Tag Archives: Teams

Changes to Office/Microsoft 365 and Teams

In October 2023, Microsoft made changes to Office 365 and Microsoft 365 licences for customers in the EEA and Switzerland. Essentially, these changes removed Teams from certain suites for customers who had never purchased Office/Microsoft 365 before. You can get up to speed on that on our blog here.

Now, from 1April, 2024 those changes are extended to the rest of the world, described by Microsoft in an article here. In essence, the news is the same as for the EEA and Switzerland, so here’s the summary:

A customer outside the EEA and Switzerland who has not purchased Office 365 E1/E3/E5 or Microsoft 365 E3/E5 before 1 April, 2024 must now buy “(no Teams)” SKUs – which, as the names suggest, don’t include Teams. If the customer does want Teams, then they need to additionally purchase a separate Teams Enterprise User SL for their users. If they HAVE purchased any of the original licences before 1 April then they can add more licences and renew existing Subscriptions. Alternatively they can buy the new licences, and even mix and match them with the new licences if they want to.

For Microsoft 365 Business Basic/Standard/Premium, customers in the affected regions will be able to choose the original offerings that include Teams or the new (no Teams) flavours. The same goes for Microsoft 365 F1/F3 and Office 365 F3.

This site, aimed at partners, has a lot of additional resources that might be useful.

Office/Microsoft 365 EEA offerings

Late in August 2023, Microsoft announced that there would be changes to the offerings available in the European Economic Area and Switzerland to address European competition concerns – you can read that article here: https://bit.ly/3Pfx0Ty. These offerings are now live in the October 2023 Product Terms, so here’s the summary…

A customer in these regions who has not purchased Office 365 E1/E3/E5 or Microsoft 365 E3/E5 before 1 October, 2023 must now buy “EEA (no Teams)” SKUs – which, as the names suggest, don’t include Teams. If the customer does want Teams, then they need to purchase a separate Teams EEA User SL for their users. If they have purchased any of these licences before 1 October then they can add more licences and renew existing Subscriptions.

For Microsoft 365 Business Basic/Standard/Premium, customers in the affected regions will be able to choose the original offerings or new EEA flavours without Teams. The same goes for Microsoft 365 F1/F3 and Office 365 F3.

This site, aimed at partners, has information about pricing, and a useful FAQ document: https://bit.ly/3EDGHX4.

General Availability of Viva Sales

Microsoft announce that Viva Sales is generally available as of 3 October, 2022. Viva as a brand is about improving the employee experience, with the Viva Suite aimed at employees in any role across a business.

Viva Sales, however, is tailored to improve the employee experience for a specific role – sellers – and it enables these users to use Office 365 and Teams to automatically capture, access and register data into a CRM system, eliminating the administrative burden of manual data entry.

Viva Sales is included in Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise and Premium licences, and is also available as a standalone licence priced at $40 per user per month.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3fZC28I, with links to other useful resources such as pricing information and an “Introduction to Viva Sales” course on Microsoft Learn.

General Availability of Viva Goals

Microsoft announce that Viva Goals is now generally available. This Viva module is based on the acquired Ally.io product, and enables business goal setting and management via the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) goal-setting framework. From a licensing perspective, there’s a standalone Viva Goals license available for $6 per user per month, or it’s included in the existing Viva Suite license, currently costing $9 per user per month. Viva Goals is available as a Teams app where users must be licensed for Microsoft Teams, or a web app where there are no prerequisites.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3pbIMle, where there’s a good overview video, and the product/pricing page here: https://bit.ly/3bKcXwK.

Viva Sales in preview

Microsoft announce that Viva Sales is in preview. Viva as a brand is about improving the employee experience, and the Viva Suite is aimed at employees in any role across a business. Viva Sales is tailored to improve the employee experience for a specific role – sellers – and enables users to use Office 365 and Teams to automatically capture, access and register data into a CRM system, eliminating the administrative burden of manual data entry. In the public preview, Viva Sales will be available at no additional charge to organisations who use Microsoft 365 and Teams, and you’ll need to be licensed for Dynamics 365 to try out the full experience. Further details on licensing will be released when Viva Sales is generally available.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3bPH0TR, and a useful FAQ here: https://bit.ly/3vRZPwz.

General availability of Operator Connect Conferencing

Microsoft announce the general availability of Operator Connect Conferencing and add the licences to the Product Terms.

With Operator Connect Conferencing capabilities, organisations can add phone numbers from a third-party operator to their Audio Conferencing bridge, and use those numbers to join Teams meetings. Meeting organisers either need to be licensed with an Audio Conferencing licence (which is included in Office/Microsoft 365 E5), or with a $0 Operator Connect Conferencing licence which can be assigned to anyone already licensed for Teams, and is available through an EA or CSP.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/32Wv6CL, and details on the licensing here: https://bit.ly/3GopAHu.

Office 2021 personal editions available

Office Home & Student 2021 and Office Home & Business 2021 are now available. These are the perpetually licensed editions of the next version of Office, priced at $149.99 and $249.99 respectively.

The Home & Business edition includes everything in the Home & Student edition as well as Outlook for the PC/Mac and commercial use rights. Unlike their Office LTSC 2021 business counterparts, these editions include Teams and some collaboration tools too.

Find the announcement here: https://bit.ly/3ArUlbr.

Skype for Business Online is retired

Microsoft confirm that the Skype for Business Online service is retired. It’s replaced, of course, by Teams, and organisations that haven’t yet made a full transition from Skype for Business Online can find useful information here: https://bit.ly/3muR2gh.

This retirement does not affect the Skype consumer service or Skype for Business Server products.