This is part two of our Digital Transformation Arrangement (DTA) blogs. In part one we detailed the timelines for DTA, here we will explain where the discounts apply under DTA and some of the terms you need to consider. DTA discounts are only available for Public Sector customers.
The main workload to benefit from the new discounts is Microsoft 365. In the past some may have known it as Secure Productive Enterprise and prior to that Enterprise Cloud Suite as an E3-only version. Microsoft 365 is made of three main components:
- Office 365
- Enterprise Mobility and Security
- Desktop
Microsoft 365 Packages
To start an Enterprise Agreement there is a minimum 250 seat requirement of the E3 licence. The Microsoft 365 comes with a host of components as can be seen below.
F1 or Firstline 1 is aimed at users who typically spend less than 10% of their time in front of a PC, but still need and use IT services such as Exchange, SharePoint and Skype. This would be suitable for Firefighters, facilities staff, Caretakers, Refuse Collections, Drivers and so on.
E3 is then for knowledge workers. It provides all Business Productivity workloads you would expect as well as a local install of Office 365 ProPlus, additional security controls and the Windows 10 Enterprise Operating System licence.
E5 is the enhanced Enterprise version, offering in addition to E3 hosted telephony, PSTN conferencing, Power BI and further security features such as Windows Defender ATP and Advance Compliance.
The fourth and newest suite is the Security and Compliance Package (SCP). This has been specially created for the UK Public Sector. SCP provides most of the features found in E5 and is a step-up from E3 with the omissions of the Office 365 workloads: Hosted telephony, PSTN Conferencing and Power BI. However, it does have all the additional security features you get with EM+S E5, Windows Enterprise E5 and Office 365 E5.
It should be noted that to have access to the SCP discounts listed, you need to licence every Microsoft 365 E3 licence on your SCP Enterprise Agreement. There is no option to pick a select few. You also need to have licenced at least 50% of your Qualified Users
The Office 365 Package
This package is a set of discounts under Digital Transformation Arrangement for Windows and/or Virtual Desktop Access (VDA) licences with Office 365 and Client Access Licence (CAL) Suite Bridge licences.
To access this discount, it has to be purchased as a package:
- Estate-wide Windows or VDA (either per User or Device)
- With no less than 50% Office 365 (either E1 or E3) and CAL Suite Bridges
When assessing the value of the Office 365 package there are several points to be taken into consideration, these are:
- Using the online services themselves. By their nature, an online service should be more cost-effective to run because of the reductions in upgrades, storage, backup, hardware etc. However, if your organisation hasn’t made the move to cloud, Office 365 licences do give their equivalent on-premise workloads on-premise rights, for example, Exchange Online gives Exchange Server CAL rights.
- Office365 E3 comes with Office 365 ProPlus, now whilst this is an on-premise install of a full Office Suite of products available to use offline, it is subtly different to Office Pro Plus in how it’s deployed and managed. And it doesn’t come with downgrade rights. You will need to maintain the latest version currently 2016 with 2019 scheduled for release next year.
- An addition of a CAL Bridge licence gives access to the other components found within the CAL Suite licences. This will be the addition of Windows Server CAL, SCCM and System Center Endpoint Protection.
The only significant difference in technology requirements is to upgrade Office ProPlus to the Office 365 ProPlus version.
Example pricing
- 2015-2018 CTA enrolment
- Products: Office ProPlus, Windows Enterprise and Enterprise CAL + Additional
- Cost c. £250k
- 2018-2021 like-for-like renewal
- Products: Office ProPlus, Windows Enterprise and Enterprise CAL + Additional
- Cost c. £550k
- 2018-2021 Optimised renewal
- Products: Office 365 Plan E3, Windows Enterprise and Enterprise CAL Bridge + Additional
- Cost c. £330k
Sever Pool – on-premise
Finally, the discounts that apply to the Server licences. Server licences bought via an Enterprise Agreement get a 10% discount whilst subscription licences via a Server Cloud Enrolment (SCE) get 25% for Enterprise servers and 10% for any additional ones. Another thing to bear in mind is that unlike under CTA there are no discounts for Applications products such as Project, Visio, Visual Studio.
Trustmarque have a number of dedicated Microsoft Licencing Specialists, known as Microsoft P-LSS, who are able to advise our customers on the most appropriate and cost-efficient solutions. As well as this our Account Managers are MCP qualified and are well placed to advise on your individual scenario. If you would like to discuss any DTA queries, please contact your Trustmarque Account Manager directly or complete the form below.
