Office Business for 20 users

[Rigo]

Hi Folks,
Trying to find the best option for this client of mine with currently 20 users, still adding more.
They have been buying retail O365 Family when they hire a new employee to share the 5 activations until exhaustion, then another pack.
I told them this wasn't the correct way to do it for a business, thinking about volume licensing options as there used to be.
They are now open to improving their practice and asking for a better way to do it.
What better and cheaper way would now be available rather than multiple packs of O365 Family as keeping track of which user is under which package is becoming cumbersome as well.
Any suggestion welcome.

 

[callthatgirl]

Good for you, this is a great opportunity!

Do you use a vendor for your sales? I use one and it's helpful.
You can have them buy direct from MS but you lose the commission or lower fees, I do this as it's faster, then I flip to my vendor
You'll have a bit of work to do after you setup new licenses, so I'd quote this at a higher fee because just buying and changing licenses in Office is not always simple. Might require a full reinstall and you might lose some of your Outlook profiles. Seen this happen before.

 

[Rigo]

Good for you, this is a great opportunity!

Do you use a vendor for your sales? I use one and it's helpful.
You can have them buy direct from MS but you lose the commission or lower fees, I do this as it's faster, then I flip to my vendor
You'll have a bit of work to do after you setup new licenses, so I'd quote this at a higher fee because just buying and changing licenses in Office is not always simple. Might require a full reinstall and you might lose some of your Outlook profiles. Seen this happen before.

Thx for your insight but a little cryptic for a newbie
could you please elaborate?
Yes I do have a couple of distributors I could go through, but what do I buy for my client?
And the prospect of commissions sounds good too

 

[callthatgirl]

Who are your distributors?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Microsoft 365 Apps for Business | Microsoft 365

With Microsoft 365 Apps for business, store and share files, access apps on several devices, and automatically update apps with new features to manage your business.

www.microsoft.com

Microsoft 365 Apps for Business, if all you need are local installs of Word, Excel, etc....and if they have their email hosted elsewhere (not with Microsoft).

If they have their email hosted in 365, for a business, you want Microsoft 365 Business Premium...you can get away with Microsoft 365 Business Standard, but I highly...highly....HIGHLY...recommend you talk clients out of cheaping out because a business SHOULD HAVE the added security features of Business Premium. And, as their IT person, you would want the added management capabilities of Premium.

If you're an IT person that takes care of business clients, you'd probably want to get yourself setup with a "CSP"....Microsoft licensing program where you resell licenses and get monthly commissions for. We use PAX8 for example. While based in the US, I see they expanded into AU/NZ last year. They have programs where you purchase licenses at wholesale....and you resell to your clients. And they have programs where you bring clients to them, they sell your clients licenses direct, they'll even support your clients, and you still get a commission on the back end (less than if you resell, but...still something!)

Pax8 Expands into Australia and New Zealand | Pax8

Brisbane, Australia (April 27, 2022) – Pax8, the leading cloud commerce marketplace, today announced its expansion into Australia and New Zealand. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) in the regions now have access to Pax8’s award-winning cloud marketplace, support, education programs, and more...

www.pax8.com

 

[Rigo]

Who are your distributors?

Synnex and Leader Systems
Couldn't post earlier, my account on TN keeps getting knocked off with: You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Have to reconfirm my email to get in again

 

[Rigo]

Microsoft 365 Apps for Business | Microsoft 365

With Microsoft 365 Apps for business, store and share files, access apps on several devices, and automatically update apps with new features to manage your business.

www.microsoft.com

Microsoft 365 Apps for Business, if all you need are local installs of Word, Excel, etc....and if they have their email hosted elsewhere (not with Microsoft).

That smells like O365 for family
Are these 5 installs shareable with different users like in the family edition?

If they have their email hosted in 365, for a business, you want Microsoft 365 Business Premium...you can get away with Microsoft 365 Business Standard, but I highly...highly....HIGHLY...recommend you talk clients out of cheaping out because a business SHOULD HAVE the added security features of Business Premium. And, as their IT person, you would want the added management capabilities of Premium.

At this stage I don't think they'd want to go MS hosting way yet. They have cPanel hosting which is not perfect in storage allowance but it works for the moment.

If you're an IT person that takes care of business clients, you'd probably want to get yourself setup with a "CSP"....Microsoft licensing program where you resell licenses and get monthly commissions for. We use PAX8 for example. While based in the US, I see they expanded into AU/NZ last year. They have programs where you purchase licenses at wholesale....and you resell to your clients. And they have programs where you bring clients to them, they sell your clients licenses direct, they'll even support your clients, and you still get a commission on the back end (less than if you resell, but...still something!)

Pax8 Expands into Australia and New Zealand | Pax8

Brisbane, Australia (April 27, 2022) – Pax8, the leading cloud commerce marketplace, today announced its expansion into Australia and New Zealand. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) in the regions now have access to Pax8’s award-winning cloud marketplace, support, education programs, and more...

www.pax8.com

My current distributors do have the program but I'm not sure whether they retain the commissions or I get'em. Something to check.

 

[mikeroq]

For 365 Business you buy per user. Each user gets 5 installs to cover THEIR devices only. IE Bob has a desktop in the his office and a laptop he takes on the road. Not for Bob, Sally, Joe, Mary, and Tom to share.

I had to battle a client on this that has ~10 users. They wanted to share two licenses of 365 Business standard to cover them all. This was also the client who shared one email address for everyone in the office. I pushed back and told them each user HAS to have their own license + everyone should have their own email address anyway. So now everyone has their own email and there's a couple shared mailboxes. Good thing they got off their ISP email because the ISP decided to stop providing email shortly after.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Yup..."per user" license. If Bob uses 3 computers....he can log into 3 computers and it will activate the apps based on his login.
If Sally uses 1 computer....she'll log into that computer and it will activate based on her login.
If Bob and Sally share a computer, they can both have logins on that computer that each will activate based on their unique logins.

 

[Markverhyden]

That smells like O365 for family
Are these 5 installs shareable with different users like in the family edition?

At this stage I don't think they'd want to go MS hosting way yet. They have cPanel hosting which is not perfect in storage allowance but it works for the moment.

My current distributors do have the program but I'm not sure whether they retain the commissions or I get'em. Something to check.

All business licenses are on a per user basis and are tied to one email address. While it's a license violation they can install it on other computers using the same emaill address but let others use it.

I'm sure the distributors will pay commissions. But they may have a minimum amount that applies. Generally theres two ways. One is reseller, where you sell it to them as well as charging the annual renewal. The other is partner where you get paid a commission on the sale. That's what I have with Appriver. Not sure if they are in Australia though.

 

[alexsmith2709]

Synnex and Leader Systems
Couldn't post earlier, my account on TN keeps getting knocked off with: You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Have to reconfirm my email to get in again

If Synnex do as they do here in the UK, they have their StreamOne marketplace (This system belonged to Tech Data who bought Synnex last year) for their CSP stuff. You buy it at wholesale price and sell it at whatever price you want (either at Microsoft RRP and add on a management fee, or just a higher price). The margin is around 20% on the MS RRP which isnt bad when theres nothing to do after its setup (and when there is is where you extra fee comes in).
They dont offer anything like PAX8 does to support your customer for you though (at least not over here), for that you are on your own, they just provide the license.

 

[Rigo]

I had to battle a client on this that has ~10 users

What arguments did you present to convince them to pay what they paid for 6 to now shell it out for one?
The family pack cost is practically the same as price for O365 Business.
Few organisations would provide their employees with 5 devices on which they could use the activations within the context of work.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

What arguments did you present to convince them to pay what they paid for 6 to now shell it out for one?
The family pack cost is practically the same as price for O365 Business.
Few organisations would provide their employees with 5 devices on which they could use the activations within the context of work.

That's how it's licensed by Microsoft. The "same user can log into and activate the apps on up to 5x computers" is icing on the cake. However, the focus on the sell is..."That's how Microsoft licenses it". As professionals we can only guide our clients with the proper licensing. I don't want to be the guy that suggests sneaky ways to work around the legality. I'm not going to jeopardize my Microsoft partner status by getting clients to sneak around things.

 

[britechguy]

I'm not going to jeopardize my Microsoft partner status by getting clients to sneak around things.

I'm not a Microsoft Partner, but I still will not advise any client to do something that directly violates licensing terms.

When there was still a real gray market for licenses, I would steer residential clients who were looking to save money toward it for consideration, but not business clients. My attitude is that business clients absolutely have to be entirely "on the up and up" in case they should have to pursue something with Microsoft. Home users so seldom do, and I've oft expressed my opinion that if someone gets a license key, follows Microsoft's activation instructions to the letter, and Microsoft activates it then that's way more than "good enough for me" because it's good enough for the licensor.

 

[timeshifter]

Here's maybe a couple of ways you could reframe this for them.

Photo licenses. People who hold the rights to photographs (photographers, stock image websites, etc.) can charge or not charge for their work based on how you use it. If you want to use a photo for a birthday party invitation for your kid you can use the photo for free. If you want to use that same photo for a brochure advertising your business you have to pay.

The owner of the intellectual property (photographer, software publisher) decides how they charge for their work based on how you're going to use it. You can tell the photographer you're using the photo for a birthday card but actually use it for your brochure. You can tell the software maker you're using the software at home but you're really using it to operate a for profit business.

Accountant / CPA. Think of your role as that of an accountant (in the states we have Certified Public Accountants or CPAs). It's their job to do things by the book and advise their clients accordingly. People may not understand all the tax laws so they hire accountants to help them navigate and do things correctly.