2024/2025 Service Definition

Microsoft Annual Licensing

About the Service

Lancashire County Council Education Digital Services are pleased to provide schools with the opportunity to access cost effective licensing for Microsoft Software and Cloud Services. We offer two distinct models for schools to choose from:

Microsoft Enrolment for Education Solutions (Annual Billing):

We have arranged a single framework agreement that allows school customers to join a centrally managed Microsoft Enrolment for Education Solutions (EES) Annual License Agreement. The Agreement runs from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2026. It enables your school to ensure it has licenses for a range of Microsoft products, and that your school can comply with its Microsoft licensing obligations. 

Microsoft Select (Perpetual Licences):

Our Microsoft EES Agreement allows schools access to all the licences likely to be required, but we also offer a separate Microsoft Select Agreement for schools who aren't subscribing to the annual licensing agreement and require perpetual licences.

What are the benefits?

Our EES Agreement for subscription Microsoft licensing gives schools the following benefits:

  • Provides access to the latest versions of Microsoft Office and Windows and ensures licensing compliance for all software and services covered by the Microsoft 365 A3 licence for all staff and pupils.
  • Ensures your school is licensed for your current software covered by the agreement and has the right to upgrade to the latest versions. This includes software on all PCs/laptops across the school and any new devices purchased during the life of the agreement.
  • Provides access to Conditional Access Multifactor Authentication (MFA), a key security feature for your staff.
  • EQU model (Education Qualified User) for counting staff users – no need to count devices in school.
  • Each EQU purchased provides one Faculty licence and 40 Student licences.
  • Ensures pupils are licensed to use the latest versions of software covered by the agreement for the life of the agreement, including the benefit of being able to download up to five copies of Microsoft Office for use on non-school devices while a pupil at your school.
  • Helps your school with budget planning by ensuring your school has guaranteed pricing for the term of the agreement – it doesn't cost more in licensing if you purchase new PCs and need more copies of Microsoft software (the cost only increases if your EQU count increases).
  • Keeps the process of Microsoft licensing simple, by including it in your SLA charges each year.
  • We can also provide additional licences under the agreement. Server licences can be bought on a subscription basis, as add-ons to the agreement (NB: if you purchased subscription server licences under the previous agreement, you will also need to continue purchasing these as an add-on in the new agreement).

What's Included?

Service Features

EES Service Features

Feature Description
Minimum Term
  • The agreement runs from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2026.
  • Schools can join at any time but will be committed to purchasing the subscriptions until 31 December 2026.
  • Your subscription will be charged annually and cannot be cancelled part way through the term.
Licence Options All EES annual licensing models are based on the new Microsoft 365 licence options (either A3 or A5).

Software Included in the EES Agreement
(A3 Licence)

The A3 licence covers use of:

  • Office 365.
  • Classroom Tools (e.g. Teams, OneNote Class Notebook, Sway, Minecraft).
  • Windows 10 Education and any new versions e.g. Windows 11.
  • A range of CALs and services (includes Windows Server CALs).
  • All online Office Apps included in the free A1 licence.
  • Office 365 includes the latest full version of the Office desktop applications such as Outlook, Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint, for download and use on all school PCs.
  • Pupils can also download up to five copies of desktop Office software (Office ProPlus) for personal use as well as using the online only versions of Office Apps.
  • Security features including Conditional Access Multifactor Authentication (MFA) to help protect staff accounts, whilst minimising the frequency of MFA requests whilst in school.

For full details of all Microsoft products licensed under the A3 licence, please see the Comparison Table on the Microsoft website and the Additional Information section at the end of this service definition.
Add-on Server Licences to the EES Agreement
  • We can offer other Microsoft licenses e.g. Server licenses as add-ons to the EES Agreement.
  • Licenses are subject to quote.
  • Pricing is based on an annual subscription per licence not by EQU.
  • Please contact EducationDigitalServices@Lancashire.gov.uk to request a quote. Please provide Microsoft Product ID codes if you have previously purchased these products an annual basis.
Software Assurance
  • All software included in the Microsoft EES Agreement includes software assurance (it can also be purchased at extra cost via our Select Agreement). This is a key benefit and means that you do not have to pay extra for licenses when a new version of the software is released by Microsoft and you wish to upgrade.

Licensing purchases
(EES Agreement)
  • Charges are calculated on the number of Education Qualified Users (EQUs) in your school, not by device.
  • An EQU (Education Qualified User) is any member of school staff, employee or contractor that uses any of the components that make up the Microsoft 365 Education platform (A3 licence) – these are Microsoft 365, Office 365, Windows 10 Education and EMS E3 (see pricing below).

Licensing purchases (Select Agreement)
  • Schools requiring perpetual licenses via a one-off payment can request a quote for pricing from our Select Agreement.

Allocation of Licences to users
(EES Agreement)
  • All A3 and A5 licences purchased under the EES agreement will be made available in your school's Office 365 tenancy, where your school will be able to allocate licences to users.
  • This will include any free A1 licences required (see Additional Information section below).

Access to Licence Keys and Software Media
  • Your licence keys will be managed as with the current agreement and distributed as required by Lancashire County Council Education Digital Services.
  • We will arrange transfer of media if required. There is no charge for any schools that have already purchased this agreement.

Management
  • Under the EES agreement each school will have its own sub-tenant agreement.
  • For schools for whom we hold the Office 365 Global Administration credentials, we work with Microsoft to ensure your new licences are allocated to your Office 365 tenancy.
  • In addition, schools will still need to assign all your new agreement licences to staff / pupils within 90 days from allocation.
  • Schools for whom we don't support their Office 365 will need to nominate a member of staff (not a Third-Party) to sign your school's Microsoft e-agreement. The staff member will receive all notification emails from Microsoft direct and will be responsible for allocating and assigning licences in your Office 365 tenancy to staff and pupils throughout the lifetime of the agreement.
  • The agreement is managed by Phoenix, our authorised Microsoft Reseller, and our EES licences can only be bought via Lancashire County Council Education Digital Services.
  • If your school has an existing Annual Microsoft OVS-ES agreement and wishes to transfer to our EES Agreement, please confirm this when you place your order and we'll arrange this via our Reseller.

Licence Validity
  • Software installed under the EES Agreement is licensed on a subscription only basis (includes latest upgrades).
  • The licences are not valid without a subscription to the annual agreement. If you require a perpetual licence, to "own" a licence (rather than subscribe), please request a quote under our Microsoft Select Agreement.
  • All Microsoft software or licenses must be licensed through either an annual Microsoft agreement or an individual one-off purchase of a perpetual licence for each device/user.
  • It is your school's responsibility to ensure you are licensed.

Installation Options

Feature

Description

Software Installation

Your licence does not include installation, but if your school purchases technical support from us, your technician can:

  • Update software to new versions under your support agreement (subject to the limitations on number of installations – please refer to your service definition for your support option).
  • Install additional copies of the licensed software as part of the installation charge quoted when purchasing new equipment.