[windows software] Office 365 - Which plans?!

[Dragon]

Hi,

 

We currently have a EES licence for Office which is set to expire in the next couple of months. We don't use exchange but would like to if it completely covers everything we get out of our current mail server software (Mdaemon)

 

I would like to know what Office 365 plans I require, the procedure to move across from EES to the new licencing and prices.

 

I have tried speaking to our current software supplier and Microsoft's Education Business Manager but not getting very far with either.

 

Many thanks.

Edited May 1, 2013 by Dragon

[chazzy2501]

EES is great, just count how many full time staff you have (MS say anyone over 8 hours a week is full time) that will get you windows upgrade and full office + exchange cals and server cals. for all PCs in your school (1 site)

 

You'll have to buy (on EES) an exchange server licence (cheap) and some server licences (if you don't already have perpetual licences on your servers)

 

You could move your emails to office 365 and skip a local exchange + it's free.

 

EDIT: sorry misread your post!

Edited May 1, 2013 by chazzy2501

[Dragon]

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I don't want to use the EES licencing model. I would prefer to use the new Office 365 model.

[chazzy2501]

Yeap, sorry misread your post.

 

you'll still need local licencing for your core cals, (server + exchange) and office if your going to use outlook with 365. if not you could do away with local office and move entirely over to 365 and use the web only versions of office I guess.

[Dragon]

Thanks, I have the licencing for the servers covered seperately along with the workstation OS licence. The Office 365 would be purely for Office and possibly email and anything else that comes free with the various plans ie cloud storage.

[AngryTechnician]

The cheapest plan that includes the Office desktop apps is the A3 plan. List price is £1.90/month per student and £3.40/month per member of staff. You also get hosted Exchange and hosted SharePoint, which includes cloud storage via SkyDrive Pro.

 

Compare Office 365 Education plans - Office.com

 

This starter manual is pretty good: Office 365 for education Starter Manual - Microsoft UK Schools blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs. You can sign up for the A2 plan for free and then purchase A3 licences once you are set up.

[Dragon]

Thanks for this.

 

So as it stands with the EES licence I pay per FTE.

 

In Office 365 I pay per student AND per member of staff? Eg 100 students at £1.90pm + 10 staff at £3.40pm so a total of £224pm/£2688pa?

[AngryTechnician]

That is correct. And you'll need to make sure you budget for any staff/pupils joining mid year as you can't just wing it until renewal like you can with EES.

[Dragon]

Ouch, my current EES for office is around £4k per annum.

 

If I were to go with Office 365 Plan A3 it would be £25k.

 

I was hoping it would save money!

[Dragon]

Is it possible to have it free for students (Plan A2) and Plan A3 for staff? Or is it one or the other?

[AngryTechnician]

Yes. In fact, you can assign different plans on a per-user basis, and even individual features from plans. For example, you could choose to give someone an A2 plan but not Exchange Online. We do this as we currently still use our on-premises Exchange but do use SharePoint Online.

 

Basically you just buy a number of plan licenses (even the A2 licences are technically 'purchased' at a cost of £0.00) and then assign them as you see fit.

Edited May 1, 2013 by AngryTechnician

[Dragon]

Can I have the free Office 365 plan and also use EES? I can only find details for the states regarding this.

 

I take it if I use the paid plan for staff I can only install the desktop version of Office on PCs that are only accessible for staff?

Edited May 8, 2013 by Dragon

[AngryTechnician]

Yes, there is nothing stopping you from having EES and Office 365. That's what we do here.

 

If you buy the Office desktop apps through Office 365, the license is tied to the user account. You do not get a serial number for Office, and the user has to sign in to their Office 365 credentials in order for the copy of Office to activate.

 

Any user that does not sign in using an Office 365 account (or uses an account without a subscription) will be told that Office is not licensed and will get severely reduced functionality, or none at all.

[Dragon]

Great, thanks for the clarification.

 

My thinking is to have the EES licence and install it on the school PCs. Then with the Office 365 licence staff and students can run the web version from home and store to the cloud if need be.