoteApp.

Overview of the Changes to the September 2014 Volume Licensing Product List

I do like to find a theme in the updates to the Product List but I’m stumped this month – there’s a host of Quite Interesting changes but no real theme to them, so here they are – in all of their smorgasbord glory…

Shared Computer Activation

  • Technically, Office 365 ProPlus has been updated from 1 September 2014 to enable it to run in an RDS environment, whereas previously customers had to use Office Professional Plus 2013 software to enable this scenario. There are a couple of interesting licensing changes with this, the first being that if Office 365 ProPlus is indeed deployed in an RDS scenario with Shared Computer Activation it no longer counts as 1 of a user’s 5 installations. And the second is that Office 365 ProPlus can be deployed either on a dedicated physical hardware server or using Azure Platform Services
  • The full wording is on page 51 where it’s also confirmed that these rules apply for Visio Pro for Office 365 and Project Pro for Office 365. If you’re interested in knowing how the Shared Computer Activation works technically then this TechNet article is a good resource: http://bit.ly/1s9EOX4

MPSA Licensing Manual

  • Software Assurance was added to the MPSA starting on 1 September 2014 and it’s confirmed on page 62 that the rules governing SA in the MPSA are detailed in the MPSA Licensing Manual rather than in the Product List. You can get this useful document here: http://bit.ly/1s4V5yE

From SA USLs

  • The From SA USLs were new last month so see August’s Product List entry if you want an introduction to these SKUs. What’s new this month is that Subscription EA customers are also eligible for these transition licences. This is slightly bizarre since the From SA USLs are for customers who have fully paid up licences, but there’s a new rule for the subscription world that states that you’re eligible for these licences if the qualifying Subscription Licence was purchased at least three years prior to the purchase of the From SA USL. See page 54 for the full wording

Azure in the Server and Cloud Enrolment

  • A customer can sign an Azure-only SCE or have it as an additional service in, for example, an SCE that was signed with the SQL component. There’s wording added to page 43 that states that as part of the SCE, customers who have not ordered Microsoft Azure Services as part of their SCE will receive an activation email from Microsoft inviting them to provision Azure under their enrolment without a Monetary Commitment. There’s then further wording on page 44 that confirms that these customers will be invoiced quarterly for their consumption of the Azure services

Azure Active Directory Basic USL

  • This is the only new product added this month so worth a mention purely on those grounds, and it joins its more sophisticated elder brother Azure Active Directory Premium

Simplified Licence Management for Azure AD Premium and EMS

Microsoft announce a preview for group-based licence management to simplify the assignment of user licences for Azure AD Premium and the Enterprise Mobility Suite.

IT administrators can now assign a security group and Azure AD will automatically assign licences to all the members of the group. If a user is subsequently added to, or removed from the group, a licence will be automatically assigned or removed as appropriate.

Read the full blog post here: http://bit.ly/ZcSwOg.

CRM 2015 Announced

Microsoft announce that Dynamics CRM 2015, as well as updates to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and Microsoft Dynamics Marketing services, will be generally available in the fourth quarter of 2014.

CRM Online is now also available in 17 Latin America markets, bringing the total to 65 markets worldwide.

Read the full press release here: http://bit.ly/ZF554Y.

New Server and Cloud Enrolment Licensing Handout

There’s a new handout available on the Server and Cloud Enrolment which you can find attached to the SCE module in the Get Licensing Ready exams. If you want access to all of these very useful one-pagers on Microsoft licensing then this is the place to check out: http://bit.ly/GLRhandouts.

September 2014 MPSA Licensing Manual

There’s a new (September 2014) MPSA Licensing Manual which has been updated for SA.

Customers buying SA through the MPSA are governed by this document rather than the Product List (page 7) and there are pages of the rules you’d expect on how the benefits are calculated.

Most noteworthy, Planning Services, Training Vouchers, and 24×7 Problem Resolution Support are now ALL calculated on a points-based system and you can find the detail on page 8.

Get this updated guide here: http://bit.ly/1s4V5yE.

Get Licensing Ready exams: MPSA now included

The GLR Elves have been busy… Get Licensing Ready is a popular licensing exam site from Microsoft and it’s just been updated with amendments to exams in both the SMB and LORG tracks.

The “Online Services and SPLA” exam has been retired and there’s no longer a requirement to take SMB exams in the LORG track and vice versa.

Most notable though is the inclusion of an MPSA track which consists of three modules, the first of which has also been added to the MLSS LORG level. If you need a new certificate to hang on your office wall then head over to http://getlicensingready.com as quick as you can.

Accessing Key Licensing Documents

There’s a change to the pages where you download the PUR, the Product List and other key licensing documents. You’ll now find them all on a single page here: http://bit.ly/1B53SRQ.