Microsoft Office on MANY Computers for contact center

[drpcfix]

They have 75 E1 licenses now?

Yes, for this department/job title - call center reps

 

[nlinecomputers]

Then they will need them converted to E3. Keep in mind they are already paying some of this amount in e1 licenses so the it's only the difference in cost from e1 to e3 that needs to be paid for and only those on computers that don't already have Office 2013. Though to be consistent in support having all e3 licenses will be easier to manage.

 

[drpcfix]

Then they will need them converted to E3. Keep in mind they are already paying some of this amount in e1 licenses so the it's only the difference in cost from e1 to e3 that needs to be paid for and only those on computers that don't already have Office 2013. Though to be consistent in support having all e3 licenses will be easier to manage.

Ok - updating spreadsheet..

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Wow...yeah more complicated.

They have 75 E1 licenses now?

So for an additional 144 bucks per user per year....they bump to full Office Pro Plus...by moving them to the E3 plan.
The benefits far outweigh the nightmares of trying to get them on individual OEM or retail boxes that you might find. The price difference will not be much unless you purchase Office retail from some unmarked online van in the back of some dark alley..and wrestle with a 15% "license will not activate" problem.

 

[drpcfix]

So for an additional 144 bucks per user per year....they bump to full Office Pro Plus...by moving them to the E3 plan.
The benefits far outweigh the nightmares of trying to get them on individual OEM or retail boxes that you might find. The price difference will not be much unless you purchase Office retail from some unmarked online van in the back of some dark alley..and wrestle with a 15% "license will not activate" problem.

Ok - I understand this argument, and it sounds good to not have to deal with activations.

I built a spreadsheet to calculate costs though.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oPT1pikEYfn7Aeroo8o_qPUvRUv9xfqsLftwTErpUPk/edit#gid=0

I can't figure out where to show that it's worse financially to deal with the retail keys.

Right now it appears if 75 users go to E3, it costs 10k/year.

Buying the licenses from a legit store like amazon.com and then $3500 in labor to apply them works out to $14k one time. (plus $60 in labor each time a PC is rebuilt), maybe 10 times per year? Not a major impact.

So they want to see 1 year, 3 year, 5 year costs to know the real impact. In 5 years you spend 50k having these users on E3, and it's easy for the I.T. Consultant to manage.

In 5 years buying retail keys, it requires the consultants to manage the keys, live accounts, etc - and deal with 30 minutes of labor on each PC rebuild, but it's probably just 14k plus $500/year. Even if you buy office every 3 years - this model seems to be less than 1/3 the cost of the office 365 model.

Where would you adjust the spreadsheet/model to convince someone that it makes more sense to go the more managed route?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oPT1pikEYfn7Aeroo8o_qPUvRUv9xfqsLftwTErpUPk/edit#gid=0

 

[nlinecomputers]

I agree. Yes it will cost more but it will be so much easier to manage if everything is on the same page. Personally I'd bid to replace all versions of office with Office 365 E3. It is easier to support. Easier to quickly replace a workstation that goes belly up and you get the benifit of free upgrades to to Office 2016 and whatever else comes down the pike(Office 2018?) in the future.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I can't figure out where to show that it's worse financially to deal with the retail keys.

Support. Training. This is a place that will have high turn over. The Office 365 systems will move to 2016 at some point. So some PCs will run Office 2013 Retail and some will have Office 2016 via the O365 E3 subscription. This will be forced on you at some point by Microsoft. It will be a PITA to have both versions and having to deal with users on more than one toolset and a PITA for you when a workstation goes down and needs to be re-imaged. Especially if you have to hunt down that f-ing Microsoft Account. It will add downtime for all the old systems.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Ok - I understand this argument, and it sounds good to not have to deal with activations.

I built a spreadsheet to calculate costs though.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oPT1pikEYfn7Aeroo8o_qPUvRUv9xfqsLftwTErpUPk/edit#gid=0

I can't figure out where to show that it's worse financially to deal with the retail keys.

Right now it appears if 75 users go to E3, it costs 10k/year.

Buying the licenses from a legit store like amazon.com and then $3500 in labor to apply them works out to $14k one time. (plus $60 in labor each time a PC is rebuilt), maybe 10 times per year? Not a major impact.

I guess we have to let you try to tread water through the nightmare of supporting a large business network with that mickey mouse "tie a license to an e-mail" method. Your labor estimate 1/2 hour per machine is very low.
Spend some time via Google or right here on these forums researching threads about IT peeps pains with this new e-mail activation process. Such as the limits of how many activations you can have per e-mail account. And how do you go creating these e-mail accounts for these activations? Has to be a permanent account! Make that plural...for 75 activations you'd need quite a few accounts.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Microsoft Accounts can only support 10 copies of office. So you will need an account for each hard copy divided by 10. Your setup time needs to take into account those workstations being used by more than one user. Much of what you do to set up one user will need to be repeated for each user on the same machine.

 

[drpcfix]

I guess we have to let you try to swim through the nightmare of supporting a large business network with that mickey mouse "tie a license to an e-mail" method. Your labor estimate 1/2 hour per machine is very low.

I'm not arguing for any method, I was here asking what you guys do and why and I appreciate the input from people that do a lot of this work and know their stuff - thank you.

Microsoft Accounts can only support 10 copies of office. So you will need an account for each hard copy divided by 10. Your setup time needs to take into account those workstations being used by more than one user. Much of what you do to set up one user will need to be repeated for each user on the same machine.

Got it. I appreciate it, I'll let you guys know what they go with

 

[nlinecomputers]

One other thing to consider. 5 years from now the version of Office they are running may not be supported anymore. Office 2016 will be out and probably something newer as well. If they expand again they will be unable to purchase 2013. So they will have a mismatch of older versions. Office 365 is always updated. You run the latest version of office. A call center has high turn over. They get people coming out business schools and community colleges that get trained on the latest versions office. It adds to their potential training costs if they use a version of office that none of the help is really familiar with.