Lemington Consulting

Microsoft 365 is a collection of cloud-based services and subscription-based software bundled together by Microsoft to allow organzations to cost effectively and easily manage various aspects of their information technology infrastructure. By cloud-based, we mean services hosted on Microsoft's servers, freeing the customer from some of the information technology management issues related to these services (server management, server backup and redundancy in case of a failure, etc.).

Depending on the specific Microsoft 365 subscription plan cloud-based services can include email hosting, SharePoint web site hosting, business web site hosting, instant messaging, web conferencing, etc. Subscription-based services may include the Teams client software (instant messaging and web conferencing) and an Microsoft Office subscription licenses (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, etc.).

Cost are either paid monthly or yearly. Yearly subscriptions can sometimes be less expensive. An Microsoft 365 subscription plan can either be purchased from Lemington Consulting or from Microsoft directly. Microsoft 365 Plans can be purchased from Lemington Consulting through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program. In most cases, Lemington Consulting can offer customers a lower Microsoft 365 subscription price than if they were to purchase from purchasing from Microsoft directly. Please call us for a no obligation Microsoft 365 quote to see how much money your organization can save.

Microsoft 365 subscriptions are managed through a web-based interface at MicrosoftOnline.com. From this user interface, the designated Microsoft 365 administrator can manage licensing, email settings, users and groups permissions, organization security, domains (email, web site, etc.), view activity reports, find basic support information, and manage anti-spam and anti-malware policies. Users can also access Outlook Web Access, OneDrive for Business, and Active Directory integration. SharePoint web sites are managed through SharePoint.com and a user's Microsoft 365 login acts as a single signon (SSO) for your SharePoint web sites. The Microsoft 365 portal provides a comprehensive tool for managing your Microsoft 365 subscription.

The Partner of Record associates a Microsoft Partner with a specific Microsoft 365 subscription. Setting the Partner of Record for your subscription in no way affects the Microsoft 365 subscription costs or services provided. To set the Partner of Record for your subscription, log into your Office 365 account and go to the Admin section. Once there, click on Billing and then Products & Services. On the right you will see a link for "More actions available on details page". Click this link, and on the details page click on the Partner tab mid-page. Then enter Partner ID. Click Check ID and then OK.

Some, but not all, Microsoft 365 subscription plans include a subscription license for Microsoft Office. Given that Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based service, the Microsoft Office license included with some plans is also a subscription license. A subscription license differs from a perpetual license in that the license only lasts as long as you keep your Microsoft 365 subscription.

The benefits to a subscription license include the ability to upgrade to a newer version of Microsoft Office once it is released at no additional cost. The downside is that if your organization discontinues its Microsoft 365 license for whatever reason, your organization will need to purchase separate Microsoft Office licenses to continue using the software.

A subscription license does not include downgrade rights to use a previous version of Microsoft Office as a Volume License does. This could be a factor in organizations with older operating systems (e.g. Windows Vista, Windows XP) which don't support the latest version of Microsoft Office.

Yes, Microsoft 365 allows organizations to use their own domain for emails, allowing for continuity in email addresses when migrating to Microsoft 365. In addition, tools existing for migrating existing email accounts and emails to Microsoft 365. Existing emails accounts can be migrated to Office 365 in the background without affecting email users. Then when all the user emails have synchronized with Microsoft 365, a final cutover is made to the Microsoft 365 email servers. With these tools, an organization can seemlessly migrate emails to Microsoft 365 and make the changeover to Microsoft 365 email servers with no impact on operations. Organizations have access to all the settings and configuration options of a full Microsoft Exchange Server through the administrative interface. So organizations maintain the power of control over their email server without actually having to maintain the physical email server itself.

Yes, many of the bundled Microsoft 365 cloud services can be purchased separately. These include Microsoft Exchange Server hosting, Microsoft SharePoint hosting, Microsoft Lync hosting, and even Microsoft Dynamics CRM hosting which is currently bundled with Microsoft 365. Microsoft 365 provides very cost-effective bundling of these cloud services, so purchasing the cloud services individually may not result in a significant cost savings, and in some cases, no cost savings. However, you always have the option to purchases the services separately depending on your needs.

Yes, combining of Microsoft 365 subscriptions plans is permitted and frequently done. Most Microsoft 365 customers have a mix of different license types (e.g. Business Premium, Enterprise E1, Enterprise E3, and Enterprise E5). There are also additional add-on features that can be added to the licenses to fine tune the features that are available to a customer. It is now possible to combine Dynamics 365 plans with Microsoft 365 plans to bring together the power of Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 business applications. Please contact us for more information regarding various licenses and add-on features. We can custom tailor a package of licenses and add-ons that specifically meet your organization's needs.