Device-based licensing for Office 365 ProPlus

Microsoft announce that an Office 365 ProPlus device add-on licence will be available for EA and EAS customers in the summer of 2020.

This will effectively allow an Office 365 ProPlus licence to be assigned to a device so that multiple users can use Office 365 ProPlus on that device, whether or not they have their own User SL for Office 365.

A similar add-on was made available in August 2019 for education customers with an EES, where the add-ons are free as long as all Education Qualified Users are licensed with an Office 365 ProPlus User SL.

Find the latest announcement for commercial customers here: http://bit.ly/2KSJjnB and recap on the education offer here: http://bit.ly/30enR2Z.

Office 365 ProPlus Updates

Microsoft announce changes to the way updates in Office 365 ProPlus are managed.

Firstly, the channel names are changed: from “Current Channel” to “Monthly Channel”, “First Release for Deferred Channel” to “Semi-annual Channel (Pilot)” and “Deferred Channel” to “Semi-annual Channel (Broad)”. The names tell us of another change – that unless you’re on the Monthly Channel, updates will now be twice a year rather than three times. This aligns with Windows 10, and updates will be in March and September. And the final change is that Semi-annual channel releases will now be supported for 18 months rather than 12 months.

These updates also apply to Visio Pro for Office 365 and the Project Online desktop client and will take effect in September 2017.

The full announcement is here: http://bit.ly/2qYqGD6 where you’ll also find recommended next steps and exact dates for the upcoming schedule of Office ProPlus releases.

Office 365 Update Channels

Updates for Office 365 ProPlus and Office 365 Business are made available on one of two main channels – the Current Channel and the Deferred Channel. If you want some detail on how the releases through these channels are made available and for how long they’re supported, as well as how you choose which channel to be on, then this is a useful article: http://bit.ly/1Ov0l8Q.