Here are 5 Microsoft licensing update for March 2024 to consider

Microsoft on a monthly basis comes out with licensing updates. As an organization or users of Microsoft products and services, it is always important to align with these updates in order to stay complaint.  

These updates also announce sometimes Microsoft’s intended technological or trends direction for the future and this can inform how you plan your technological adaptability. The month of March 2024 is here again with updates which we will proceed to share with you. 

The licensing updates for the month of March relevant as the other past months and are worth discussing.  

1. Microsoft 365 F1 user update 

Microsoft has change in the added language update to Microsoft 365 F1. This is to throw more light on M365 F1 User Mailbox rights. The update states that a direct mail feature is included in the license but user is not allowed to use it. This is just to enhance the overall Teams experience. With this update, using the mailbox license in F1 will be considered as out of compliance. 

How to stay compliant? 

• Take a careful look at your setup 

Ensure that if you are utilizing M365 F1, you are not on the Exchange Online Kiosk plan, which is preset to cater to your Team’s booking and communication requirements. 

• Put in effort to stay compliant 

Keep in mind that using the mailbox license directly with F1 might bypass compliance.  

• Microsoft recommends…  

The disabling of Outlook on the web for M365 F1 users and advises against accessing the Exchange mailbox through alternative methods. While users with a Microsoft 365 F1 license are allocated an Exchange mailbox, they are prohibited from utilizing it. 

Why is the user unable to use mailbox in Microsoft 365 F1 

With the Microsoft 365 F1 mailbox, users do not have the right to use email but will receive it as an end user. The reason for that is that Microsoft isn’t able to give you the full Teams and bookings experience if they don’t include mailbox so that’s the reason, they included it.  

These are some of the terms that make Microsoft licensing complex and terms like this can make licensing not easily manageable for multinational organization. Hopefully Microsoft will change this quite soon but until then, you can speak to our team of Microsoft licensing experts on the way forward in your organization. 

2. Change in purview version product terms 

Microsoft also changed their terms about their purview version of their products. Microsoft has a short article in their product terms to give further clarity about the purview versions. This states that Microsoft is allowed to not make a product generally commercially available or that you can’t find the terms or conditions in the service level agreements. 

The terms update also states that purviews are not included in service level agreements and support for customer may not be covered by Microsoft. Again, some additional language has been added that certain purviews are subject to supplemental purview terms as will be published by Microsoft. 

What does this mean? 

Microsoft could choose to launch a separate document or PDF for creating specific terms for a specific purview product.   

3. Microsoft changed the minimum order quantity for Microsoft Finance premium 

In the Microsoft Dynamics 365 space, the quantity order was being reduced from 20 to 10 order per quantity. Also, there is a change in the mix and match of the Dynamics 365 licenses to the standard minimum of 20. 

However, for Teams in general, it is still at a minimum order quantity of 20. There is only an exception for quantity order of 10 when it comes to the premium version, but you are now able to mix and match Microsoft Finance with Commerce, Supply chain and Project operations to come to that minimum order quantity of 20. 

4. Intune 

Some new features and capabilities have been added for Frontline workers. These features for Intune help make a distinction between the full user and the Frontline user. The Frontline users has been added to their product offering. The same counts for the same audio services for Microsoft Team phone standard. 

There is now the full license attached to the M365 E3 and E5 offerings and you have a separate offering now available for the Frontline workers. 

 5. Change to the Exchange Use rights for Microsoft 365 

Microsoft states that the change had to be made for clarity. But when terms are compared to the previous one, what is noticed is that the current product terms version only sees a change in the MPSA language where that was deleted out of the product terms. 

Likely implication 

Does this deletion mean Microsoft will likely announce that Office 365 is no longer available in MPSA? Or perhaps the deletion was just a mistake, or they forgot to change also the MPSA language. 

We as Microsoft licensing and cloud experts will keep our eyes on the updates as they come out to support you make the right licensing decisions.  Share with us what your agreement challenges are, and we can help you to optimize them to save on spending.