Microsoft Starts On July 1 With Enforcing Teams Rooms Licenses: Why Important

After July 1, Microsoft will block meeting devices with a user license from signing on and begin enforcing Teams Rooms device licenses.

Partners must replace Microsoft 365 and Office 365 user licenses assigned to Teams Rooms meeting devices with a Teams Rooms license before that date. Rooms devices are also not supported by Microsoft Teams Shared Device licenses.

After July 1, Microsoft of Redmond, Wash. will block meeting devices with a user license from signing on.

Kelly Yeh, president of Chantilly, Va.-based Microsoft partner Phalanx Technology Group, told CRN in an interview that Teams Rooms have been an opportunity for its customers exploring permanent hybrid work or a relaxed telecommuting model.

“Let’s repurpose some of these offices into larger meeting rooms and then add a Teams Room,” Yeh said. “Then it becomes like this – these are breakout rooms. This is when you need to have your people together to have meetings. But they can then also invite outside people to those meetings. Customer-facing things. So we also justify certain operational efficiencies.”

Yeh said that as Microsoft explores how to customize device licensing, he would like to see a model that makes licensing easier for MSPs accustomed to per-seat pricing.

“We need to create a list of service accounts and a list of actual users, charge the cost per user accordingly,” Yeh said. “And then sometimes we’re still trying to figure out that differential pricing for the service accounts, because sometimes I have to reset the password. Sometimes I have to get permissions for those accounts for different users or external users.”

Teams Room devices include Crestron soundbars, Yealink 4k MeetingBoard touch screens and Lenovo ThinkSmart cameras.

De volgende licenties ondersteunen Teams Rooms:

*Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro

*Microsoft Teams Rooms Basic

*Microsoft Teams Rooms Standard (obsolete)

*Microsoft Teams Rooms Premium (obsolete)

Basic licenses include up to 25 licenses, Teams, audio conferencing and Microsoft Whiteboard. Pro has unlimited licenses and adds Teams Phone, Microsoft Intune, Azure Active Directory Premium Plan 1 and Skype for Business Plan 2. Pro is $40 per room per month.

Basic includes enrollment and inventory from Teams Admin Center plus automatic software updates, while Pro adds detailed system and configuration information, peripheral status management, device analysis and other device management features.

For meetings, Basic allows ad hoc meetings and direct guest participation for Zoom and Webex meetings. Pro adds in-room check-in with Teams Panel.

Pro is available for partner-led new commerce experience (NCE) engagements, Enterprise Agreement (EA), Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) and other channels.

Pro adds a shared whiteboard with Content Capture Camera capability, together mode, a gallery with up to 50 videos, support for two screens, a Microsoft 365 phone system, support for multiple cameras, noise reduction powered by artificial intelligence (AI), support for intelligent live transcription of speakers and conditional access policies for Azure Active Directory (AD), among other capabilities, according to Microsoft.

Source: crn