Questions about Office 2016 via Office 365

Here are some common questions that I see out there about Office 2016 via Office 365.

Q. Am I required to upgrade from Office 2013 on my desktop to Office 2016 if my Office 2013 was installed from Office 365?

Yes, however you have 12 months to complete that transition. That means you must upgrade your Office 365 Office 2013 to Office 2016 by the 22nd of September 2016. After that date any existing Office 365 Office 2013 installation will reverted to “reduced functionality mode”, basically read only.

Q. Will existing Office 2013 installations from Office 365 automatically be upgraded without user interaction?

No. Users will not have their version of Office 2013 on the desktop automatically upgraded to Office 2016 without their input. Typically, they will need to upgrade from the portal or via an administration installation using the Office 2016 Deployment toolkit.

However, according to the Office 2016 Q and A:

If your admin does not manage your installations and updates an automatic upgrade will occur for Office 2013 users. When your automatic upgrade is ready for you to install, you’ll receive a notification that appears on the menu bar in one of your Office applications (for example, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or OneNote). When this notification appears follow the steps to update to the current version of Office.

If your Office 365 for business admin manages your Office installations your admin will need to manage your updates to Office 2016.

This is along the lines of the Windows 10 upgrade process. Notification will be received that an Office update is available but users will need to follow the steps in the notification to upgrade.

Q. Can you downgrade from Office 2016 to Office 2013 with Office 365?

No. Only Volume Licensing of Office directly has downgrade rights. Office 365 purchased via Open does not provide downgrade rights for Office.

Q. Can I obtain Office 2016 from Office 365 from DVD media or downloading an ISO?

No. Office 2016 from Office is deployed using ‘Click-to-run’ technology that delivers software directly from the Internet. An administrator can use the Office 2016 Deployment toolkit to create deployment repositories on a network if required.

Q. Can I install Office 2016 from Office 365 in a Remote Desktop environment (i.e. on a Terminal Server)?

Yes, provided you have Office from Office 365 under an E (Enterprise) SKU. If you do then you use the Office 2016 Deployment toolkit to do that. For more information about Office in an RDS environment see my previous post:

Installing Office 365 pro Plus on an RDS server – updated

Q. When can I get access to Office 2016 software from Office 365?

The ability to install the latest software is being rolled out across Office 365 tenants in a staged manner. If you wish to ensure have access to the latest Office 365 abilities ensure you have Office 365 First Release enabled. You will then find Office 2016 preview available to first release tenants.

To find out when your tenant will receive Office 2016 from Office 365 review:

How do I update Office to Office 2016 using Office 365 for Business?

The table before from the Office 2016 wiki details when the upgrades are available depending on your version of Office 2016

Office 365 plans or versions	Upgrade timeline	Default Update branch	More Information about how to upgrade
Office 365 Business plans (Small Business Premium, Business, Business Premium)	Available now for new installations. Automatic upgrades will occur in Q4 of 2016.	Current Branch	See How do I update Office to Office 2016 using Office 365 for business?
Office 365 ProPlus SKU(Enterprise, Midsize, Education)	Planned for the first quarter of 2016.	Current Branch for Business*	Where can I find information about updating Office 365 ProPlus to the Office 2016 version? ProPlus can be configured to use Current Branch if desired. See the Configure the update branch to be used by Office 365 ProPlus* section from here.
First Release	Available now.	First Release for Current Branch for Business	More information about First Release for Office
Office 365 Home, Personal, or University.			How do I get my Office 365 upgrade to Office 2016? Note this does not apply to business products.

For more information about the different update branches or how to deploy a specific branch see Overview of update branches for Office 365 ProPlus.

Thus, if you are on an Enterprise SKU of Office 365 you will not typically see Office 2016 being rolled out until early 2016 according to the above table because these SKUs are automatically on the Current Branch for Business update regime. You can however, shift Enterprise licenses to the Current branch update regime so that they will receive an update to Office 2016 before the end of the year. If you want it earlier than that you will need to be on first release.

To configure the update branch for an Office 365 ProPlus installation, you can use the latest version of the Office Deployment Tool or the latest version of the Group Policy Administrative Templates files (ADMX/ADML) for Office 2016.

Q. How will Office 2016 fro Office 365 updates be handled going forward?

Office 2016 from Office 365 will move to a similar update methodology approach that Windows 10 has adopted. This means that updates (security and features) will be pushed out on a regular basis via a number of different update ‘branch’ offerings. Different SKUs will be on different ‘branches’ as detailed in the above table. To better understand how Office 2016 updates are going to function review:

Overview of update branches for Office 365 ProPlus

and this video from Microsoft:

Q. What other information is available about Office 2016 from Office 365?

Prepare to update Office 2016 Pro Plus to the Office 2016 version

Q. Can I have both Office 2013 and Office 2016 from Office 365 on the same machine?

No.

Q. Are any Office 2013 applications removed during the installation of Office 2016 that are not upgraded?

Yes. If you have InfoPath from Office 2013 ProPlus installed it will be removed during the upgrade. It will however still be available for download from the software section of the Office 365 portal.

SharePoint Designer 2013 will also be removed during the Office 2016 upgrade process. It again can be installed from the software page in the office 365 portal.

Versions of Visio Pro 2013 and Project Pro 2013 will also be removed from the computer during an upgrade. You won’t be able to reinstall them after the Office 2016 installation. You will need to install the 2016 versions of Visio Pro for Office 365 and Project Pro for Office 365 on a computer with the Office 2016 version of Office. This removal only happens when you manually update to Office 2016. It is recommended that you wait for the automatic update to update all office applications on the desktop, including Visio and Project.

See – “We need to remove some older apps” error for more information about existing apps being removed during the Office 2016 upgrade.

Q. Do users have be local administrators to install Office 2016 from Office 365?

Yes. Per:

Deploy Click to Run for Office 365 products

Users must be local administrators on their computers to install Click-to-Run for Office 365 products.

If users in your organization are not local administrators on their computers, you can use one of the following methods to install Click-to-Run for Office 365 products for users:

Have an administrator log on to the user’s computer and install Click-to-Run for Office 365 products.
Use a software distribution product, such as Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager.
Use Group Policy computer startup scripts.

See me do my thing, virtually

I’ve got a number of sessions at the upcoming Office 365 conference in Seattle. Now they have opened the opportunity to attend one day of the conference virtually!

http://fall2015.smbnation.com/virtual/

By attending virtually you’ll be able to watch a number of sessions on the opening day and you can view these on the event schedule:

http://fall2015.smbnation.com/schedule/

On that day I’ll be presenting:

Riding the big data wave with Excel and Power BI

Big data is one of fastest growing IT segments thanks to the dawn of the Internet of Things (IoT). However, data along does not provide value alone. The value proposition comes by turning data into information using tools like Excel and Power BI. This session will show you how to quickly and easily use the advanced features of Excel such as Pivot Tables, Power Query, Power Maps and more. It will then show you how to pull data from various sources into Power BI and create interactive dashboards. It will highlight the business opportunity for data analysis and reporting that is now available from the tools provided in every Office 365 subscription. You’ll learn how to create unique IP around business intelligence that will mean more money in your pocket as the demand for data analysis grows in every segment of the market.

and

Office 365 Identity management/SSO

There is more to identity with Office 365 and Azure than just logging into a web page. There is also the ability to implemented synchronized and federated identity that integrates Office 365 with local on premises solutions like Active Directory to allow single sign on. Configuring these options is relatively straight forward once you understand the model and know what the right option is for you. This session will provide you with a deep dive into the Microsoft identity options and how to configure each one. It will cover products such as DIRSYNC, AD SYNC Services, AD Connect and even Yammer DIRSYNC!

I’m doing some more session over the other days but by attending virtually you’ll get access to the complete first (and major day) of the conference. You’ll not only be able to watch live but you’ll also be able to view a recording if the live session happens to be in the middle of night (as it will be for many in Australia).

So, if you wanna see me (and others) do our thing and talk about office 365 you should sign up to be a virtual attendee.

Office 365 planner

I was very excited to see Microsoft announce the Office 365 planner after rumours had abounded. You can read the Microsoft blog post here:

https://blogs.office.com/2015/09/22/introducing-office-365-planner/

Introducing Office 365 Planner 2

The reason I am excited (and should every IT Reseller) is that it offers yet another revenue stream opportunity. Why? It would be hard for me to find a I business that I deal with that doesn’t need some form of project management and need help doing just that.

Yes, you can do project management in SharePoint but SharePoint but be somewhat intimating for businesses still migrating from the old world of files and folders. A dedicated ‘planner’ app in Office 365 makes so much sense and open up so much opportunity.

What I also find interesting is the look as you can see from the above image taken from the Microsoft blog post. It looks very much like Delve, which I think is great. This is an indication of the direction Microsoft is heading with the whole Office 365 product. I wrote an article a while back about important I believe Delve is, which you can review here:

Delve should be the center of your Office 365 universe

Another point (and opportunity to note) is there is that every plan includes a OneNote notebook, much like Office 365 groups. I am a huge fan of OneNote and user it every day on every device I have. OneNote again is a huge opportunity got resellers to demonstrate how much productive customers can be if they start using OneNote in their business.

Although the Office 365 planner isn’t available yet, it will be soon along we a whole raft of updates and improvements. Office 365 just keeps getting better and better, for customers and resellers!

Enable the Power BI developer tools

if you want more control over the visualisation you can create in PowerBI take a look at the new developer tools.

You enable these by signing into your PowerBI environment and appending:

?devToolsEnabled=true

to the end of the URL.

The browser should refresh.

That will reveal a new menu option under the COG called Dev Tools.

A new tab will open and you’ll see the developer environment.

Take a look at the above video to see what’s involved in getting started with this environment.

A bit geeky I know and not for everyone but it should reinforce the point how important software (i.e. coding) skills are fast becoming. It should also highlight the opportunities that abound in this new environment and how easy it is to get started.

Hurry, price to rise soon

I am proud to say that the Cloud Business Blueprint community is fast approaching its second anniversary. I’d firstly like to take the opportunity to thank every existing Cloud Business Blueprint community member. Without you Cloud Business Blueprint wouldn’t be the success that it is.

Since it started out, we have kept adding more content for community members. The above screen shot shows you that we currently have over 150 videos available for community members to view on demand. That’s over 4.5GB of video footage available to help community members learn more about both the technical and business aspects of being a modern cloud provider.

But the information doesn’t stop there, we have a members forums where we answer both business and technical answers. It is place where other cloud resellers can share their challenges and help other members of the community through their experience.

Inside the Cloud Business Blueprint Community is also a raft of documentation, whitepapers and re-brandable content you can take and use with your own customers, all included in the monthly subscription price.

With all this success we are now looking to take the Cloud Business Blueprint community to the next level. This, combined with the significant amount of content that is now part of the community, means that we’ll soon be raising the entry price. However, if you subscribe before the price increase in November you’ll remain on the old rate for the life of your subscription.

Remember, there is no long term commitment, you can cancel at any time without question but I’m confident once you see all the content that is available and the new stuff that we are constantly adding you’ll realise how much time it is going to save you building your business and resolving technical issues.

You’d be hard pressed to find another dedicated environment like this that specifically brings together the best cloud providers from around the world and allows them to build their technical skills, business knowledge and share with others from all around the globe.

If you like the free content that I provide in various places and want to support the work that I do and gain access to the premium content I provide, then the Cloud Business Blueprint community is for you. Remember, join now to lock in the existing subscription price before he increase with no commitments. You can sign up today at:

http://www.cloudbusinessblueprint.com/members-sign-up/

I look forward to welcoming you inside the Cloud Business Blueprint community as we move into our third year.

Skill up or fade away. It’s that simple

One of the most common flaws I see with resellers and their cloud strategy is that they themselves simply don’t use the solutions they are attempting to sell their customers. That firstly limits their opportunities, secondly it limits their revenue and thirdly is raises questions in the clients mind (rightly or wrongly) as to whether they really know IT.

Let’s take Office 365 for example. Here SharePoint is clearly one of the most important pieces of the solution. SharePoint has been around since before 2000 and has been included will all versions of Small Business Server since 2003. Yet, most resellers literally have zero knowledge on the product. This lack of knowledge is exposed when they try and implement a product like Office 365 because SharePoint Teams Sites and OneDrive for Business are central to the Office 365 storage solution.

To truly understand a product like Office 365 you need to use it and use it as part of your business, every day. This of course means making an investment in learning and directly implementing the product. Yes, there may be other industry solutions out there that can solve a business need but can you re-bundle that specific product knowledge and sell it to clients? You can with SharePoint, Yammer, Skype for Business and so on.

Even if you don’t go the Office 365 route, what about products like Mailchimp, IFTTT, Evernote, Zapier, YouTube, Facebook, Bascamp and so on? The list is endless. Most IT Pros and resellers I come across are still wondering why paper flyers aren’t flooding them with business and are yet to implement social media for themselves. They are using the same technology they have been using for years because they are familiar with it, not because it makes them more productive, simple because it is what is familiar. In today’s exponential technological age that is a very dangerous place to be.

By experiencing the challenges in implementing and developing new solutions for yourself you get a much better understanding of how to craft something that can solves real world business problems, which In the end is what IT pros and resellers should be getting paid for. Simply buying an off the shelf, industry solution may improve your own business but it doesn’t expand any opportunity outside your business does it really? However, using something like SharePoint to solve an internal business challenge has an impact inside and outside the business because SharePoint is a now such a common platform.

Simply maintaining the IT status quo won’t cut it any more, IT pros and resellers have to be able to solve real business needs for their customers. In many cases this means implementing customised solutions, and that means development work. This may even mean some coding! Shock horror! However, the concept of the dominance of software in IT is not new, Marc Andreessen highlighted it back in 2011 when he wrote:

Why Software Is Eating The World

My observation is that this is where most IT Pros and resellers fall down, they don’t have the development skills. Yet a skill is something that can be learned, it is does not have any restrictions that prevents an IT Pro or reseller actually learning it, except in their own minds.

Cloud platforms like Office 365 provide a raft of tools for solving many business problems. However, they are not something that is just installed, they are tools to be used in crafting a solution. It is in this crafting that the real revenue opportunity lies, yet most IT Pros and resellers remain oblivious to this fact. Like the customers they support, they have the tools they need to solve their business challenges and generate additional revenue, yet many choose to ignore them because they are not willing to invest in the skills required. I’m not saying it doesn’t involve effort. I’m not saying it won’t be challenging. What I’m saying is that unless you are aiming to play in the high volume transaction game, you really don’t have any choice any more.

Therefore, because IT Pros and resellers are not skilling up on the platforms they are selling, their customers are using and discovering these same resources for themselves and building the required skills independent of their IT Pro or reseller. This is therefore fast relegating the IT Pro and resellers to work that is easily commoditised or automated, which in the end spells redundancy for them. Don’t believe in the ‘Uberisation’ of IT? Not doing so would be another fatal mistake.

Let me use you my own example here. Many IT Pros and resellers scoff at me when I tell then I use a spreadsheet to run the finances of my business, however that is because they assume that I’m using a spreadsheet in the same rudimentary manner they would (probably just summing up cells). They have no comprehension of the sophistication and automation that I have built into my financial spreadsheets. They have no comprehension of the advanced skills training that provides me in a product that is probably on the desktop of every business user. Those skills therefore give me the confidence, experience and opportunity to provide a raft of Excel services to customers for which I generate revenue. Sure, I could use an off the shelf accounting package but the opportunity benefits I deride from using Excel to an advanced level far outweigh and cost saving an accounting package may provide.

What you can achieve with Excel along is mind blowing but let me ask you, do you use Pivot Tables? Named ranges? Table lookups? Macros? I have found few who do and that’s therefore the opportunity I’ve identified I can fill and make money in the process. Now extend that opportunity out to products like SharePoint, Yammer, Power BI, Skype for Business and so on. The more I use each of these, the more I learn, the more I improve the way I do business but critically the more opportunity I have to resell those skills. Don’t even get me started on the Azure opportunities IT Pros and resellers are missing out on.

Most IT Pros and resellers have free access to all the products they provides to customers internally but yet few ever embrace them, yet alone implement them. In today’s fast paced markets this allows customers to surpass those who are supposed to know and once that happens, why do you need IT Pros and resellers? Simple, you don’t, and that’s what I see happening today.

Use it or lose it should be your mantra if you are an IT Pro or reseller. Skill up or fade away. It’s that simple.

Setting Partner of record in Office 365

A little while ago I wrote a post on how to set the partner of record in Office 365.

Since then, the Office 365 billing interface has changed so here’s an updated tutorial on how to set the partner of record in Office 365 tenant.

You’ll firstly need to login to the Office 365 web portal as an administrator with the appropriate rights.

Once you have logged onto the web console navigate to the Office 365 admin center using the app launcher. Towards the middle of this menu you will find a heading Billing which you will need to expand.

Below the Billing heading you should find an option Subscriptions which you need to select.

Now what actually appears here depends on what licenses you have in the Office 365 tenant but at first glance of the above screen shot the location to enter your partner of record is no very obvious. You may see a link in the lower right but in this case you don’t see anything.

You need to select the More Actions pull down in the top left as shown above. When you do this a menu will appear.

In this menu option you will find the option Add partner of record.

Selecting this will slide an options screen from the right hand side of the page as shown above.

You can then enter you Microsoft Partner ID in that field and select the Check ID button.

if you have completed all the partner pre-requisites you should see that your organisation has been located and is displayed in all green indicating everything is good.

You now need to go to the bottom of this slide and Save the changes and apply that partner to this tenant.

When you do that, administrators in the tenant will be sent a confirmation email like that shown above indicating that a new partner of record has been set.

Remember, what you see in the subscriptions area may vary depending on what licenses have been added to the tenant. Some licenses don’t support partner of record (i.e. Open). However, hopefully this makes it easy for you to set partner of record on those subscriptions that support it so you can start receiving commissions.