Extension of Audio Conferencing promotions

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.

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.

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.

Windows 10 upgrade licences in education

From November 1, 2020 customers who have purchased Microsoft 365 A3/A5 or Windows 10 Enterprise A3/A5 through CSP can upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Education, and page 42 of the November 2020 Product Terms is updated with this change.

Partners will need to submit a support request to get a Windows 10 Pro Education key which is installed by the customer and then, when the device joins the tenant domain, it is automatically upgraded to Windows 10 Education.

Get a step-by-step guide to the process and an FAQ here: https://bit.ly/36nkkUp, and a useful overview of the Windows 10 editions for education customers here: https://bit.ly/3lfBqJQ.

Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare

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.

Windows 10 Qualifying Operating Systems

There’s a new (October 2020) Microsoft Licensing Brief to help you to answer questions around Windows 10 Qualifying Operating Systems.

Note though, that it’s not yet updated for the changes that were made to page 42 of the November 2020 Product Terms whereby Windows 10 Home licences are now qualifying licences for academic customers buying through CSP.

Find this document here: https://bit.ly/38xPnPR.

Azure Monetary Commitment is now Azure prepayment

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.

Amendment to the definition of Firstline Worker devices

The June 2020 Product Terms contains an amendment to the definition of Firstline Worker devices. A Firstline Worker is typically someone whose job is primarily based away from a PC – think construction worker or doctor – but they do need some access to technology.

Rules for assigning Office 365 F3 and Microsoft 365 F1/F3 licences (the Firstline Worker plans) are based on the user’s primary device. Prior to June 2020, a Firstline Worker was not allowed to have a Dedicated Device – a computing device with a screen of 10.1″ or larger used by the user for more than 60% of their total work time in any 90-day period.

It’s simpler from June 2020 – the user’s primary device must have a single screen smaller than 10.1″ OR they must share their primary device with other qualifying Firstline Workers.

Find the rules on page 58 of the June 2020 Product Terms and find the Product Terms document itself here: http://bit.ly/MSproductterms.

5-year Reservation available for the Azure HBv2 virtual machine

Microsoft announce that a 5-year Reservation is now available for the Azure HBv2 virtual machine. The existing 1 and 3-year Reservations give an estimated 25% and 50% saving on the compute costs of the VM, and the new 5-year Reservation increases savings to approximately 67%.

The announcement (https://bit.ly/32EWfI9) states that terms and conditions are mostly the same as for all other types of Reserved Instances, and page 54 of the July 2020 Product Terms confirms that the early termination fee for a 5-year Reservation is 35%, rather than the usual 12%.

June 2020 Product Terms updates for Dynamics 365

There’s extra information added for Dynamics 365 on pages 65/66 in the June 2020 Product Terms document. First of all there’s a new Dual Use Rights table detailing the rights of Dynamics 365 SLs to access on-premises servers, and then there are a couple of tables which specify the purchasing minimums for academic and commercial programs.

Download the latest Product Terms document here: http://bit.ly/MSproductterms.