Changes to From SA licences

Microsoft announce changes to the availability of From SA licences. These licences debuted in the August 2014 Product List and were a cost-effective way for a customer with users licensed with traditional desktop licences with SA to move to the cloud, with, for example, an Office 365 E3 From SA User SL costing less than a full Office 365 E3 User SL.

The changes don’t affect customers who have bought From SA licences – they’ll be able to continue to renew these licences, but from 1 February, 2024 no new licences may be purchased, either by existing or new From SA customer.

Now, as users are moved to cloud licences, full User SLs must be purchased for them. There is a concession that remains: each user who used a device licensed with SA for Windows, Core/Enterprise CAL Suite and Office Professional Plus before being assigned a Microsoft 365 E3/E5 User SL may continue to install a local copy of Office Professional Plus.

Find the adjusted Product Terms text here: https://bit.ly/2OFt7vB, and Microsoft’s announcement here: https://bit.ly/3w4RN6x.

Dynamics 365 Field Service Contractor User SL

Microsoft add the newly available Dynamics 365 Field Service Contractor User SL to the January 2024 Product Terms. This $50 per user per month licence is designed to complement the existing $95 per user per month Field Service licence to manage third-party technicians. Note that you can’t buy the Contractor licence without having at least one of the regular Field Service licences.

This page is useful to see which features are included in which licence: https://bit.ly/3HB1XOM.

Dynamics 365 Finance Premium

Microsoft add the newly available Dynamics 365 Finance Premium User SL to the January 2024 Product Terms. This $300 per user per month licence equips users with tools to build advanced financial plans, budgets, analytics, and insights, and includes all the functionality available in the existing $180 per user per month Finance User SL. From a purchasing perspective it’s available through the EA/MPSA/CSP and EES agreements and there’s a minimum purchase requirement of 20 licences which can be combined across Finance and Finance Premium. This new licence also includes 200 electronic invoice and invoice capture transactions per tenant per month, as well as 50,000 AI Builder credits.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/42iIE6s, and an overview of the different capabilities between the Finance licences here: https://bit.ly/3HzLASp.

Universal Print User SL

Microsoft added the Universal Print User SL to the October 2023 Product Terms, a licence for users who need to make use of the Azure-based software-as-a-service printing solution and who don’t have one of the licences that include Universal Print jobs (Microsoft 365 F3/E3/E5/Business Premium or Windows 11 Enterprise E3/E5). The standalone licence costs $4 per user per month and includes 5 print jobs, as do the Windows 11 Enterprise E3/E5 and Microsoft 365 F3 licences – the rest include 100 print jobs. There are then two Add-ons available for higher print volume – another 500 jobs cost $25 per month, and 10,000 jobs cost $300 per month, and you need to commit to the extra volume for a year.

There’s a good page on licensing Universal Print here: https://bit.ly/3Mzfbzd.

Azure Arc ESUs for DR and Dev/Test environments

Microsoft added text to the October 2023 Product Terms confirming that if a customer has enabled Extended Security Updates through Azure Arc they may use the updates on licensed Disaster Recovery servers and in Dev/Test environments.

Find the terms here: https://bit.ly/3Y6xsac, and note that the same rules apply for the traditional 1-year ESUs, the terms of which are here: https://bit.ly/46ldV8W.

Windows Server Annual Channel for Containers

Microsoft add use rights for the Windows Server Annual Channel for Containers to the October 2023 Product Terms. Customers are eligible to use this operating system if they have Windows Server Datacenter Core licences acquired either with Software Assurance or as Software Subscriptions and can expect a new release every 12 months, with support for 24 months.

You can find an announcement article here: https://bit.ly/48QwBzo, an overview of Windows Server servicing channels here: https://bit.ly/3ucQHFe, and the relevant Product Terms page here: https://bit.ly/3SBAhzE.

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.