Transitioning plans in Office 365

Table of Contents

Manual transitions in Open

Switching plans in Advisor

Moving from Advisor to Open

Switching plans in Advisor

Switch Office 365 Plans in AdvisorWhether to account for a growing number of employees or for changing IT needs, customers may need to switch

between Office 365 plans. This can be accomplished through the Switch Plans Wizard within the Office 365 administration center.

Current Plan Upgrade Options Current Plan Upgrade OptionsSmall Business Small Business Premium

Midsized BusinessEnterprise E1Enterprise E3Enterprise E4

Midsize BusinessExchange Online Plan 1Enterprise K1

Enterprise E1Enterprise E3Enterprise E4

Small Business Premium

Midsized BusinessEnterprise E3Enterprise E4

Enterprise E1Exchange Online Plan 2

Enterprise E3Enterprise E4

Who is eligible to upgrade their Office 365 plan?Customers who have purchased through Advisor or direct from Office.com, may upgrade their plans with the switch plans tool. Syndication customers should contact their partners to switch plans. Other customers can upgrade in family at renewal by purchasing a new subscription and reassigning their users. Microsoft is working on expanding the switch plans tool to customers who have bought through other channels, including the Open program.

Why am I not eligible to switch plans? We have prioritized the top transitions but some scenarios are not currently supported, such as customers with multiple subscriptions

or customers with add-ons. Will upgrading effect all of my users or can I choose only a subset to upgrade?You must move all users on an individual subscription. If a customer has multiple subscriptions in the Enterprise family, it is possible to move only your users on a single subscription. If you are in the Small Business or Midsize Business families and moving to another family, you must move all users to the new family.

What about moving between other Office 365 plans?For more detail about the above, as well as other Commercial, Academic and Government plans, please visit Office.com. http://aka.ms/switchO365plan

Top Supported Transitions

Frequently asked questions

Office 365 admin console > licensingClick “Switch Plans” link to the right of subscription

“Switch Plans” feature available for direct or advisor customers.

Advisor

Choose a new plan pageSee a list of all available plans that you may switch too with new subscription pricing

Advisor

Review and pay for new plansOld subscription will be automatically cancelled and a prorated credit for any unused service will be returned

Advisor

Follow the steps to pay and you are done! Note: This process signs

the customer up for a new Office 365 subscription, with a new end date of 1 year from use of Switch Plans tool.

Manual transitions in Open

Moving Office 365 plans in OpenThe “Switch Plans” feature is not available for customers who have purchased Office 365 with an Open Product Key.

Why can’t I use the “Switch Plans” feature?

Solution: Upgrade customer through Manual TransitionsCustomers who have purchased Office 365 through Open are able to manually upgrade their subscriptions, with some limitations:

1. Manual upgrades are only available within the same Office 365 product family (i.e. Enterprise E1 > Enterprise E3)

2. Customers are not able to receive a refund for unused or cancelled subscriptions

3. Customers will need to manually re-assign licenses for each Office 365 user, from the old subscription to the new subscription (see following screenshots for walkthrough of this process)

Note: The customer may continue to get renewal reminders on the original subscription. These can be ignored. When should I discuss upgrading plans with my customer? Partners should look to upgrade customers close to their Office 365 subscription renewal date. Since Microsoft is unable to provide a refund for unused or cancelled subscriptions, upgrading close to the renewal date limits the time the customer is paying for extra licenses. Ideally, the new subscription would be purchased during the last month of the old subscription.

The “Switch Plans” feature is available for customers who have a direct billing relationship with Microsoft, in order to issues credits for the original subscriptions during the upgrade.Customers who buy Office 365 through Open purchase directly from a partner and therefore do not have a billing relationship with Microsoft. Microsoft current has no ability to understand the purchase price (as partners can set their own prices) or to issue a refund for the original subscription.

Lack of billing

relationship w/ Microsoft

Current Plan Manual Upgrade Options

Enterprise E1 Enterprise E3Enterprise E4

Exchange Online Plan 1Lync Online Plan 1Lync Online Plan 2

Enterprise E1Enterprise E3Enterprise E4

Office 365 ProPlusExchange Online Plan 2

Enterprise E3Enterprise E4

Top Supported Manual Transitions

Office 365 admin portal > licensingHere you will see your active Office 365 subscriptions.

Product KeyE1 Expires March 30, 2014

Note lack of “Switch Plans” option. Feature not available for subscriptions setup through Open

Current subscription approaching expiration

ExampleCustomer with 25 seats of Enterprise

E1, set to expire March 30, 2014Customer would like to move to

Enterprise E3 for all 25 users

Open

Office 365 admin portal > users and groups > [user]No action on this page. Visit this location to see current licensing status for your users.

(Plan 1)(Plan 1)

Plan E1

Open

Go to office.com/setup365On the right side, sign into your Office 365 account (if you are not already signed in)

Very Important: Confirm you are logged into the Office 365 tenant in which you would like to add the licenses. DO NOT create a new Office 365 account

Customer needs to purchase the necessary licenses from their partner. In this example, 25 licenses of Office

365 Enterprise E3.

Open

Add more user licensesEnter the Enterprise E3 product key code in here (purchased from partner for 25 seats)

25 user licenses

Open

Office 365 admin portal > licensing You can now see your newly added licenses for Enterprise E3

Product KeyE1

Expires March 18, 2015

New Enterprise E3 licenses now appear along with previous E1 licenses

Existing E1 licenses still set to expire on March 30, 2014. Minimal overlap limits any extra cost associated with upgrade

Expires March 30, 2014

Open

Office 365 admin portal > users and groups > [user]User is current assigned an E1 license. You can see the 25 new Enterprise E3 licenses that were purchased.

(Plan 1)(Plan 1)

Plan E1

25

New licenses now appear. User is still licensed for E1

Open

Office 365 admin portal > users and groups > [user]Manual upgrade for this user is complete. Replicate for all additional users.

(Plan 1)(Plan 1)

Plan E1

24

1

User is now licensed for E3

Click Save, and repeat for each user you would like to upgrade

Open

Moving a customer from Advisor to Open

Moving a customer from Advisor > OpenFor many reasons, either a customer or partner may want to move a customer from an Office 365 subscription purchased through the Advisor model to a subscription purchased through the Open model.

Overview of steps1. Near or during the renewal month for the existing Office 365 subscription purchased through Advisor, the customer should purchase

the equivalent Office 365 SKU and licenses from their partner in Open. (i.e. if a customer has 5 seats of Enterprise E1 in Advisor, purchase 5 seats of Enterprise E1 in Open)

2. Redeem Open licenses at http://office.com/setup365 and activate using the customer’s existing Office 365 account 3. Customer or partner must turn-off the auto-renew option, in order to avoid the Advisor subscriptions being renewed. Alternatively, the

customer or partner may choose to cancel the existing Advisor subscription. See detail below on limitations of cancelling a subscription.

4. If purchasing the same Office 365 SKU and # of seats, the customer does NOT need to do any re-assignment of licenses. The Advisor subscription will expire and the customer will be covered automatically by the Open subscription.

5. If the customer is purchasing an upgraded SKU (i.e. if a customer has 5 seats of Enterprise E1 in Advisor and chooses to purchase 5 seats of Enterprise E3 in Open), the customer needs to follow the steps outlined above in “Manual Transitions in Open” to manually re-assign licenses for each user.

Limitations to understandAs with Manual Transitions in Open, this cross-channel movement only works within the same family (i.e. Midsize Business subscription in Advisor to Midsize Business subscription in Open, Enterprise E1 subscription in Advisor to Enterprise E1 or E3 subscription in Open)Most Office 365 subscriptions purchased through Advisor are 1 year agreements. If attempting to move a customer during the middle of their Advisor term the customer will be subject to the early termination fee.

Termination of Subscription language from MOSA: If you terminate a Subscription with a one year Term within 30 days of the date on which the Subscription became effective or was renewed, you must pay for the initial 30 days of the Subscription. No payments will be due for the remainder of the Subscription. If you terminate a Subscription at any other time during the Term, you must pay 25% of the Subscription fee otherwise due for the remainder of the one year Term.

Go to office.com/setup365On the right side, sign into your Office 365 account (if you are not already signed in)

Very Important: Confirm you are logged into the Office 365 tenant in which you would like to add the licenses. DO NOT create a new Office 365 account

Customer needs to purchase the necessary Open licenses from their

partner to replace their existing Advisor licenses.

Advisor to Open

Add Open user licensesEnter the Open product key code in here (purchased from partner for necessary number of seats)

25 user licenses

Advisor to Open

Office 365 admin portal > licensing View of customer who has purchased equivalent Office 365 subscription in Open, to replace their Advisor subscription.

$6000/ yearE1

Expires March 18, 2015

Need to cancel or turn off auto-renewal for Advisor subscription

Switch Plans is not applicable in this case…only will move customer to new subscriptions in Advisor model.

Auto-renews March 30, 2014 Switch Plans

Product Key25 users licenses

Advisor sub:

Open sub:

Advisor to Open

Licensing > select Advisor subscription > Subscription detailsTurn off auto-renewal

Click here to change auto-renewal policy

Advisor to Open

Office 365 admin portal > users and groups > [user]License assignment page. You can see the 25 new Open licenses.

(Plan 1)(Plan 1)

Plan E1 50

New licenses now appear, company has 50 licenses until Advisor subscription expires or is cancelled.

Advisor to Open