Office for Mac 2016 Volume Licensing Help

[reelmike]

When in doubt, ask JAMF Nation....

Our business would like to move from Office 2011 to Office 2016, but prior to my regime, our company blindly paid for full 2011 retail licenses (probably b/c of the low number of users). They would now like to move to 2016 with a larger user base, and I want to explore volume licensing to make my license headaches completely disappear. I am aware that you have to get volume licensing thru a Microsoft partner? Yes? And if so, where do I begin? Who's the best, most fairly priced? I do not want Office 365 b/c we already have cloud services with another provider... I want to be able to package up Office 2016 and deploy with a volume license... how do I get to that point, and who do I need to call?

Help me JAMF Nation, you're my only hope!

[Jeffreytigch]

Not sure where you are based, but I think it's best to talk to a Microsoft partner about this. I tried to go through the Enterprise Agreement route, but it gave me such an headache, we went for Open Value/Open License. Much, much easier. If the user base is larger than 1000 seats, I would recommend not thinking about an EA.

Do you have Software Assurance bought on the Office 2011 licenses? You would be eligible to use Office 2016 through SA. But again, a Microsoft partner could help you with that.

[H3144-IT]

Dear Mike,

your Profile puts your Company Head Quarters to Seattle, with Satellites all over the World.

I am not sure, why Jeffrey noted that an Enterprise Agreement is NOT the right route for 1000+ Employees?

OpenValue is tailored to Small and Medium Business up to 250 Computers - Organisations pay a single price per PC which makes licensing costs more predictable.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/A/1/6A1647EE-3FC7-47F2-9AFE-470AD5E5D856/MicrosoftOpenProgramsComparisonChart.pdf

However you have to understand the difference between Office 365 which is per User VERSUS Volume Licensing which usually is per Computer, so you can have multiple Users with individual Accounts sharing a PC.
BUT there are also Volume Licenses per User available, which makes the whole more complicated!

Volume Licensing can be either Purchase the License out right with or without Software Assurance via CAPEX OR on a Subscription Basis which then would go through your OPEX.

The Trouble is in the Detail, what other Microsoft Software do you use (Exchange, Sharepoint, Lync, etc.)

and you need a Specialist for that, so try and get in Contact with Microsoft License Consultant,

rather than a Microsoft Service Partner since Partners get Commission from Microsoft, so they may try to sell you something you may not need.

While you pay the Consultant for their Services!

I googled a Consultant in your Area: http://www.jaksnowconsulting.com/microsoft-licensing-seattle-wa.html

Best of Luck

[Jeffreytigch]

It could be the right route if you have 1000+ seats. The amount of time (and money) that I had to put into, is not worth the savings you get through an EA.

[reelmike]

Thanks @Jeffreytigch and @H3144-IT for the thoughtful replies.
Should have clarified up front... we'd be looking at approx. 50 seats. No SA on the 2011 licenses. They were literally bought "off the shelf" as they went. So, you can imagine, I now have 15+ 2011 license codes floating around. This was all pre-casper as well, so it's hard to pinpoint who has which code on their machine... ugh.

[jkuo]

@reelmike - For 50 seats, Office 365 ProPlus might be a good option:

https://products.office.com/en-us/business/office-365-proplus-business-software

$12/user per month.

This is what we use for ~400 seats, and it's essentially using Office 365 solely for standalone office installations. It allows each named user to install Office five times (Windows or Mac), and they just sign in with their email address. It makes assigning and revoking licenses really easy and self-service.

You can then put the installer in Self-Service, and then the last step they do is sign in with their Office 365 username and password.

It doesn't include email, calendar, SharePoint and all that extra stuff that sounds like you don't need, just Office on a computer and Office Online (if you want).

Hope that helps!