Can anyone recommend a reliable Microsoft Licence Reseller?

[kwatt]

Good Morning,

 

Can anyone recommend a good Micrsoft Licence reseller please as our current one is trying to make us pay double for A3 and A1 licences.

 

We’re currently on legacy M365 A1 (OVP) with on‑prem AD/servers.
Looking to move staff to M365 A3, keep on‑prem for now, and move gradually into the cloud.
We need desktop + online Office and Intune, without overlapping licences.
Our current supplier is advising options that effectively have us paying for Office twice, or waiting until cloud‑only.
Any recommended suppliers who are happy to move us off legacy licences and onto CSP licensing properly?

 

Thanks

[speakercon]

I've aways been happy with Pugh Computing.

[Andycat]

Millgate for us, though do get other prices

[cheekycharly]

Softcat have been great for me. I use them to provide a few A3 licenses and some Office LTSC licences for the exams laptops.

[TheHyperTechie]

I have only ever used Phoenix and Softcat. No complaints from either to be honest. 

[jmak]

Only based on who I have used rather than any bad experiences: 

 

Currently Phoenix although decision is way above my pay grade and find them responsive and helpful. I had the same experience when I did choose the supplier in a previous job. 

Softcat were great when I used then for licensing in a previous place and are very competitive on the items I buy from them now. 

John Levis at Very PC has been very generous with advice on this forum. I haven't used then for software, not have made other purchases over the years and always had a good experience. 

 

All of them a good shout for your three quotes 😎

[Alastairb25]

Phil and Carl @Misco

[365Steve]

Found Aspira Cloud to be very good. https://aspiracloud.com/

[psydii]

There are/used to be scenarios where the lowest cost way of licencing SQL Server (and the Windows Server (Datacentre) infrastructure to support it) is to have an OVS in place, and to do that you have to have Windows Client at a minimum level on the OVS. That you were already licenced for Windows Client via your CSP A3/A5  just makes it look painful, but the net cost was less than licencing SQL and Server any other way.  Certainly a motivator to get off on-prem MIS.

 

As an aside, I think Microsoft's  internal KPI is "OVS number go down". I'm not convinced that MS care in the slightest about a school's server licensing arrangement if they are paying $$$ for Microsoft 365 A5. That said, the liability might quickly start to look like the sort of number that needs to appear on reports to the governors!

[Rob_D]

We've use https://www.dmsystem.co.uk/ for our licensing and they've been pretty good helping us along a similar path.

[GK1999]

Carly White at Integrated Tech LTD 

[network41]

+1 for Pugh used them for years at my last school

[itskdog]

Don't have experience with anyone else, but we're with XMA and I can recommend against them. Since I've started handling IT orders with the IT manager taking on other responsibilities, I've always had trouble with them renewing our OVS-ES and getting our Windows 10 ESUs.

 

On top of general slow response times and not having an auto-reply or bounce-back when an account manager leaves the company, I recall they once assigned the licences to the office shared mailbox because that's the email address on the purchase order form (as they place all orders) rather than to myself or the IT Manager, after initially not actually adding any licences to the contract, and Microsoft automatically terminated the agreement we'd just signed as a result of it being untouched.

 

We've moved to A3 as part of an RM project (so bought our first batch of licences from them), so at our next renewal we might shop around for the best deals - will save this thread to come back to later.

[DavR]

+1 Millgate, they're great for us.

 

When we first moved over to them, we were starting a new agreement and expecting a price hike. Actually, they picked apart our agreement and put something together new that got us what we needed for less. 

[TechMonkey]

I've been with Insight for a bit.  Generally no one gets close to them, but they are using the CHESRT agreement.  I think Pugh can do the same.

[Ratcliffepg]

Pugh ! been using them for a long time, always excellent service

[pete]

We've used Phoenix, Millgate and Memtek over the years and don't have any complaints.

[Scifigirl]

Don't forget the JISC agreement if you qualify ..... can take a good amount off

[JazzFlute]

1 hour ago, jmak said:

Only based on who I have used rather than any bad experiences: 

 

Currently Phoenix although decision is way above my pay grade and find them responsive and helpful. I had the same experience when I did choose the supplier in a previous job. 

Softcat were great when I used then for licensing in a previous place and are very competitive on the items I buy from them now. 

John Levis at Very PC has been very generous with advice on this forum. I haven't used then for software, not have made other purchases over the years and always had a good experience. 

 

All of them a good shout for your three quotes 😎

 

Thumbs up for John Levis at Very PC for Microsoft Licensing

[Martin-Tech-source]

Hey,

i can help - do this for lots of schoos, trusts, colleges and business - please message me and happy to help - advise

[Mark182]

12 minutes ago, Martin-Tech-source said:

Hey,

i can help - do this for lots of schoos, trusts, colleges and business - please message me and happy to help - advise

 

I have used Martin, he's very good. 

[robintech]

another Very PC  recommend , so much better than our last company

[johnlevis]

Thanks for the mentions @robintech @JazzFlute @jmak

 

Give me a shout @kwatt and I'll see what we can do ....

[Passat1983ICTech]

BSL are good as for Michael Holland

[TraceurElmo]

Whilst we don't use Pugh for our OVS, we do use them for a few bolt on licenses like our Minecraft Edu licenses. Our school has been with them for a while now and haven't had any issues previously.