Author Archives: Louise Ulrick

Microsoft 365 plan comparison documents

There are updated (November 2024) Microsoft 365 plan comparison documents with some small changes such as the addition of some Frontline Worker licences to match the Product Terms availability.

These useful documents tell you which of the (many) different components are included in which Office 365/Microsoft 365 plan, and there’s a table for SMB customers (https://bit.ly/3UBTGkm), and one for Enterprise customers (https://bit.ly/40xW2o4), and still more for specialist US customers – one for GCC (https://bit.ly/3NWbF1o), one for GCC High (https://bit.ly/3NVRgcy) and the final one for DoD (https://bit.ly/3NUrw0f).

And, if you’re a partner, there’s exciting news – we’ve found the Excel version of these files again! Drop us an email on info@licensingschool.co.uk from your work email address and we’ll send it on.

Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (November 2024) Dynamics 265 Licensing Guide which has updates in three areas.

First of all, Customer Voice is added back on to the price list as a standalone product – find details on page 17.

Secondly, there are some changes to the Business Performance Management Capabilities table on page 22 showing rights for Operations-Activity and Team Members licensed users.

And finally, there are some amendments for Dynamics 365 Contact Center Voice specifying that included Intelligent Voicebot minutes are to be used with a bot authored with Copilot Studio, and that any generative AI capabilities need separate capacity purchased via a Copilot Studio licence.

Find this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/4edEIrY.

Outsourcing Software Management brief

There’s an updated (October 2024) Outsourcing Software Management brief from Microsoft. It adds two questions to its FAQ section: Can you take your Windows Server licences to AWS (no), and: Can you take Windows Server licences acquired before October 2019 to AWS dedicated server offerings (yes). There is, as you might expect, a lot more detail in the answers that are given in the brief.

Find this updated document here: https://bit.ly/3Z0R8PD.

System Center 2025

Microsoft announce that System Center 2025 is generally available from 1 November, 2024. The licensing is exactly the same as for System Center 2022, but licences are 10% more expensive – you can find the licensing summarised on a handy 2-page datasheet here: https://bit.ly/40xXqar.

The announcement article is here: https://bit.ly/4fc1TE3, and that’s where you’ll also find a list of some of the new features.

Windows Server 2025

Microsoft announce that Windows Server 2025 is generally available from 1 November, 2024. From a what’s-the-same perspective, there are still Standard and Datacenter editions which differ by a couple of technical features but mainly by their virtualisation licensing rights, and CALs are still needed for users or devices. From a what’s-new perspective, there’s now a PAYG licensing option through Azure Arc, and prices are increased by 10%.

Find the (low-key) announcement here: https://bit.ly/40DqRHY, and early information on the PAYG option here: https://bit.ly/3YxtfgP.

Microsoft Planner

In April 2024 Microsoft released a new Planner app in Microsoft Teams for Office 365 E1/E3/F3, Microsoft 365 E3/E5/F1/F3 and Microsoft 365 Business Basic/Standard/Premium customers. At that time, Project Plan 1 was renamed Planner Plan 1 and includes the new Planner as well as further, premium project management features.

This month, October 2024, the Product Terms is updated for the renaming of Project Plan 3 to Planner and Project Plan 3, and Project Plan 5 to Planner and Project Plan 5.

Compare the different project management offerings here: https://bit.ly/40gTmv4, and find a useful FAQ on the changes here: https://bit.ly/4fe1WyZ.