Tag Archives: Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 Licensing Updates

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.

New Security and Compliance Offerings

The Microsoft 365 Enterprise plans are a convenient way of purchasing Windows 10 Enterprise, Office 365 and EMS. If you look at the difference between the E3 and E5 plans then there are three main areas where you get more functionality in E5: security and compliance, productivity tools, and telephony.

On 2nd January, 2019 Microsoft announced two new Add-on plans for Microsoft 365 E3 to allow customers to buy the security and compliance components at a cost-effective price from 1st February, 2019.

Information Protection & Compliance will be made up of Office 365 Advanced Compliance and Azure Information Protection Plan 2 and will be $10 per user per month.

Identity & Threat Protection will be ALL of the other security components: Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection, Azure Advanced Threat Protection for Users, Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (now including Office 365 Threat Intelligence), Azure Active Directory Premium Plan 2, and Microsoft Cloud App Security. This plan will be available for $12 per user per month.

Find the Microsoft announcement here: http://bit.ly/2sFNgUa.

Microsoft 365 Business FAQ

If you’re interested in Microsoft 365 Business then there’s an FAQ which may be useful. From a licensing perspective it answers questions such as: Can I add Office 365 Add-ons to Microsoft 365 Business (Yes); Can I add Phone System and Calling Plans (No); and can Microsoft 365 Business customers create hosted Windows 10 VMs (No).

Find the FAQ here: http://bit.ly/2wfBH7c.

Microsoft 365 Enterprise Licensing Resources

Microsoft 365 Enterprise was renamed from Secure Productive Enterprise in August 2017. There are some helpful licensing resources: an at-a-glance document and overview/FAQ document, but most usefully a Licensing Brief where you’ll find an overview of the products in Microsoft 365 Enterprise, the types of User SL available, as well as licensing scenarios and FAQs.

Find all of these documents here: http://bit.ly/MSLicensingGuides.

Microsoft 365 F1

Microsoft 365 is all about making it easy to license users for Windows 10, Office 365 and EMS with a single user subscription licence. There’s now a new member of the family – Microsoft 365 F1 which is aimed at “firstline” workers, the two billion people in roles that make them the first point of contact between a company and the world it serves. If these type of workers are new to you then this infographic might be interesting: http://bit.ly/2gaF77o.

Microsoft 365 F1 gives access to Office 365 F1, Windows 10 Enterprise E3 and relevant security and management components of EMS. Find a comparison chart of Office 365 F1 and Microsoft 365 F1 at the bottom of the announcement page here: http://bit.ly/2g05wkH.

There’s also an FAQ here: https://aka.ms/fwpartnerfaq which has some useful licensing questions starting at question 17.

Microsoft 365 Education

Microsoft announce Microsoft 365 Education. This will be available from 1st October 2017 and will include Windows 10, Office 365, EMS and Minecraft: Education Edition. As with its commercial counterpart, it will licensed via a single User Subscription Licence and there will be two different flavours: Microsoft 365 Education A3 and A5. Find the announcement on the Microsoft Education blog here: http://bit.ly/2wPJ9sZ, with a couple of relevant videos.

Office 365 for Education remains a free product and is renamed to Office 365 A1 and there’s a useful comparison of the features and functionality included in this free product and the new Microsoft 365 Education A3/A5. Find it towards the bottom of this page: http://bit.ly/2wh9g7N by clicking on the “Compare Microsoft 365 Education Plans” link.

Microsoft 365

Microsoft introduce Microsoft 365 in Enterprise and Business editions. Enterprise edition replaces Secure Productive Enterprise and will be available as an E3 or E5 plan from 1st August 2017. Business edition is new, and is aimed at organizations with less than 300 users who want Office 365 Business Premium with security/management features from Windows 10 and EMS, as well as some new applications such as Microsoft Connections.

It’s in public preview on 2nd August 2017, and generally available in autumn 2017, priced at $20 per user per month.

Find the announcement here: http://bit.ly/2u0oUXy.