Author: Fionán Ó‘Cinnéide

Fionán joined Micromail in 2007. Working his way through the sales team he headed up the Micromail Adobe business before moving into the Microsoft team where he now focuses on Enterprise Agreement management for Commercial and Public Sector customers. Fionán holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and History from University College Cork.

Microsoft have announced some significant changes to their Software Assurance benefits, which will impact across many Microsoft Agreement types, but will have particular effect on organisations with an Enterprise Agreement in place.

The changes affect three of the most commonly used and valued Software Assurance (SA) benefits: Deployment Planning Services; Training Vouchers; and 24/7 Support. Planning Services & Training Vouchers will be phased out, and support criteria will be updated. Microsoft’s logic behind this is in line with their transition from on premise to Cloud models; future emphasis will be on deployment delivery via FastTrack support, updated certification processes, and the Unified Support model. Although this decision matches Microsoft’s own business transformations, it will come as a blow to businesses that have grown to depend on these services, particularly partner planning support which is highly valued.

 

Takeaways: There are a number of key timelines to be aware of; this is important to anyone with current benefits, as they will need to be consumed before the services are removed. Particular attention should be paid to the Feb 2020 date to convert Training Vouchers to Partner days, as this deadline is looming.

To discuss how these SA benefit changes impact your organisation talk to you regular Micromail account manager or email info@micromail.ie to organise a call.

Planning Services:

February 1, 2020

•Cloud service options retired from SA catalogue

February 1, 2021

•Accrual of new planning days ends

•Last day to create Planning Services vouchers for new/renewing contracts

June 30, 2021

•Last day to create Planning Services vouchers for existing contracts

January 31, 2022

•Last day to redeem Planning Services vouchers for existing contracts

Training Vouchers:

February 1, 2020

•Azure training courses removed from catalogue

•Training Vouchers to Planning Days conversion ends

February 1, 2021

•Accrual of new Training Vouchers ends

•Last day to create Training Vouchers for new/renewing contracts

June 30, 2021

•Last day to create Training Vouchers for existing contracts

January 31, 2022

•Last day to redeem Training Vouchers for existing contracts

24/7 Support:

February 1, 2021

Ending

•Accrual of 24×7 PRS incidents

•Incident conversions towards Premier/Unified Support

Launching

•For customers with more than US$250K/year SA spend:

•As-needed basic phone support for Severity A

•Online support during business hours for Severity B and C

•24-hour response time

•Credit towards a Unified Support agreement

Starting from 1st of October, Microsoft have implemented a significant change to their Power Platform licensing model; today we will review the impact this will have on current Flow and PowerApps users who are already availing of the limited capabilities included in O365 plans. It’s important to understand what the changes are, how they will affect you, and what action needs to be taken. 

Firstly, the significant changes to the O365 PowerApps & Flow licenses are as follows:

  • The SQL, Azure and Dynamics 365 connectors listed below will be reclassified from Standard to Premium. A standalone PowerApps or Flow plan license is required to access all Premium connectors, which is an additional cost. This will result in a need for an additional licence purchase of either PowerApps App Plan, PowerApps Plan 2, Flow Plan 1 or Plan 2, depending on functionality needed. They may also be a requirement to add extra capacity based on your business needs.  

If you are not currently using these services then no action is required; you will start on the new model if you decide to start running these services.

However, if you are currently utilising these resources, then it is possible to ask Microsoft to extend your current licensing terms until 1st of October 2020, or the expiration of your current Online Service term. There is some urgency to request this extension, as it needs to be made before 31st of December 2019.

Our recommendation: If you are not currently using these services, no action is needed, but if you are using O365 PowerApps and/or Flow services, and will be affected by the changes below, open a service request on your O365 tenant (see guide) and request an extension to your current licensing model.  

  • Newly defined Premium Connectors:
    • Azure Application Insights
    • Azure Automation
    • Azure Blob Storage
    • Azure Container
    • Azure Cosmos
    • Azure Data Factory
    • Azure Data Lake
    • Azure DevOps
    • Azure Event Grid
    • Azure Event Grid Publish
    • Azure File Storage
    • Azure IoT Central
    • Azure Kusto
    • Azure Log Analytics
    • Azure Log Analytics Data Collector
    • Azure Queues
    • Azure Resource Manager
    • Azure SQL
    • Azure SQL Data Warehouse
    • Azure Table Sorage
    • Dynamics 365
    • Dynamics 365 Customer Insights
    • Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations
    • Dynamics 365 Sales Insights
    • Dynamics 365 Business Central
    • Dynamics 365 Business Central (on-premises)
    • Dynamics NAV
    • Event Hubs
    • Service Bus
    • SQL Server
  • Two of Flow’s plan-based limits are being removed:
  • 5-minute maximum flow frequency
  • 2,000 maximum runs per user, per month. Existing user-based limits on API requests will remain in place for the purposes of service assurance, and there is one new daily API request limit being introduced at this time. Go here to learn more about Flow service limits.

At this year’s Inspire Conference in Washington D.C. (formerly known as the World Wide Partner Conference) Microsoft announced the release of an all-embracing Cloud and on-prem package which called Microsoft 365 or M365.

Just when you thought that all you had to do was understand the difference between Office 365 E3 and E5, you now have two additional layers of complexity. Microsoft 365 is designed to be a comprehensive Cloud client offering, as well a comprehensive on-prem offering, including everything that was previously part of an Enterprise Platform Desktop (Enterprise CAL, Office Professional Plus, Windows Enterprise) and is now their all-in-one Cloud bundle.

What’s the difference between Office 365 and Microsoft 365?

There are two main differences: Enterprise Mobility + Security and Windows Enterprise

And there are two main versions of Microsoft 365, each built on the E3 or E5 version of their component bundles:

M365 E3 = Office 365 E3 + EMS E3 + Windows Enterprise E3

M365 E5 = Office 365 E5 + EMS E5 + Windows Enterprise E5

 

Microsoft 365 main page is here

For up to date service descriptions please click here 

 

Contact your regular Micromail account manager or email info@micromail.ie to learn more about Microsoft 365 or any other Microsoft product or service.