General Availability of perpetual software licences in CSP

Microsoft announce the General Availability of perpetual software licences in CSP from 21 January 2021.

Commercial customers can now buy licences for a range of on-premises products through any CSP partner. This was previously only available for selected partners in some geographies, and additionally both the range of products and geographies are extended with this launch – if you’re interested in what’s been added, there’s a useful document here: https://bit.ly/3oehDLx, and the announcement itself is here: http://bit.ly/3iOCunF.

The Product Terms document is also updated with an additional CSP column to show availability of the on-premises products through this channel.

Further changes to the Open License Program

Back in October 2020 Microsoft announced that commercial customers wouldn’t be able to buy through the Open License Program after 31 December, 2021 (http://bit.ly/393LlhZ). A recent article confirms that this will also apply to government, education and nonprofit customers in the same timeframe.

These customers will be able to buy perpetual licences for the traditional on-premises products in CSP in July 2021, and there will be additional Open Value options from March 2021 for nonprofit and education customers to buy licences with SA or to renew SA.

Find the article here: http://bit.ly/39693dH, where it might be worth perusing the FAQs at the bottom of the page.

Microsoft Product Terms site

The Microsoft Product Terms site launched on 1 July, 2020 with the aim of ultimately replacing the Product Terms and Online Services Terms documents.

The new site allows customers to filter content and review only the use rights and conditions relevant to their needs, to save a downloadable version of the use rights, to compare older use rights to the current ones, and to choose to use one of 35 different languages.

If you haven’t looked at this site yet, then it’s time to prioritise getting to grips with it since the existing Product Terms and Online Services Terms documents won’t be available after 1 February, 2021.

Have a quick read of the FAQ here: http://bit.ly/2HVsabn, and then access the site here: https://bit.ly/2ByfWq2.

Qualified Educational User Definition document

For customers to be eligible to purchase academic edition products they must meet the criteria detailed in the Qualified Educational User Definition document.

This document was updated in December 2020 to specifically include CSP as part of the Microsoft Customer Agreement, and now public libraries and public museums are eligible academic customers in the CSP program.

Find the updated document here: http://bit.ly/3bCGNP8, making sure you choose the right one for your region.

Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (January 2021) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide.

Customer Insights customers are now entitled to Customer Voice capabilities (page 15), and there are other minor language changes and clarifications detailed in the Change Log on page 57.

Keep your Licensing Guide collection up to date by grabbing this new document here: https://bit.ly/38i3uIK.

Qualified Devices and Qualified Users Licensing Brief

There’s an updated (November 2020) Qualified Devices and Qualified Users Licensing Brief.

This is a useful document if you work with the Enterprise Agreement and need guidance on what type of devices/users need to be counted as Qualified Devices and Qualified Users.

There are exclusions noted as well as hints on determining which devices are not managed, and also a couple of FAQs at the end of the document.

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

Microsoft 365 E3 – Unattended Licensing Brief

There’s an updated (November 2020) Microsoft 365 E3 – Unattended Licensing Brief.

This document helps you to understand how the Microsoft 365 E3 – Unattended licence allows a bot to run repetitive tasks in a Windows client/Office app without user intervention. The document has a useful FAQ section at the end and this new version adds a few additional questions clarifying the requirement for the licence in situations where there is already a Windows licence and for scenarios where third party providers are implementing unattended scenarios.

Find this updated document here: https://bit.ly/37mfx7n.

Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide

There’s an updated (December 2020) Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide.

The main changes are the renaming of the Common Data Service to Dataverse, and the addition of 2,000 Customer Voice responses to the entitlements for Customer Insights.

Find this updated guide here: https://bit.ly/3lu8InS.

Power Apps promotions

There’s promotional pricing available for Power Apps from 1 December, 2020 to 30 June, 2021.

Customers can acquire Power Apps per App licences for $3 per user per month with a minimum purchase of 200 licences through an EA or through CSP, and Power Apps per User licences for $12 per user per month with a minimum purchase of 5,000 licences through an EA only.

See page 110 of the December 2020 Product Terms document and a footnote on the Power Apps pricing page here: http://bit.ly/2fKdhOl.