Category: Microsoft 365

Posted on

Microsoft Copilot Dashboard


Since the introduction of Copilot for Microsoft 365, one of the big questions I, and others, have been asking is “how do you determine value?”. I laid out my initial concerns, questions, and actions here and now want to look at Microsoft’s offerings to enable this kind of insight. Currently available in preview (https://insights.cloud.microsoft/#/CopilotDashboard) – although I couldn’t get it to work – Microsoft’s Copilot Dashboard is their option to get the much needed insights.

Microsoft Copilot Dashboard

Microsoft aim for this to help customers across the 3 stages of the adoption journey:

It will show:

  • Who is eligible for Copilot for M365
  • How people are currently using M365 apps
  • How people are using Copilot and in which different apps
  • Information on how Copilot is impacting productivity
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-viva-blog/new-ways-microsoft-copilot-and-viva-are-transforming-the/ba-p/3982293

Access to this information and data will be key for businesses looking to make informed decisions on where Copilot can offer real benefits and ROI.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-viva-blog/new-ways-microsoft-copilot-and-viva-are-transforming-the/ba-p/3982293

Being able to see where it can get involved to help users is helpful for getting started:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-viva-blog/new-ways-microsoft-copilot-and-viva-are-transforming-the/ba-p/3982293

Viva gives more features

Microsoft are referring to it as “Microsoft Copilot Dashboard, powered by Viva” and from “early 2024” there will be additional dashboard features available to users with Viva Insights licenses. According to Microsoft, these will include:

“Copilot adoption and usage metrics combined with collaboration data, out-of-the box reports for organizational leaders, before and after behavioral data and even insights from employee surveys.”

and will also show time spent in meetings, processing emails, and creating content with before and after Copilot information.

All in all, the Copilot dashboard will be useful for organisations looking to understand more about their Copilot readiness and then their Copilot usage. However, some may have concerns about the reliability and objectivity of the data and reports generated by Microsoft on their own software. Ideally, Microsoft will be transparent and accountable in how they collect, process, and share the data from the Copilot dashboard. They should also provide ways for users to verify, challenge, or complement the data with their own sources and feedback.

Posted on

Microsoft end From SA license purchases for Microsoft 365 & Dynamics 365


Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Microsoft have retired the “From SA” license offering starting from February 1, 2024 for Microsoft 365.

What are they?

Introduced in 2015, these licenses were Cloud USLs at a reduced price for customers who had on-premises licenses with active Software Assurance (SA) and aimed to make it less costly for them to move to Microsoft’s Online Services.

What’s changed?

Microsoft say that “Cloud services are now the predominant way customers use Microsoft products and services” and so these From SA SKUs are no longer needed.

Microsoft 365

Feb 1st 2024: You won’t be able to order additional or new From SA subscription licenses for Microsoft 365 and its standalone products. The impacted products are:

  • Core CAL Suite Bridge for Office 365 From SA
  • Enterprise CAL Bridge for Enterprise Mobility + Security From SA (User SL)
  • Enterprise CAL Suite Bridge for Office 365 From SA
  • Enterprise Mobility + Security E3/E5/G3/G5 From SA
  • Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise From SA
  • Microsoft 365 E3/E5/G3/G5 From SA
  • Microsoft Teams Phone Standard From SA
  • Office 365 E1/E3/E5/G1/G3/G5 From SA
  • Project Plan 1/3/5 From SA
  • Visio Online Plan 1 and 2 From SA
  • Windows 11 Enterprise E3/E5/G5 From SA

Office Professional Plus rights

There is now also wording that states any “licensed user” who used a device licensed with all 3 of:

  • Windows OS w/SA
  • Core/Enterprise CAL w/SA
  • Office Professional Plus w/SA

and has now been assigned a Microsoft 365 E3/E5 User SL can install a local copy of Office Professional Plus for the duration of the USL subscription.

This section from MS isn’t totally clear as to what it is saying/changing so questions/thoughts welcome. I think the phrase “transformed from SA” is new and is doing some of the work here…

Dynamics 365

April 1st 2024: You won’t be able to order additional or new From SA subscription licenses for Dynamics 365. The impacted products are:

  • Dynamics 365 Business Central Device From SA
  • Dynamics 365 Business Central Essentials From SA
  • Dynamics 365 Business Central Premium From SA
  • Dynamics 365 Business Central Team Members From SA
  • Dynamics 365 Commerce From SA
  • Dynamics 365 Customer Service Enterprise From SA
  • Dynamics 365 Customer Service Enterprise Device From SA
  • Dynamics 365 Customer Service Professional From SA
  • Dynamics 365 Human Resources From SA
  • Dynamics 365 Field Services From SA
  • Dynamics 365 Finance From SA
  • Dynamics 365 Operations – Activity From SA
  • Dynamics 365 Operations – Device From SA
  • Dynamics 365 Project Operations From SA
  • Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise From SA
  • Dynamics 365 Sales Enterprise Device From SA
  • Dynamics 365 Sales Professional From SA
  • Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management From SA
  • Dynamics 365 Team Members From SA

However, there will be a time limited “promotional migration offer” being made available to EA customers by April 1st to help customers migrate.

Any licenses purchased before the change date can continue to be renewed but quantities can’t be increased.

You can see the Microsoft announcement here. Interestingly, it’s dated December 15th but it hasn’t been publicised until today – or at least I didn’t see it!

Posted on

Copilot for Microsoft 365 licensing


Photo by Kelly on Pexels.com

We’re 15 days into 2024 and Microsoft have dropped some big AI news already. Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now literally Generally Available!

Copilot for Microsoft 365

It’s now available on CSP for businesses with M365 Business Std and Business Premium licenses. $30 each and between 1 – 299 quantity can be purchased.

The 300 license minimum has been removed for commercial plans.

Furthermore, it can now be added to Office 365 E3 and E5. Great that it is available to a wider range of organisations without additional licenses being needed…but surely it needs a name change now? 🤔

Copilot Pro

This new product gives 1 AI that runs across a user’s device and gives access to Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote on PC, Mac and iPad for Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers.

Note there is no access to Copilot in Teams.

Priced at $20 per user per month.

The Microsoft announcement is here: https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2024/01/15/bringing-the-full-power-of-copilot-to-more-people-and-businesses/#_edn1

Posted on

Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft MACC


Photo by Donald Tong on Pexels.com

I’ve recently recorded a couple of videos with Nathan Miller, Microsoft Program Manager at Bytes.

In the first, we discuss Copilot for Microsoft 365 (we recorded this in October 2023 but it took me ages to edit it!):

We talk about the General Availability of Copilot for M365 as well as tips for preparing for deployment.

We then talk about the Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC): agreement:

where we explain what the MACC agreement is, how it works, and the potential pros and cons for customer organisations. We also talk about the Azure cloud marketplace and the impact this will have on customer procurement processes and also the wider IT channel.

I hope you find the videos useful and informative – as there are more planned! Let me know if you have requests for topics and also if you’d like to jump on a video or podcast with me at some point. I usually focus on blog posts but am looking to get all multimedia on you in 2024 so this is just the start 😁

Posted on

Microsoft Product Terms: January 2024


Photo by Markus Winkler on Pexels.com

A few changes for January 2024 – further expansion of the Frontline SKU lineup and Copilot makes its way to the world of education.

  • Defender for Frontline SKUs added for Cloud Apps, Endpoint, Identity, and Office 365
  • Azure Information Protection Premium Plan 1 removed
  • D365 Field Service Contractor USL added to EA/EAS/MCA
  • D365 Finance Premium USL added to EA/EAS/MCA/EES/MPSA
  • Copilot for Microsoft 365 added to EES for A3 & A5
Posted on

Microsoft Copilot for Service


Microsoft have announced a new Copilot – we now have Copilot for Service.

Copilot has been within Dynamics 365 for a few months already and now Microsoft bring the ability to “synthesize[s] vast amounts of data already available from an organization’s trusted knowledge sources to provide relevant, timely guidance to agents in their flow of work” to users of other CRM and Contact Centre solutions including Salesforce and ServiceNow, and Zendesk.

How does it work?

Microsoft say that it will very easy:

“Organizations can simply point to their data—such as public websites, SharePoint, knowledgebase articles, and offline files—and in a few minutes unlock generative AI-powered conversations across all of their data”

It will enable customer service agents to ask natural language questions of their data, whether in Teams or another client. Further down the line additional features will include email summaries, email drafts, and meeting recaps as well as automating common CRM tasks based on emails and context.

Interestingly, this product will include the much hyped Copilot for Microsoft 365 – meaning these users will also have access to Copilot across their Office suite.

Pricing and availability

Copilot for Service will be $50 per user per month (pupm). Remember that this includes Copilot for M365 which is priced at $30 pupm alone.

Copilot for Service is currently in public preview in US-based environments only, and the Copilot for M365 features may not be available during preview.

Announcement here and more info sign up form here.

Posted on

Microsoft Product Terms: December 2023


Photo by Markus Winkler on Pexels.com

The final Product Terms update for 2023 is here:

Power Virtual Agents replaced with Copilot Studio

ClipChamp SKUs added:
ClipChamp Std standalone USL
ClipChamp Premium standalone USL
ClipChamp Premium add-on* license for M365 E3/E5/BS/BP
*ClipChamp (Std) added to M365 E3/E5/BS/BP

Update to terms around add-on USLs being purchased on same agreement. It now says “Add-on User SLs, as specified in the Add-ons section of each respective product section,”

New Failover rights for Azure SQL database = “One geo-secondary specifically for disaster recovery purposes“

It has also been spotted that M365 Business Standard and Business Premium have been removed from the license prerequisites for Copilot for Microsoft 365:

Is this a temporary removal to prevent confusion as it is isn’t currently available for those licenses…or is it a sign that M365 Copilot won’t be available for SMB customers? I feel it’s the former but you never know!

Posted on

Microsoft Copilot Studio licensing


It’s been announced that Power Virtual Agents (PVA) is now part of Copilot Studio so let’s look at the licensing for this new product.

Microsoft Copilot Studio for Microsoft Teams

Just as there is Dataverse for Teams, this is a cut-down version for use exclusively with Teams and the rights are included with “select” M365 licenses. These seem to be a way of keeping PVA available to many users and further promoting the idea that Teams is where all internal bot related scenarios should occur.

As you can see, the features are relatively limited:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/requirements-licensing-subscriptions

It will be possible to acquire a full Copilot studio license via the Teams app so SAM managers beware! I’m yet to find pricing for the standalone license but will update once I see it.

  • Microsoft state that “use rights and functionality available as part of paid, standalone Power Automate subscriptions serve automation scenarios cannot be applied to Microsoft Copilot Studio scenarios“.
  • Copilot Studio entitlements are also included within D365 Customer Service Digital Messaging and Chat add-ons.

The Microsoft page is here.

Posted on

Microsoft Copilot Studio


Microsoft Copilot Studio is a new low-code tool to help “citizen developers” within organisations create their own copilots as well as customize Copilot for Microsoft 365.

Microsoft say it is built on the “foundations of Power Virtual Agents” and other parts of Power Platform too – this is a roundabout way of saying that Power Virtual Agents is included within Copilot Studio. Copilot Studio itself will be included within Copilot for Microsoft 365 licenses…does this mean that the only way for users to continue with Power Virtual Agents is to purchase Copilot for Microsoft 365?

The ability to customise and create Copilots seems very cool and I can imagine there being some fantastic results within organisations. I also think the management of them all will be very tricky!

See more info from Microsoft here:

Copilot Studio announcement

Copilot Studio page

Posted on

Microsoft 365 Archive pricing


Microsoft have announced more information about Microsoft 365 Archive, including pricing.

It will cost $0.05 per GB* per month to archive content and will then cost $0.60 per GB to restore that content. There is a 7-day grace period following archival where sites can be re-activated (restored) free of charge.

*This will appear on the bill as $0.00167/GB/day.

Note that archive fees are only charged where active storage + archived storage = more than the tenant’s overall SharePoint storage allocation…which is 1TB + 10GB per user. Reactivation fees are charged whether or not you’re within that allocation.

The price per GB for archiving data is 1/4 of the price for adding additional SharePoint storage, meaning it can help reduce storage costs in environments with strong processes and policies. Currently archiving works at a site level so you can’t restore just a single file, you have to restore the whole site…which could quickly get expensive.

If you want to understand more about SharePoint information management, governance, and more – go and check out Information EXP, they’ve got some great ideas!

Microsoft Learn for Archive

Microsoft 365 Archive product page

Website Powered by WordPress.com.