[windows software] Microsoft EES - now that the minimum has been reduced - who do you use?

[Steve21]

Caretakers, Cleaners, T.As, Governors and Lunchtime staff are all light users, however we do buy them an Azure P1 and Intune licence to protect email access with Conditional access and BYOD policies. (At about £10 per user).

 

I've used the Phoenix guidance to make a judgement to exclude TAs:

 

Not sure how you work that out, not one of those would count as a light user if they're using any of the EPPs which I know all of ours do

 

Unless you're saying your staff are never using Office etc to support lessons (TA side), Catering/Site Team not using any kind of spreadsheets etc (I guess you could force them all to use online only, but if they aren't they should be counting)

 

Even external trainee/PGCE etc teachers who come in do count against it as it counts externals as well

 

Steve

[Mr.Ben]

This is the advice from Phoenix, which is no doubt checked by/with Microsoft:

 

What about customers with part- or full-time employees who don’t use a computer every day and/or only use it for short tasks like sharing files or checking email – do they have to be covered as a full user now?

 

These ‘Light Users’ may utilise a $0 SKU that provides access to Office 365 A1, which includes Office Online (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote), OneDrive storage, Yammer and SharePoint sites, plus additional classroom tools. These users can also use Outlook Web Access to check email from any device with internet access

 

 

In most cases, none of the staff we classify as 'Light' have full time access to a PC. They may login for 15 minutes here are there, but that meets the definition of a light user.

 

As we are on EES, device licencing covers their small and occasional use of the client version of office.

 

All NQTs/Trainees are counted as EQUs

 

Everything else (SharePoint Access, Email) is covered by the A1 licence plus Intune and P1

 

We are a Primary only MAT, which may be where our needs differ? - a TA or Caretaker in a secondary is a very different role.

 

We concluded on this after monitoring usage on devices. 95% of the light staff spent on average less than 10 minutes a day logged in and using IT. Those that brought the average up tended to be HLTAs.

 

It is our job to ensure we are licensed appropriately (covered by device licensing and A1), but also to protect public money. Should we pay Microsoft (or Google if you are that way inclined) as much public money as we can or reduce it when there is clear evidence to make these users light users?

Edited October 9, 2021 by Mr.Ben

[localzuk]

That's the same guidance I was given by multiple resellers.

 

Our caretaker is an EQU though, as he spends a good amount of time on a pc, same as our catering manager etc.

Edited October 9, 2021 by localzuk

[Mr.Ben]

I think the difference is setting. Every school/MAT should be able to get the data to support their decision through user profiling and data collection.

 

Site, Kitchen and Nursery Managers are 100% EQUs and we count them as such - up until we did the profiling we didn't count lots of roles that are EQUs, and counted others that should not be in our setting.

 

Our examples are that we classed all governors and nursery staff as light users, after profiling it was clear that Chairs, Clerks and Nursery managers should be EQUs.

 

The opposite occured with TA's - we grouped the HLTAs as EQUs and the data showed TA's to be generally light users.

 

We also found that our caretaking staff are generally just keyholders who lock up and do small amounts of maintenance or are using only our compliance system.

 

I'm happy to defend our position with MS and I've saved thousands in licencing costs.