There’s a brand new (January 2015) Volume Licensing Brief for the almost-as-new (December 2014) Enterprise Cloud Suite. It’s a useful document with a good overview of what ECS is and how you acquire it, five customer scenarios, and a page of FAQs. Get the document here: http://bit.ly/1EeYjnV.
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Updates to Get Licensing Ready
Some exciting updates to the Get Licensing Ready site! First of all, there’s a new track for you to demonstrate your proficiency in the Enterprise Cloud Suite with three exams to take and pass. Then there’s an overhaul of the whole look and feel of the site so that it’s easier to see what tracks are available and whether your certifications are still valid. Head off to https://getlicensingready.com to check you’re all up-to-date with your licensing knowledge.
Exam 74-678 Preparation Guide – Kindle edition
Our book that helps you pass the 74-678 exam has already got some 5 star reviews on Amazon, and don’t forget that you don’t need an actual Kindle to read it – you can access it on your PC or via apps on your tablet of choice.
If you’re working towards this exam, get your copy here: http://bit.ly/74-678-US-Kindle.
Updated Government Eligibility documents (Nov 2014)
The Government Eligibility Definition documents were updated in November 2014. The last paragraph is changed, removing the blanket requirement for 15,000 desktops or 75,000 points per product pool and instead referring organisations to their particular volume licensing agreement which may contain additional eligibility requirements.
Get the updated documents here: http://bit.ly/1B5LbQZ.
Enterprise Cloud Suite handouts from GLR
If you’re a fan of the Get Licensing Ready handouts – and who doesn’t love these one pagers on all aspects of Microsoft licensing?! – then you can get a preview of the new handouts for the Enterprise Cloud Suite.
New exams will come to Get Licensing Ready soon, but the handouts are available here right now: http://bit.ly/GLRhandouts.
Online Services Suites
If you want to know what Online Services are included in which plans then this table on page 25 of the January 2015 Online Services Terms document is jolly useful.
You can see, for example, which plans include Yammer Enterprise (K1 but none of the Government offerings) or Parature Enterprise (CRM Online Enterprise). Get the document here: http://bit.ly/MSpur.
74-678 Sample Exam Improvements
We’ve made some changes to our 74-678 Sample Exam: you said you wanted more feedback as to what you needed to work on after taking the exam so now you get that information along with your final score.
Find the Sample Exam and our other resources to help you to prepare to take the 74-678 exam here: http://bit.ly/74-678.
January 2015 – Online Services Terms (OST) re-issued
The January 2015 Online Services Terms document is re-issued: if you found you couldn’t click anywhere in the document then this is now fixed. http://bit.ly/MSpur.
Changes to Power BI for Office 365 Rights
Dual access rights for Power BI for Office 365 USLs are removed: previously these licensed access to SQL 2014 Standard and Business Intelligence servers, but no longer – see page 6 of the January 2015 PUR.
Overview of the Changes to the January 2015 Volume Licensing Product List
There’s something for everyone in the changes to the January 2015 Product list – familiar products are discontinued, new products are added, useful pieces of text change document, and then there are a whole host of smaller changes which are actually still quite interesting. So without further ado, let’s take a closer look…
Firstly, there are some fond farewells to bid:
- The MapPoint, AutoRoute, and Streets and Trips products are all removed and are discontinued from 31 December 2014. This site (http://bit.ly/1vReRJt) gives details of mapping alternatives including, of course, Bing Maps, as well as Power Map for Excel, and there’s a link to the (rather nice) story behind AutoRoute too
- The Visual Studio Deployment products are removed, and this site (http://bit.ly/1BXUJtT) confirms that from 1 January 2015 target servers receiving automated deployment from Visual Studio Release Management Server will no longer require a Visual Studio Deployment licence
And we welcome “Parature, from Microsoft” – it’s another acquisition that was made last year and adds on to the functionality of Dynamics CRM. The main site (http://bit.ly/1y39MDR) explains the product thus: “Parature is a cloud-based customer service solution that empowers brands and organizations to deliver consistent care anytime, anywhere through a powerful combination of knowledge management, self-service and multi-channel engagement.” Licensing-wise, here are the key things to know:
- Users are licensed with Parature Enterprise USLs
- Further Add-on USLs are available for Additional Records, Page Views, Departments or File Storage as well as a number of support options – check out the full list of USLs on page 51
- Parature Enterprise is included in the CRM Enterprise USL which you can see in the (very useful) table on page 25 of the January 2015 Online Services Terms document which shows which components are in which Office 365 plans
There’s a bit of a re-organisation as far as useful pieces of text are concerned:
- The text explaining the SA upgrade rights for BizTalk Server is removed and page 11 now just has a summary and directs you back to the December 2014 Product List for details
- The text confirming that Lync Online User SLs are not required for external users and users not authenticated by the Lync Online service is moved to page 19 of the January 2015 OST – which makes sense of course. Likewise, confirmation that Yammer Enterprise is available as part of Office 365 K1 is moved to that very useful table in the OST I mentioned above
And in other changes:
- There’s some clarity added to the purchase eligibility for the Enterprise Mobility Suite From SA USLs on page 46 confirming that customers transitioning to an EMS From SA USL don’t need a Bridge CAL if they’re also licensed for Office 365. Likewise, those transitioning to the Office 365 From SA USLs don’t need a Bridge if they’re also licensed with the Enterprise Mobility Suite – see page 58
- Project Lite is added to the list of eligible transitions for a Project Server CAL customer on page 22
- The right to operate a Store Manager Device is moved from a Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Functional CAL to a Task CAL – find the detail of the rights associated with each CAL on page 17
- Dynamics CRM Online Professional is added to the list of qualifying Online Services for the US Government Community Cloud on page 41
- There’s a note added on page 49 that Microsoft Social Listening is not available in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Professional for Government
- And finally, there’s some simplification of the Supplemental Terms for Professional Services for Legacy Agreements which you can find on pages 84/85