04 - Licensing, Pricing, Support¶

Licensing models¶

Per-user, per-month subscription¶

The standard M365 model. Each user assigned a license for the SKU(s) they need.

Per-device¶

Some SKUs (e.g., Microsoft 365 F1 Frontline) can be licensed per shared device used by multiple shift workers. Useful for kiosks, retail floor terminals.

Annual commitment¶

Most M365 plans are annual commitment with monthly billing. Cancellation mid-term may incur fees.

Cloud Solution Provider (CSP)¶

Buy through a Microsoft Partner. Benefits:

• Monthly billing flexibility
• Partner-managed support
• Bundling with consultancy services
• Some discounts for volume

CSP partners are Microsoft's largest channel for SMB and mid-market.

Enterprise Agreement (EA)¶

Large enterprise (250+ seats typically). 3-year commitment. Volume discounts. Negotiated pricing. Co-terminus expirations across products.

Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA)¶

Modern, flat agreement replacing legacy enrollments. No paperwork for subsequent purchases. Designed for cloud-first orgs.

Direct online subscriptions¶

Purchase directly via Microsoft 365 admin center. Simple, no negotiation, monthly or annual billing.

Microsoft 365 SKUs (memorize the high-level differences)¶

Consumer¶

• Microsoft 365 Personal - 1 person, all apps, 1 TB OneDrive
• Microsoft 365 Family - 6 people, all apps, 1 TB OneDrive each

SMB (max 300 users)¶

Enterprise (no user limit)¶

Frontline¶

For shift workers, retail, manufacturing floor.

• Microsoft 365 F1 - basic Teams + tools; no desktop apps; lower cost
• Microsoft 365 F3 - F1 + more features (limited Outlook, etc.); cost between F1 and Business Basic
• Often per-shared-device licensed

Education¶

• A1 - free for accredited students/faculty
• A3 / A5 - paid tiers analogous to E3 / E5

Government¶

US-specific compliance tiers:

• GCC (Government Community Cloud) - FedRAMP Moderate
• GCC High - FedRAMP High, ITAR
• DoD - DoD IL5

These are separate clouds with separate pricing and feature parity lags slightly.

Common add-ons¶

When base SKU isn't enough:

• Audio Conferencing - dial-in numbers for Teams meetings
• Phone System + Calling Plan - PSTN calling via Teams
• Defender for Endpoint Plan 2 - if base SKU only has Plan 1
• Defender for Office 365 Plan 2 - if base SKU only has Plan 1
• Microsoft 365 Copilot - $30/user/month AI assistant add-on
• Power BI Pro - if base SKU doesn't include
• Project / Visio - separate license
• Microsoft Viva Suite - Viva modules bundle
• Exchange Online Archiving / In-place hold - extended mailbox storage and compliance hold

Tenant management¶

Microsoft 365 admin center¶

admin.microsoft.com - the main admin portal.

• User and license management
• Subscription / billing
• Service Health Dashboard
• Message Center (announcements about feature changes)
• Reports on usage

Service-specific admin centers¶

• Exchange admin center
• Teams admin center
• SharePoint admin center
• Microsoft Defender portal
• Microsoft Purview portal
• Microsoft Entra admin center
• Microsoft Intune admin center

Service health and lifecycle¶

Service Health Dashboard¶

Real-time view of M365 service issues affecting your tenant. Microsoft posts incidents and resolution updates.

Message Center¶

Notifications about upcoming feature changes (typically 30+ days advance notice).

Microsoft 365 Roadmap¶

microsoft365.com/roadmap - public roadmap of features:

• In Development
• Rolling Out
• Launched

Filter by product, platform, status.

Modern Lifecycle Policy¶

Continuous servicing model: "evergreen" updates, no end-of-support dates for cloud services. Some products (Office on the desktop) have version lifecycle (e.g., Office 2019 Mainstream End of Support 2023, Extended Support 2025).

Service Level Agreement (SLA)¶

• M365 SLA: 99.9% uptime for most services
• Service credits if Microsoft fails to meet SLA
• Read the financially-backed SLA terms in your subscription

Support plans¶

Standard support (included)¶

• Self-service via documentation
• Microsoft 365 admin center support tickets
• Community forums

Microsoft Unified Support¶

Paid premium support tier for enterprise customers.

• Technical Account Manager (TAM)
• Faster response times
• Critical situation 24/7 support
• Custom training and proactive services

Replaced the old Premier Support model.

FastTrack¶

Free Microsoft-led deployment guidance for eligible customers (typically 150+ M365 seats). Includes:

• Onboarding planning
• Migration assistance
• Adoption guidance
• Best practices

Purpose: maximize successful M365 deployment and adoption.

Adoption and change management¶

Microsoft 365 Adoption resources¶

Microsoft publishes free adoption playbooks, templates, and training. Find at adoption.microsoft.com.

Productivity Score¶

Tenant-level metric measuring M365 adoption across:

• People experience (collaboration, communication, content)
• Technology experience (network, endpoints)

Use to drive adoption initiatives.

Microsoft Champions Program¶

Internal champions help drive adoption within an org. Microsoft provides materials and recognition.

Pricing trends to know¶

• M365 Copilot launched at $30/user/month (subject to change)
• M365 Business Premium ~$22/user/month (small business)
• M365 E3 ~$36/user/month
• M365 E5 ~$57/user/month
• Frontline F1 ~$2.25/user/month, F3 ~$8/user/month

(Pricing varies by region, channel, commitment, currency.)

Common exam triggers¶

• "SMB needs Defender + Intune at low cost" → Microsoft 365 Business Premium
• "Enterprise needs full security stack including XDR + Sentinel" → Microsoft 365 E5
• "Shift workers in retail need Teams without expensive licensing" → Microsoft 365 F1 / F3
• "Free deployment help for 500-seat tenant" → FastTrack
• "Real-time service incidents" → Service Health Dashboard
• "Upcoming feature changes notification" → Message Center
• "TAM and 24/7 critical support for large enterprise" → Microsoft Unified Support
• "M365 SLA" → 99.9% for most services
• "Buy via partner with monthly billing" → Cloud Solution Provider (CSP)
• "Large enterprise 3-year deal" → Enterprise Agreement (EA)