Office 365 ProPlus for Faculty and Staff benefit launched today

Great news! We launched the new benefit for faculty, staff and teachers.  If your education institution is eligible, you can now provide the Office 365 ProPlus offering to your faculty and staff.

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Here is a quick FAQ on the announcement:

Where can I send teachers, faculty and staff?

Send them to this link to download and install Office:

https://office.com/teachers

 

When can I order this benefit for my faculty/staff from my reseller?

This will be available for use on December 1st. Please ask your reseller for ordering.

 

Can I use this if my faculty and staff are already on Office 365 Education?

Yes, you can certainly complement your existing Office 365 deployment using the link above. 

Key note: If your Office 365 login/UPN (e.g.  samaccountname@school.edu) does NOT match your primary SMTP address (e.g. firstname.lastname@school.edu)   there may be a mismatch or creation of a duplicate identity.  The solution to this is during the sign up page tell your faculty/staff to use their Office 365 login name (UPN login) and do not use the primary email address. This will ensure a UPN softmatch of the existing Office 365 identity and avoid duplicate account scenario.

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screenshot for existing Office 365 users – use their UPN/Office 365 login address on this page and not their SMTP address (in case they are different)

 

What is included with the Office 365 ProPlus benefit?

Faculty and Staff can now install the following 5 copies on any machine additively on 5 tablets of their choice (home machines/tablets, personal, work):

  • Office 2013 Professional Plus
  • Office 2011 for Mac  (and new Office for Mac when it comes out next year)
  • Outlook for Mac (next generation)
  • Office for iPad (full featured)
  • Office for iPhone (full featured)
  • Office for Android tablet (when it comes available)

See the Office 365 ProPlus benefit FAQ here for more information.

See my other blog posts on the topic here and here.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    @available - it will be available through your own portal when you obtain the license from your reseller available on December 1st. You will then have to assign the license via powershell to your faculty/staff. You could also combine the self service link above with your existing Office 365 users.
  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    @ Tony - you can disable auto-account creation on the admin side to prevent duplicate accounts. To disable Auto Account creation via Azure AD PowerShell: (note: need to update to latest Azure AD Powershell first) run this:

    Set-MsolCompanySettings -AllowEmailVerifiedUsers $false
  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    @Mark W - I believe you can order this worldwide through your reseller as of Dec 1 - 5XS-00003 is the SKU
  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    @Dotun - Sorry I don't have a current status for self service options for users outside of the U.S. as I only cover U.S. I will post if I hear anything.
  • Anonymous
    November 12, 2014
    Hi Markga, will this offer also be available through our own Office365 portal? So teachers get an download link on their welcome page? I think it is because our reseller told us that in the new Microsoft Agreement there will be an E3 license included. Just to double check with you!
  • Anonymous
    November 12, 2014
    So, if a professor happens to create a duplicate identity by virtue of using his primary SMTP address instead of his UPN, how can we handle that from an administrative perspective?
  • Anonymous
    November 25, 2014
    @Mark, it looks like we might not have the latest Azure AD PowerShell. We'll work on that.

    I still have the question, though, of how to manage the accounts that have already been created using primary SMTP. Thoughts?
  • Anonymous
    November 27, 2014
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    December 22, 2014
    Hi Markga,

    Do you have any updates about the availability of the Self-Service options for schools outside the US?

    Thanks,
    Dotun
  • Anonymous
    October 06, 2015
    What can I do if the eligibility page tells the user that their workplace isn't registered for it, even though we have gone through activation?