Office 365 Licensing with certain special Per User Needs

[ocdc2008]

Hello,

I am struggling to translate the new licensing rules effective 10/1/2019 to my scenario.

My organization has an Office 365 E3 license for all employees (50-60 Employees). I have three primary applications, 2 are based on SharePoint Lists and do not require a special license for users beyond the O365 E3 license. The last one however needs to connect to an Azure SQL Single Database, and will thus require a premium license. There are only 5-10 users for this special application, but those users will also use the 2 applications that run off of SharePoint.

For the 5-10 users I am assuming the $10 per user, per app, per month tier will satisfy the need. If they are under that pricing tier, will my company need to pay the $10 per month for these users to use the other two standard applications as well? It seems that the answer should be no because their usage of those apps should be covered under the O365 E3 license.

Also, this special application was built but not connected to the SQL database before the 10/1/2019 deadline, am I able to fall under the grandfathering rules to avoid needing to pay the premium tier costs for this app?

[Pstork1 · Accepted solution]

First, if you were using SQL in the App prior to October 1, 2019 then you are covered with your existing licensing for that App until October 1, 2024.  You would only need to purchase licensing for any new apps you create that use SQL or some other premium connector.  Since you didn't publish it before October 1 you may not be covered by the grandfather.  If the app was created, but not shared with other users prior to October 1, you should still be covered since Apps are published when you first save them whether they are shared or not.

If you aren't covered by the gradnfathering and this is the only app that will use a premium connector then yes you can buy PerApp licenses to  cover this app for the users who will use it.  They will be covered for any other apps by their existing E3 license.  Other users will also be able to use other non-premium apps based on their existing license.

[ocdc2008]

@Pstork1 

Thank you for your quick reply!

The app was built, shared with users, and the Azure portal, server, and database setup, but the app was not connected. I've been waiting on internal company access disputes to be resolved before I could connect them. Then this change went into place. I'm hoping this could be a special case to allow us into the grandfathering. 

[Pstork1]

You might open a support call and explain your situation.  MS may put you on the list.  Either way you should still be good as an existing license until October, 2020.  Its not the 5 year extension, but existing licenses should carry the same rights for one year or until license renewal, whichever is later.