[ms office - o365] office 365 or office 2016

[CHiLL]

I raised my own call with Office 365's support last week and they got back to me today. They simply directed me to the volume licensing support team because we have a volume license/OVS agreement. I've now raised a ticket with that team.

Did anyone else attempt to get an answer about this at BETT?

 

I tried, but despite there being multiple displays promoting the benefits of Office 365, the presenters seemed oblivious to the fact that it was impossible to actually buy it!

 

To be fair I think most of the people on there were partners, and not actually from Microsoft.

 

I did find a guy who seemed to be there to give purchasing advice, but he didn't have a clue and just suggested getting A1 licences.

I thought about it when I was there, but I thought the likeliness of someone there actually clued up on education licensing was slim, so I didn't waste my time.

[kennysarmy]

I've asked someone local in a company who I believe are a golf Microsoft Partner to find out who I can speak to in the education department at Microsoft who deals in licences.

 

I'm not going to give up until I actually speak to someone, explain the issue and get a response that makes sense!

[kennysarmy]

So apparently his guy might have the answers!

 

 

 

I've tweeted him, suggest we all do the same and explain our issues.

[kennysarmy]

 

Second tweet, still awaiting comment.

[kennysarmy]

This was the reply from my reseller who has got nowhere on this

 

 

Hi Jeff

 

I wish I could tell you Microsoft have come back with a definitive response to your question on whether or not the on-premise Office key is ending under the OVSES agreement in May 2020.

 

BUT after initially being told by Microsoft distribution to log (a call) with MS direct and chasing I received a call yesterday from a MS representative (Charles) who after telling me it was probably a question for Pre-Sales (and me explaining it was not a question of purchasing Office 365Device licences but rather the potential ending of the Office on-premise key in May) he said his team were not aware of any change to current Office activation under OVSES and if there was, both he and schools would be made aware of this before any change and he would send me an email to confirm to this effect!

 

(please see email below)

 

Unfortunately his email response I subsequently received is not exactly the definitive response of his verbal response.

 

 

 

Again I can only presume at this stage that the Office Device key MS say is ending is May is only under the full EES (as opposed to OVSES) whereby the Office365 Device licence is available but the only other thing I can suggest trying is instead of logging the actual question, logging instead the question around your current Office on-premise activation key possibly ending in May and ask for the new deployment key (as it appears to suggest in the screen shot you sent me) I would hope that based on the fact OVSES customers cannot currently obtain the Office365 Device licence that you should get some kind of definitive response to definitively say you do not require a new key?

 

 

 

DOES ANYONE THINK THIS HELPS?

[sparkeh]

DOES ANYONE THINK THIS HELPS?

Not really.

 

The core issue remains, the old DBA using opptransistion.exe* is not supported (never was in UK) and the new DBL is only for EES education customers (which most schools won't be).

 

*Still works at the moment btw.

[kennysarmy]

Response from MS to a call I raised!

 

Lornalyn (Microsoft)

Wednesday, February 5, 2020 12:53 PM GMT

Hello Jeff,

 

 

 

Good Afternoon. This is Lyn again from Office 365 Support and this is regarding the ticket 18414510 about the Device-based Subscription (DBS) for Education.

 

 

 

We apologize for that we failed to call you on your preferred schedule yesterday, but rest assure that we will setup a callback today at 2:30pm-3:45pm UK time to discuss the details below.

 

 

 

Summary of Case :

 

You are right that the Office 365 ProPlus for Education (device) is an add-on license that is available only for education customers and is available only through Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES). As confirmed from this article : https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/device-based-licensing

 

 

I also understand the frustration that other agreement such as CSP, OVS-ES etc were note part of it, but I'm hoping that Microsoft will have an option to have it in the future.

 

 

Unfortunately, on our end we do not have further details we can provide aside from the article above. The only thing that we can suggest also was to move from OVS to EES agreement but I understand that its not a good option for you.

 

 

Suggested Actions:

 

I suggest since OVS is a Volume Licensing program, we suggest you contact the Volume Licensing support for further assistance via the link below:

https://www.microsoft.com/Licensing/servicecenter/Help/Contact.aspx

 

Again, we apologize that we only have limited details that we can provide about it. In case you have the time, I appreciate that this is one of our opportunity that we can improve the features to work with OVS and other agreement platform in the future and with that said, we would like to hear it and address it to our Microsoft developers. Kindly check Customer Feedback for Microsoft Office 365 - UserVoice and you can post these ideas.

 

 

Thanks for your understanding.

 

Faster Assistance is available:

 

My schedule is 12:30pm-8:30pm UK. Please let us know if you needed a further clarification on the details above by providing your preferred callback schedule by replying to this email. In case that the preferred schedule was beyond my shift, I will endorsing the case to another ambassador who will call you on your preferred schedule. Please provide a 2-hour window for a call back number and schedule that is convenient for you. If you prefer to continue communications via email, we can proceed that way as well.

 

 

 

I’m committed to resolving your issue(s) and looking forward to your response.

[robyholmes]

Seems to be a real hot potato for Microsoft this subject doesn't it.

[localzuk]

The issue appears to be that the support team/licensing team don't appear to have any mechanism to feed this stuff back to higher ups? So, they just go "this is how it is, because it isn't up to this team". How do we get hold of someone who CAN do something?

[DrCheese]

My head hurts - I have DBA under my OVS right now and it's working fine - Now the above tells me it might be removed?

 

Microsoft's licensing is an utter mess. As it always has been

[Michael]

Regardless of the licensing model side of things, there are pros and cons to O365 Pro Plus and Office 2016/2019 Pro Plus -

 

SIMS.net still used by many is still only supported with Office 2016 Pro Plus (as mentioned above).

 

O365 Pro Plus is dynamic, so although you'll get new features and are always up-to-date, you can also get new problems too.

 

Office 2016/2019 Pro Plus are static and they'll normally only receive security updates for 10 years from release, although weirdly Office 2016/2019 Pro Plus both expire on 14/10/2025...

 

The above is probably an indication that Microsoft will eventually discontinue what I call 'static Office' and only offer O365 Pro Plus. It'll be interesting to see whether Microsoft do actually release a direct successor to Office 2019 Pro Plus at all.

[kennysarmy]

Regardless of the licensing model side of things, there are pros and cons to O365 Pro Plus and Office 2016/2019 Pro Plus -

 

SIMS.net still used by many is still only supported with Office 2016 Pro Plus (as mentioned above).

 

O365 Pro Plus is dynamic, so although you'll get new features and are always up-to-date, you can also get new problems too.

 

Office 2016/2019 Pro Plus are static and they'll normally only receive security updates for 10 years from release, although weirdly Office 2016/2019 Pro Plus both expire on 14/10/2025...

 

The above is probably an indication that Microsoft will eventually discontinue what I call 'static Office' and only offer O365 Pro Plus. It'll be interesting to see whether Microsoft do actually release a direct successor to Office 2019 Pro Plus at all.

 

 

Don't worry - I, like many others, are looking to move away from SIMS.net

[kennysarmy]

Response from MS to a call I raised!

 

Lornalyn (Microsoft)

Wednesday, February 5, 2020 12:53 PM GMT

Hello Jeff,

 

 

 

Good Afternoon. This is Lyn again from Office 365 Support and this is regarding the ticket 18414510 about the Device-based Subscription (DBS) for Education.

 

 

 

We apologize for that we failed to call you on your preferred schedule yesterday, but rest assure that we will setup a callback today at 2:30pm-3:45pm UK time to discuss the details below.

 

 

 

Summary of Case :

 

You are right that the Office 365 ProPlus for Education (device) is an add-on license that is available only for education customers and is available only through Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES). As confirmed from this article : https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/device-based-licensing

 

 

I also understand the frustration that other agreement such as CSP, OVS-ES etc were note part of it, but I'm hoping that Microsoft will have an option to have it in the future.

 

 

Unfortunately, on our end we do not have further details we can provide aside from the article above. The only thing that we can suggest also was to move from OVS to EES agreement but I understand that its not a good option for you.

 

 

Suggested Actions:

 

I suggest since OVS is a Volume Licensing program, we suggest you contact the Volume Licensing support for further assistance via the link below:

https://www.microsoft.com/Licensing/servicecenter/Help/Contact.aspx

 

Again, we apologize that we only have limited details that we can provide about it. In case you have the time, I appreciate that this is one of our opportunity that we can improve the features to work with OVS and other agreement platform in the future and with that said, we would like to hear it and address it to our Microsoft developers. Kindly check Customer Feedback for Microsoft Office 365 - UserVoice and you can post these ideas.

 

 

Thanks for your understanding.

 

Faster Assistance is available:

 

My schedule is 12:30pm-8:30pm UK. Please let us know if you needed a further clarification on the details above by providing your preferred callback schedule by replying to this email. In case that the preferred schedule was beyond my shift, I will endorsing the case to another ambassador who will call you on your preferred schedule. Please provide a 2-hour window for a call back number and schedule that is convenient for you. If you prefer to continue communications via email, we can proceed that way as well.

 

 

 

I’m committed to resolving your issue(s) and looking forward to your response.

 

 

Currently on the phone with the above reps call centre manger and I've asked her to click this link :

 

https://officedba.azurewebsites.net/onboarding/signup.aspx

[kennysarmy]

Christine Jomuadi (Microsoft)

Wednesday, February 5, 2020 3:23 PM GMT

Hi Jeff,

 

Thank you for your cooperation with me on the call earlier.

 

As instructed over the phone, the issue that you raised is best discussed with your Reseller. As recommended by our expert on-site, your re-seller can reach out to MS Account Executives or, ROC for further assistance (Regional Operations Center)​ that they supposed to have contact with.

 

Appreciate your partnership with us and hope that this can be sorted as soon as possible.

 

Looking forward to hear from you soon.

 

 

Best Regards,

 

Christine

 

Office 365 - Supervisor

[sparkeh]

Christine Jomuadi (Microsoft)

Wednesday, February 5, 2020 3:23 PM GMT

Hi Jeff,

 

Thank you for your cooperation with me on the call earlier.

 

As instructed over the phone, the issue that you raised is best discussed with your Reseller. As recommended by our expert on-site, your re-seller can reach out to MS Account Executives or, ROC for further assistance (Regional Operations Center)​ that they supposed to have contact with.

 

Appreciate your partnership with us and hope that this can be sorted as soon as possible.

 

Looking forward to hear from you soon.

 

 

Best Regards,

 

Christine

 

Office 365 - Supervisor

Translation: "Another turn on the Merry-Go-Round sir?"

[mavhc]

Save yourself time and money and brain damage, libreoffice 6.4 is out

[kennysarmy]

Just an update for anyone following this thread!

 

I've had a response to one of my tweets to Paul Morrison of Microsoft who has offered to help getting to the bottom of this licencing issue.

 

I've sent him via email all the information including the links to two threads on Edugeek and all the correspondence from my re-seller who was unable to add the DBS licence to my OVS-ES agreement!

 

Hopefully we are on the road to at least getting some clarification if not a solution!

[kennysarmy]

Well!

 

Just had someone from a Microsoft store call me who must have got my details after filling in one of the online contact forms!

 

He's taken all the details of the query and is also going to see if he can put someone in touch with me who can answer the question of how do you get DBS licences added to an OVS-ES agreement so you can activate O365 at the device level!

[mavhc]

Have you tried tweeting to Franz Kafka?, I think he used to work there

[kennysarmy]

RESPONSE!

 

Jeff

 

 

 

My sincere apologies for the delay.

 

 

 

The currently options available to you are as follows:

 

 

 

To confirm that Office 365 ProPlus Device-based Subscription for Education is only available through EES and will not be available through CSP. For more information https://educationblog.microsoft.com/en-us/2019/08/attention-it-administrators-announcing-device-based-subscription-for-education/

Lab and Library use is available for O365 A3/A5:

Free Training for Network Managers and IT staff - https://tablet-academy.com/microsoft-365-technical-roadshow/

Any queries and deployment support, please contact EduStore - [email protected] @Morgan, Richard our Edu Partner Concierge Support - [email protected]

 

 

 

 

The above includes OVS-ES.

 

 

 

Office 365 Pro Plus Device Based Subscription licensing was never introduced for OVS-ES. This always was – just for EES.

 

 

 

If you wants to have O365 Proplus to his Shared Devices (labs), - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/overview-of-shared-computer-activation-for-office-365-proplus

 

 

 

Kind regards

 

 

 

Paul

[localzuk]

So, in other words, we're still back where we started - DBA is being retired, DBS doesn't work with OVS-ES, and Shared Devices is a mess that breaks a lot... Great.

[mavhc]

They really want you to switch to LibreOffice, nice msi installer, no need for activation, at this point they're practically begging you not to buy MS Office.

[southhamster]

They really want you to switch to LibreOffice, nice msi installer, no need for activation, at this point they're practically begging you not to buy MS Office.

And a group policy adm for a fair number of options. Interestingly if I try to open a synced downloaded native Google Doc/sheet which has no file extension Libre office is clever enough to open it but MS office can't.

[MicrodigitUK]

So if we are forced to use EES to get Office365 DBS, what are the criteria? From what I can see there is some conflicting information, some say FTE 1000+ and others say 1000+ EQU (Education Qualified Users) or students. So if we get 1000 students the cheapest license for something then we qualify for EES? Do free Office365 licenses for personal use count to qualify? Just my thoughts following the information from Microsoft forcing us to look at EES.

[free780]

FTE is the older method. Microsoft is moving to EQU. Basically anyone who uses a PC needs to be licenced. Ideally Microsoft A3. Then you get DBL Office 365 Proplus and an exclusion for conditional access for MFA, intune, AzureAD Security etc. Yes there is a cost but eventually MS will want everyone to move to M365.