Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios
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We have a mix of Office 365 Business Premium and E1 licenses for various users and services. With business premium, our users have the office suite/client software installed I have 3 different scenarios that have arisen that I need to figure out how to license.
Scenario 1-
Two backup call center reps sharing a single computer, depending on workload. Both users have computers of their own in different departments and are licensed with Office 365 Business Premium. In the event of heavy call volume, these users may be called in to take calls from a desk with a different computer than their own (shared between them). How do you license this?Scenario 2-
Conference room computers- Is the only way to do a dedicated conference room computer, to use its own Office 365 Business Premium license and users have to login to it with a dedicated conference room account?Scenario 3-
Windows Remote Desktop Server - Access to a few different applications via remote desktop session, including our ERP system. Users want to generate and view reports in excel formats in the remote desktop session. Can we use Office Standard (perpetual) in concert with the connecting users' office 365 business premium licenses, or will we have to upgrade all the users' office 365 licenses to one that allows shared activation? -
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
Scenario 1
You need to install O365 on that machine using the shared option. Forget the name atm, not at a PC.
What happens is when they log on to the computer, office asks them to log in.
They'll need to have their own login for that computer.
Technically, doing it this way is the only allowed way to do it. You must specifically install the shared version of office.
Edit: found the link
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/overview-of-shared-computer-activation-for-office-365-proplus -
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
Scenario 2
Do it same as scenario 1. Only real way.
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@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
Scenario 3
Either yes you can install the perpetual version on the server and then users can generate the reports, or it was done incorrectly at my last job by the ERP consultant.
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@Obsolesce said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
Scenario 3
Either yes you can install the perpetual version on the server and then users can generate the reports, or it was done incorrectly at my last job by the ERP consultant.
Not sure a typical perpetual version can be used - I thought it had to be a VL version installed on the RDS server - of course, one license per person (not connection, but per user) who logs into RDS. Basically all RDS users will have to have two licenses - a VL Office license, and a O356 license. Or upgrade those users to E3 (I think) to use shared office o365 on RDS.
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@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Obsolesce said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
Scenario 3
Either yes you can install the perpetual version on the server and then users can generate the reports, or it was done incorrectly at my last job by the ERP consultant.
Not sure a typical perpetual version can be used - I thought it had to be a VL version installed on the RDS server - of course, one license per person (not connection, but per user) who logs into RDS. Basically all RDS users will have to have two licenses - a VL Office license, and a O356 license. Or upgrade those users to E3 (I think) to use shared office o365 on RDS.
You don't need E3. All of the Office 365 packages that offer the full version offer multiple devices.
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@JaredBusch said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Obsolesce said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
Scenario 3
Either yes you can install the perpetual version on the server and then users can generate the reports, or it was done incorrectly at my last job by the ERP consultant.
Not sure a typical perpetual version can be used - I thought it had to be a VL version installed on the RDS server - of course, one license per person (not connection, but per user) who logs into RDS. Basically all RDS users will have to have two licenses - a VL Office license, and a O356 license. Or upgrade those users to E3 (I think) to use shared office o365 on RDS.
You don't need E3. All of the Office 365 packages that offer the full version offer multiple devices.
Multi-device, sure, but RDS? that's what I don't know.
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@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@JaredBusch said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Obsolesce said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
Scenario 3
Either yes you can install the perpetual version on the server and then users can generate the reports, or it was done incorrectly at my last job by the ERP consultant.
Not sure a typical perpetual version can be used - I thought it had to be a VL version installed on the RDS server - of course, one license per person (not connection, but per user) who logs into RDS. Basically all RDS users will have to have two licenses - a VL Office license, and a O356 license. Or upgrade those users to E3 (I think) to use shared office o365 on RDS.
You don't need E3. All of the Office 365 packages that offer the full version offer multiple devices.
Multi-device, sure, but RDS? that's what I don't know.
It is just a device. There is nothing special about RDS.
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@Obsolesce said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
Scenario 1
You need to install O365 on that machine using the shared option. Forget the name atm, not at a PC.
What happens is when they log on to the computer, office asks them to log in.
They'll need to have their own login for that computer.
Technically, doing it this way is the only allowed way to do it. You must specifically install the shared version of office.
Edit: found the link
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/overview-of-shared-computer-activation-for-office-365-proplusI have read that, and the shared activation is for proplus. We have business premium. So, we would have to assign users with proplus licensing. However, a chat with MS last night yielded no solution. Sure, you can use proplus to do this, but what about if you have those same users that have office 365 mailboxes/exchange online with business premium? They couldn't answer that.
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@JaredBusch said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@JaredBusch said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Obsolesce said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
Scenario 3
Either yes you can install the perpetual version on the server and then users can generate the reports, or it was done incorrectly at my last job by the ERP consultant.
Not sure a typical perpetual version can be used - I thought it had to be a VL version installed on the RDS server - of course, one license per person (not connection, but per user) who logs into RDS. Basically all RDS users will have to have two licenses - a VL Office license, and a O356 license. Or upgrade those users to E3 (I think) to use shared office o365 on RDS.
You don't need E3. All of the Office 365 packages that offer the full version offer multiple devices.
Multi-device, sure, but RDS? that's what I don't know.
It is just a device. There is nothing special about RDS.
But there is... You need a proplus plan to deploy to RDS. MS doesn't say which plans are proplus, aside from the obvious proplus, which doesn't include any services like email.
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@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@JaredBusch said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@JaredBusch said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Obsolesce said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
Scenario 3
Either yes you can install the perpetual version on the server and then users can generate the reports, or it was done incorrectly at my last job by the ERP consultant.
Not sure a typical perpetual version can be used - I thought it had to be a VL version installed on the RDS server - of course, one license per person (not connection, but per user) who logs into RDS. Basically all RDS users will have to have two licenses - a VL Office license, and a O356 license. Or upgrade those users to E3 (I think) to use shared office o365 on RDS.
You don't need E3. All of the Office 365 packages that offer the full version offer multiple devices.
Multi-device, sure, but RDS? that's what I don't know.
It is just a device. There is nothing special about RDS.
But there is... You need a proplus plan to deploy to RDS. MS doesn't say which plans are proplus, aside from the obvious proplus, which doesn't include any services like email.
ProPlus includes Acess, I'm pretty sure. So if Business Premium doesn't include Access, it's not ProPlus - that's my guess anyway... and one of the things that lead me to believe that you had to have E3 or better.
I just looked Access does appear to be part of BP.
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@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@JaredBusch said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@JaredBusch said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Obsolesce said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
Scenario 3
Either yes you can install the perpetual version on the server and then users can generate the reports, or it was done incorrectly at my last job by the ERP consultant.
Not sure a typical perpetual version can be used - I thought it had to be a VL version installed on the RDS server - of course, one license per person (not connection, but per user) who logs into RDS. Basically all RDS users will have to have two licenses - a VL Office license, and a O356 license. Or upgrade those users to E3 (I think) to use shared office o365 on RDS.
You don't need E3. All of the Office 365 packages that offer the full version offer multiple devices.
Multi-device, sure, but RDS? that's what I don't know.
It is just a device. There is nothing special about RDS.
But there is... You need a proplus plan to deploy to RDS. MS doesn't say which plans are proplus, aside from the obvious proplus, which doesn't include any services like email.
ProPlus includes Acess, I'm pretty sure. So if Business Premium doesn't include Access, it's not ProPlus - that's my guess anyway... and one of the things that lead me to believe that you had to have E3 or better.
I just looked Access does appear to be part of BP.
Unfortunately, BP is not considered ProPlus, as my attempt to use shared activation and it prohibiting me from doing so, led me to posting.
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I found this, the poster says what @wrx7m just said - BP is not ProPlus, therefore you don't get shared activation, therefore you can't use it on RDS or in any of the situations the OP has.
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I am contacting our VAR for our ERP to see if we can use Open Office or Libre Office. I might do the same in the conference rooms now, too; we are now using Slack instead of SFB/Teams, so that need is no longer there.
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@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
And MS's own posting
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/office-applications-service-description/office-applications-service-description
It's funny that they list perpetual/VL options for shared computer activation. Those are licensed by device, so you don't need shared computer activation. It is irrelevant.
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@JaredBusch said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Obsolesce said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
Scenario 3
Either yes you can install the perpetual version on the server and then users can generate the reports, or it was done incorrectly at my last job by the ERP consultant.
Not sure a typical perpetual version can be used - I thought it had to be a VL version installed on the RDS server - of course, one license per person (not connection, but per user) who logs into RDS. Basically all RDS users will have to have two licenses - a VL Office license, and a O356 license. Or upgrade those users to E3 (I think) to use shared office o365 on RDS.
You don't need E3. All of the Office 365 packages that offer the full version offer multiple devices.
Once again - multi device is not the as what's required for RDS (which is shared activation) which you don't get with BP, so you must have O365 ProPlus or E3 or higher.
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@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@JaredBusch said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Obsolesce said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
Scenario 3
Either yes you can install the perpetual version on the server and then users can generate the reports, or it was done incorrectly at my last job by the ERP consultant.
Not sure a typical perpetual version can be used - I thought it had to be a VL version installed on the RDS server - of course, one license per person (not connection, but per user) who logs into RDS. Basically all RDS users will have to have two licenses - a VL Office license, and a O356 license. Or upgrade those users to E3 (I think) to use shared office o365 on RDS.
You don't need E3. All of the Office 365 packages that offer the full version offer multiple devices.
Once again - multi device is not the as what's required for RDS (which is shared activation) which you don't get with BP, so you must have E3 or higher.
That chart you linked to in the previous post doesn't list E3 or higher in that matrix. Did you see something that shows E3 or higher will allow shared computer activation/are considered proplus plans?
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VAR replied saying our ERP only supports Microsoft office products. So, I can probably get away with Open or Libre in the conf rooms. I am still wondering if the RDS will work, despite what they say.
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@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@JaredBusch said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Dashrender said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@Obsolesce said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
@wrx7m said in Microsoft Office - Licensing Questions For 3 Scenarios:
Scenario 3
Either yes you can install the perpetual version on the server and then users can generate the reports, or it was done incorrectly at my last job by the ERP consultant.
Not sure a typical perpetual version can be used - I thought it had to be a VL version installed on the RDS server - of course, one license per person (not connection, but per user) who logs into RDS. Basically all RDS users will have to have two licenses - a VL Office license, and a O356 license. Or upgrade those users to E3 (I think) to use shared office o365 on RDS.
You don't need E3. All of the Office 365 packages that offer the full version offer multiple devices.
Once again - multi device is not the as what's required for RDS (which is shared activation) which you don't get with BP, so you must have E3 or higher.
That chart you linked to in the previous post doesn't list E3 or higher in that matrix. Did you see something that shows E3 or higher will allow shared computer activation/are considered proplus plans?
I didn't look for a link - I know we've talked about it before here and E3 definitely qualifies... I know once upon a time it didn't but that was changed a few years ago.
I did find a link talking about Microsoft 365 (not O365, but M365) does support shared activation.
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-365-Business-Blog/Shared-Computer-Activation-for-Office-in-Microsoft-365-Business/ba-p/472994
