Office365 for Education: Some real Live@edu upgrade questions..

[PiqueABoo]

I've just read an Upgrade Announcement from MS. If you know for sure (or happen to be @jamesbmarshall) then:

 

1) Very roughly when might these upgrades happen for UK/Euro Live@Edu tenancies?

 

2) The free-for-edu A2 plan apparently won't be 'on' by default. What's involved in turning that on e.g. is it proper paperwork that has to be signed/faxed and so on?

 

3) Once upon a time MS did talk about providing education specific sharepoint templates. Will that happen, or is that aspect now "exactly the same" as Office365 for Enterprises?

[jamesbmarshall]

If you know for sure (or happen to be @jamesbmarshall) then:

 

That's me!

 

1) Very roughly when might these upgrades happen for UK/Euro Live@Edu tenancies?

 

Initially it will be an opt-in process that involves a tenant-wide password reset for every user. Over time customers will be scheduled and the upgrade process will become "hands free", so to speak, dropping the password reset requirement. If you have a particular desire to move this summer send me a PM. (Note: this is the busiest time of year for me, so don't expect an immediate response). The upgrades will start very shortly after the service launches.

 

Keep in mind that aside from a password reset, you'll need to think about AD FS 2.0 if you wish to continue to use SSO as the current SSO toolkit is not supported in Office 365 for education.

 

2) The free-for-edu A2 plan apparently won't be 'on' by default. What's involved in turning that on e.g. is it proper paperwork that has to be signed/faxed and so on?

 

Existing users are brought across onto the Exchange Online Plan 1 SKU. From here administrators can choose to "purchase" the free A2 plan, or A3/A4 or any of the component SKUs as they require, and assign them to users.

 

3) Once upon a time MS did talk about providing education specific sharepoint templates. Will that happen, or is that aspect now "exactly the same" as Office365 for Enterprises?

 

The two platforms are technically identical. There are some education specific SharePoint templates that you'll be able to use in your environment, I don't have the link to hand at the moment.

[PiqueABoo]

Thanks, but you've accidently written a little bit of that in Tangentese so some more on each point:

 

1) I just watched (bits of) this TechEd presentation and that says it's opt-in without then with passwords this year, and MS will start scheduling upgrades for everyone else at the "beginning of 2013" and it will take ~ 12 months to chew through us all. That's enough info for me then i.e. there's no credible threat of having to do related things in time I don't expect to have in the next few months.

 

2) When registering a Live@Edu tenancy we just had to chew through filling out a couple of web-form pages with credible school details stuff. Will the 'purchase' of the free A2 plan just be more of the same, or will we have to repeatedly nag real live people e.g. Heads/Whatever to do something?

 

3) So those education specific SharePoint templates will be present, available to use, out-of-the-box so to speak?

Edited June 26, 2012 by PiqueABoo

[jamesbmarshall]

When it comes to adding extra licenses, it's all done through the Office 365 portal - no need to involve anyone unless you're taking a paid service... then you'll need a way to pay.

 

The SharePoint templates will be available to download and import into SharePoint Online, they're not built in.

[PiqueABoo]

Found this on the new MS O365fE pages you linked:

 

"You will be required to sign a contract and attest that you are an eligible customer. Microsoft reserves the right to verify eligibility at any time and suspend the service for ineligible customers

 

Still not obvious how that fits with Live@Edu upgrades, but I'm imagining you'll have to do the same signing to go from the default E1 -> A2?

[jamesbmarshall]

Still not obvious how that fits with Live@Edu upgrades, but I'm imagining you'll have to do the same signing to go from the default E1 -> A2?

 

When you want to move to A2 you have to agree to the Office 365 terms of service, which is a simple process. If you don't want to do that you can stay using Exchange Online Plan 1 with no issue.

[gshaw]

I was told that our 365 licenses go onto our EES as a monthly agreement, don't like the sound of month-to-month so does the "contract" confirm plan A2 will stay free for say 2 years as it was with Live@Edu?

[PiqueABoo]

When you want to move to A2 you have to agree to the Office 365 terms of service, which is a simple process. If you don't want to do that you can stay using Exchange Online Plan 1 with no issue.

 

Sure, I'm not especially concerned about the agreement per se, I'm trying to nail down what hoops you have to jump through to agree: Can I tick a few boxes on a web page similar to making a Live@Edu tenancy, or is E1->A2 more formal so I'll need to factor in gettting risk-averse mangelment types to do something in a timely manner (can be challenging at the best of times)?

 

[some of the schools I have in mind don't have existing EES subscriptions etc.]

Edited June 28, 2012 by PiqueABoo

[PiqueABoo]

So I just did a fresh signup which claimed to verify without issue, possibly because it was a "sch.uk", or one under an existing Live@Edu tenancy, perhaps they don't care at this initial point - dunno.

 

I added two A2s (Students A2, Faculty A2). Total cost £0.00, had to do something on the payment page so opted for annual rather than monthy invoice, skimmed and ticked box to agree to legalese and MS now own my house.... sorry I mean the new plans were immediately available to assign to users (as are the existing trial A3s that will expire in a few weeks).

 

So you are making an agreement on behalf of the org and if you're picking stuff with money attached it's obviously serious, but it's all online and there was no absolute requirement for manglement-bothering/signing/faxing/other.

 

--

 

Unless I'm looking in the wrong place no sign of education-ish sharepoint templates e.g. "Class' so I guess that fell off the MS to-do list. This is actually a bit sad because of the numerous small schools using this who don't have time/skills/money to get it sorted.

Edited June 28, 2012 by PiqueABoo

[jamesbmarshall]

Unless I'm looking in the wrong place no sign of education-ish sharepoint templates e.g. "Class' so I guess that fell off the MS to-do list. This is actually a bit sad because of the numerous small schools using this who don't have time/skills/money to get it sorted.

 

http://g.microsoftonline.com/0BXPS00EN/1240

 

They're not built in - you can download them for free and import them.

[PiqueABoo]

http://g.microsoftonline.com/0BXPS00EN/1240

They're not built in - you can download them for free and import them.

 

Thanks - will play when I've got a minute..

 

Possibly October!

 

If anyone else has way too much time on their hands and plays, could you please post a quick opinion. Key point for me isn't the perfection/otherwise, but is it enough for say small schools with occasional tech support who might have got them a Live@Edu to quickly get something useful out of the O365 Sharepoint?

[PiqueABoo]

This is a better link to the TechEd Presentation I posted above.. video is in varios formats (so you get to see the right hand side) plus the powerpoint slides. Look at the powerpoint if nothing else, informative upgrade info is slide 15 onwards.

[SYNACK]

http://g.microsoftonline.com/0BXPS00EN/1240

 

They're not built in - you can download them for free and import them.

@jamesbmarshall - they appear to have vannished from skydrive. Any new pointers to where such templates may be?

 

Thanks.

[jamesbmarshall]

@jamesbmarshall - they appear to have vannished from skydrive. Any new pointers to where such templates may be?

 

They did vanish, not quite sure why.

 

Try here: Office 365 for education

[SYNACK]

They did vanish, not quite sure why.

 

Try here: Office 365 for education

@jamesbmarshall - Thanks, I did eventually find those and install them but was not sure they were the ones you were talking about. They look good but are a shadow of the SLK stuff that I saw. Are there any plans to enhance the 'for education' bit with more templates? I deal with primary schools and more simplicity and education focused stuff would be appreciated. If not can you recommend any good tutorials on designing templates/webparts for 365 to tame it a little? Thanks.

[jamesbmarshall]

If not can you recommend any good tutorials on designing templates/webparts for 365 to tame it a little?

 

I don't know of any tutorials specifically, but there are a number of education partners and developers who work on this sort of thing; some of whom lurk on this forum!

[Blue_Cookeh]

I don't seem to have any method of "purchasing" A2 plans in our Office365 Portal (was upgraded from Live@Edu this weekend), do you have to do anything in particular? All I can see is the Exchange Plan 1 on the licensing pages in the portal, nothing about A2, A3 or A4.

[jamesbmarshall]

In the Office 365 Admin Portal, under the Subscriptions section, under Purchase you should have options to purchase the full variety of plans?

[Blue_Cookeh]

Nope...

 

http://i.imgur.com/ujhqS.png

[Fruity]

Nope...

 

Same for me here.

[jamesbmarshall]

OK - I'm working on it. As soon as I find out the exact steps, I'll post them here.

 

Edit: If you're not seeing additional licensing options post-upgrade please contact Office 365 support (phone number available via the admin portal).

Edited August 6, 2012 by jamesbmarshall