There’s a change to the status of Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise when it’s purchased through an Enterprise Agreement. It’s now designated as an Enterprise Online Service which means that it doesn’t need to be purchased enterprise-wide and 500 licences can be acquired to start an Enterprise Online Services-only enrolment.
Find the relevant page of the Product Terms site here: https://bit.ly/3ABfP5K.
In September 2020, Microsoft announced two promotions which entitle Enterprise Agreement and CSP customers to free Audio Conferencing licences. The changes listed on the Product Terms site for 1 February 2021 (http://bit.ly/3prduoo) confirm that these promotions are now extended to 30 June, 2021 from the previous end-date of 31 March, 2021.
Find the original announcement with details of the promotions here: https://bit.ly/33NIFkN.
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 Cloud for Healthcare is added to the November 2020 Product Terms.
This is an add-on licence with a variety of qualifying licences dependent on which healthcare scenarios are important to you in the areas of enhanced patient engagement, empowering health team collaboration, or improved clinical and operational insights.
The licence is available through the Enterprise Agreement and costs $95 per user per month. The different qualifying licences and the scenarios they light up are detailed in a pricing datasheet which you can find here: https://bit.ly/3976nwv, and there’s a useful overview datasheet on the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare solution here: https://bit.ly/370gmRI.
Azure Monetary Commitment is the upfront payment an Enterprise Agreement customer makes for use of the Azure consumption services, which is then decremented on a monthly basis as the services are used. This is now renamed to Azure prepayment but there are no other changes in terms of how it works. Find the Azure prepayment section starting on page 53 of the July 2020 Product Terms, and download the document itself here: http://bit.ly/MSproductterms.
A VDA Add-on for Microsoft 365 E3/E5 is added to page 57 of the March 2020 Product Terms
This Subscription Licence allows Microsoft 365 E3/E5 users to access a Windows Enterprise Virtual Desktop Infrastructure on dedicated servers when the users don’t have a primary device with a Qualifying Operating System – for example, users whose primary device is a thin client or a Mac. Note that these licences are only available to customers buying through an Enterprise Agreement.
Find the current Product Terms document here: http://bit.ly/MSproductterms.
Microsoft add a new promotion which entitles certain users to receive free Windows 7 Extended Security Updates. The rules? The users must be licensed with Windows E5, Microsoft 365 E5 or Microsoft 365 E5 Security through an Enterprise Agreement or Enterprise Agreement Subscription as of December 31, 2019. They’ll be able to use up to five devices to run a local installation of Windows covered by Windows 7 ESU 2020, or access virtual machines.
For the full details see page 104 of the June 2019 Product Terms document. Find the Product Terms document here: http://bit.ly/MSproductterms.
Microsoft’s December 2018 Licensing News article has three topics of interest covering Microsoft 365 licensing updates. Firstly, EA and MPSA customers can now take advantage of a single SKU for Microsoft 365 which means that they see a single item in their Admin Centers and License Summaries, rather than seeing Office 365, Windows and EMS as separate components.
Secondly, there’s details of Microsoft’s new Home Use Program offer. Historically, HUP has been a Software Assurance benefit where users of devices licensed with Office + SA could purchase Office for their home PCs at a heavily discounted price. That benefit still exists for Office 2019 but the article reveals that this will come to an end on 30 June, 2019.
The new HUP offer allows individuals to purchase Office 365 Home or Office 365 Personal annual subscriptions at a 30% discount. This is available to customers who have Office with Software Assurance but is also available to customers who qualify with a certain number of Office 365/Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 licences: 2,000 for commercial organisations, and 13,000 for education or charity institutions.
Now, this isn’t available worldwide yet and although you can see it’s live in most countries (see the UK site here, for example http://bit.ly/2B6guQG), the article states that China and Japan will have this benefit on 1 April, 2019, and if you check out the US site (http://bit.ly/2sOPW1Q) there’s a message telling you that the US launch will be in early 2019.
And finally, there’s an update on the dual use rights available when a customer has a Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 From SA licence. Currently there are special rights detailed in the Product Terms which allow customers to install “traditional” Office Professional Plus as well as Office 365 ProPlus. The article states that these rights will be removed from 1 August, 2019 so customers renewing agreements after that date will no longer be entitled to the special installation rights.
Find the December 2018 Licensing News article here: http://bit.ly/2R3bV2u.
Third-party services purchased through the Azure Marketplace are typically invoiced separately in an Enterprise Agreement, outside of Monetary Commitment. From 1 March, 2018 there were some Linux Support options and Linux virtual machines that were changed to consume Monetary Commitment.
Find the announcement and list of relevant services here: http://bit.ly/2Nn74Ed.
Are you in charge of Enterprise Agreement true-ups for your organisation?
There’s a True-up Guide from Microsoft which may contain some useful tips for you. Find it in the Volume Licensing Programs section with all of the other useful guides from Microsoft here: https://bit.ly/MSLicensingGuides.