Microsoft Licensing

What is a Subscription Licence? A subscription licence is a cost-effective and easy way to license a school’s Microsoft software, both on-premise and in the cloud. Instead of buying individual licences for each PC/Laptop, you just count the total number of Education Qualified Users (EQU) or Business / Charity Users.

  • For Education Customers, a “EQU” is a staff member who uses a computer with Windows and Office. Education staff users will generally need a Microsoft 365 A3 or A5 license. With every A3 or A5 Faculty license you buy, you also get 40 Student licenses of the same type free of charge.
  • For Business Customers, you count how many staff you have, some may have different license requirements, for example some users may need just an email (Exchange) license, and others may need a Business Premium or Power Bi license’s. Options are flexible but can be tricky to understand, to get the best value One IT are able to review your requirements and advise the best value option for your business needs.
  • For Chairty Customers, much like business customers, you count how many staff you have and work out what products and features they need. Microsoft offer substantial donations and heavy discounts to registered charity’s. One IT can help you claim these discounts and again like business users, we can advise the best way to purchase to ensure you maximise value and cost savings.

 

Benefits of Subscription Licenses

  • Always Up-to-Date: You get the latest software versions without extra costs.
  • Easy Administration: Report the number of users you have either once a year or as new staff start and licenses can be added or removed quickly.
  • Flexible Licensing: License specific products for small groups and adjust as needed.

 

What Licenses should I choose?

  • There are hundreds of license options to choose from, we would recommend that you discuss you needs with a member of our team to find out more about exactly what each license includes.

 

What are the common license’s for Education, Business and Charity that our customers buy most?

In general, Education customers Purchase Microsoft 365 A3 / A5 Licenses and often Power Bi add on’s to these.

Business and Charity customers will normally purchase (or receive a grant) for Microsoft 365 Business Standard or Premium.

What is included in the above licenses?

  • As a general guide the below PDF’s show what is included, please note that these do change from time to time (often bringing more features at the same price) so we recommend talking with one of our team to get an up to date list of products and services that are included in each license.

Microsoft 365 Education All
Microsoft 365 Business Non-Profit or Charity

What license terms are available and is pricing fixed?

  • License’s can be purchased in 3 ways:
    • Annual Commitment / Annual Billing: The product is purchased upfront and billed annually. Pricing is fixed and you are committed for 1 year.
    • Annual Commitment /Monthly Billing: You commit to subscribing for 1 year, are billed monthly but the total cost remains the same over the 12 months. Pricing is fixed and you are committed for 1 year.
    • Monthly / No Commitment / Monthly billing: You pay monthly which may offer the flexibility you need, however this is generally 20% more per month and is subject to mid-year price increases with 3 months’ notice.

 

I am an Education customer and require proof of best value and/or have to use a procurement framework, are One IT on a framework or able to provide proof of best value?

  • Yes, we are an approved supplier on the “Everything ICT Public Sector Procurement Framework”.
  • Yes, we can arrange through either our direct suppliers to gather multiple quotes, or we can recommend a number of suppliers we work with for you to contact directly.

One IT also conducts regular pricing reviews to prove our current supplier is the best value, we can share the results of these reviews with customers on request.

 

How to Find Out More: Contact the One IT Helpdesk or your assigned Support Engineer and we will be happy to help.