Which AD account activates office on a shared workstation?

[kjstech]

We are going to apply Office 365 Business licences to the rest of our Active Directory users this year.  With that being said we are a financial institution where some individuals may use different computers occasionally.  When we upgrade these computers from the older Office 2010 and 2013 OEM and Home and Business versions to Office 365 (currently 2016 Semi Annual Channel), which account will be responsible for the activation?

My thoughts are that the very first account used to sign in would activate office for the PC.  

I tried the Shared Licencing = 1 in the ODT Configuration file, but then after I sysprepped and imaged a new workstation, upon signing in I got "Account Issue - The products we found in your account cannot be used to activate Office in shared computer scenarios.".  While probably 80% of the employee base uses the same computer every day, I don't see a problem if we opt to NOT deploy it with Shared Licencing = 1.  But my concern is what happens for those front office personal that move from machine to machine frequently?

We currently have somewhere around 22 people on Office 2016 Business and want to expand that to around 175 - 180 ish.

We have Lync 2013 and Exchange 2013 servers on site, so we do not want to opt to more expensive plans (no need).

Thanks for your help!

[#2]

Hi Keith,

For your scenario of Shared Activation is only possible on E3 or E5 Plans that have Office 365 Pro Plus.

I advise to see those options for those users.

Here you have more information https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/overview-of-shared-computer-activation-for-office-365-...

[#3]

Ok what happens if the machine was imaged with Product ID="O365BusinessRetail" ?

What happens if shared activation was not specified in the office configuration.xml file?

The first person to use office will end up being claimed as the "owner" correct?  Then if that person ever jumps past 5 computers, IT will be involved going into the O365 admin panel to remove devices from that user?  Is that the issue here?

We obviously do not need hosted Exchange or Lync(Skype for Business).  Our only goal here is to get everyone on the same version of Office that is updated.  Its a pain to support 3 different versions (2010, 2013, 2016).  We would just like to support the current version and give the users the ability to stay current.

[#4]

I'd like to add onto yesterday's unanswered post...

Is there a computer licence for Office 365?  Is it possible to use a Computer Active Directory Account (like you can for Wifi Enterprise WPA2 Radius into IAS)?

Back in the day we would just get the OEM licence from Dell.  The user would then be on that Office version for the lifetime of the machine (4 to 5 years).  The problem is now you can only get Office 2016 OEM from Dell, or even retail.  Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but its the activation that is the issue.  You can bind a product key 5 times I believe to an email address.  That leads into a sticky situation creating fake email addresses outside of the organization (like companyofficeact1-5@gmail.com, companyofficeact6-10@gmail.com, companyofficeact11-15@gmail.com) which is an organizational nightmare.  It was easier just to keep an Excel spreadsheet of the computer name and office key back when 2013 and earlier were the current version.

So to avoid all of that and stay up to date, that is why we want to roll out O365 on all of the machines our 170 users touch.  What complicates it, is maybe 35% of those users have the ability to roam.  And some that do may roam for a day, or sometimes fill in at another location for a few days (or weeks).  I have one manager for example filling in at another location while someone is out on maternity leave.  How would O365 licencing work in that respect?

How would it work for us in IT?  We have O365BusinessRetail activated on our laptop and desktop.  But what if we go to a remote location and work on another machine for a few hours?  

Micrososft makes this more complicated than it needs be.

[#5]

Hi Keith,

Is best practice is that you deploy the Office 365 ProPlus with Shared Activation, the Business plans are not compatible with your requirements.

[#6]

For 22 of us that are already on Business Retail, can we stay on that version?

What would happen for instance if I log into admin panel and change my licence?  Would I have to reinstall Office on my desktop and laptop?

[#7]

Hi Keith,

You have to upgrade your licenses and Install Office 365 ProPlus, because is a different version of Office to accomplish your requirements.

[#8]

Ok everyone that works on the same computer everday, like back office people (IT, Executive management, accounting, HR, etc...) will stay where they are.

Front office people that can sometimes fill in at other sites, etc. will then have to be ProPlus I guess.  Or we run the risk of activation issues.

[#9]

I don't think you'll have technical activation issues in this scenario when using Office Business.

But I also wonder, if you have let's say 50 employees and you're paying for 50 Office Business licenses with O365, would this be a compliancy issue when logging onto each others computers? I know Pro Plus is needed for RDS environments, but is it the same when logging onto another domain joined computer?

[#10]

Hi Rob,

Always the frequency, that could have activation problems if for example have use more than 5 pc's in one month.