Category Archives: Uncategorized

Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide

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.

Python in Excel Add-on

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.

GitHub usage-based billing

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.

Skype for Business Server SE

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.

Office LTSC 2024

Office LTSC 2024 should be with us later in the year and it’s currently in commercial preview. Here are some useful facts: it will be 10% more expensive than Office LTSC 2021, it won’t ship with Publisher as that’s being retired, and Microsoft have committed to another LTSC release in the future.

Find the original announcement article here: https://bit.ly/3TjTyWj, and an update here: https://bit.ly/4fSLrtd. Office’s best friends, Project 2024 and Visio 2024, are also in preview and expected to be generally available later in the year too.

Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (August 2024) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide with a couple of changes. Firstly, the prerequisites for Copilot for Sales and Service are updated on pages 34/35, and secondly the included entitlements for Contact Center and Customer Service are amended throughout from per tenant to per user. Other minor changes include some additions to the Finance Capabilities table on page 21 and the removal of the term “seeded capacity” in favour of “included capacity”.

Find this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/3WPKPvP.

Exchange Server SE

Microsoft confirm (May 2024) that the next version of Exchange 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/3X4Kbfp.

Microsoft 365 plan comparison documents

There are updated (August 2024) Microsoft 365 plan comparison documents which now include the Microsoft Entra Suite and a couple of the new components such as Entra Internet Access and Entra Private Access.

Get the Enterprise version of this document here: https://bit.ly/3yxc2LE, and the SMB flavour here: https://bit.ly/4deVHu2.