Upgrading from W7 to M365 in sporting club

Question

I use M365 in my small business but want to assist my local sporting club to upgrade from W7 with 11 club domain email addresses on OWA to M365 (Business Premium). The club's IT costs are minimal at present but I am concerned that if they have to buy 11 user licences for M365 the budget will be stressed. Is there a way of minimising M365 licence costs while retaining&nbsp; the 11 email addresses?

thijs lecomte · Answer

Licenses should be assigned on a per-uses basis.

If these 11 email addresses are used by 11 different users, then you should have 11 licenses.

If you have multiple email addresses for one person, you could add them as aliases.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/email/add-another-email-alias-for-a-user?view=o365-worldwide

If there are emails shared by multiple users, you could convert them to shared mailboxes with doesn't require a license.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/collaboration-exo/shared-mailboxes

descar1947 · Answer

Thijs LecomteThanks for your insights. To further clarify the situation. The club has only one dedicated PC which will run M365. The 11 email addresses representing club functional roles are accessed via Outlook Web Access by both the officeholders performing those roles and by club members assisting them. Each of these 11 email addresses (e.g., commodore@xxx) has its own password which is given to members assisting those roles via their own private PCs. The password access provides some confidentiality between roles. The club PC does not need to use desktop Outlook. All mail can be handled online, probably using Microsoft Exchange Online. Under these circumstances, am I correct in assuming that I would only need one M365 licence (on the dedicated club PC) and 11 Exchange Online licences which would keep licensing costs to a minimum?

Of course, the issue of shared filing according to functional roles within OneDrive would still have to be addressed rather than having club files spread over a number of private PCs.

thijs lecomte · Answer

Your assumption is correct.You dont need an MS365 license for regular mail users.unless you want to implement extra security.Btw:is your local sporting club a non-profit?They might be eligble for non-profit licensinghttps://www.microsoft.com/en-us/nonprofits/microsoft-365

descar1947 · Answer

Thijs LecomteOnce again, very helpful thanks. If the club qualifies it seems we could get up to 10 M365 licenses for free in which case we might only have to pay a reduced rate for one extra licence. That approach should give much greater access control to both emails and files based on functional roles. I will explore this option.It seems a shame that MS does not appear to provide case studies for recommended solutions for the many sporting (or other) clubs, especially those classified as NfP where resources are usually scarce, or at least I am not aware of such studies.

thijs lecomte · Answer

I understand your frustration.It's indeed difficult to navigate all the different licensing requirements.But it would be nearly impossible for Microsoft to write about all the possible scenarios.

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Upgrading from W7 to M365 in sporting club

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