A Few SharePoint Online Plans Retiring on July 1, 2014

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Josh Condie – On July 1st of this year we will be retiring Sharepoint Plans 1 & 2 w/ Yammer as well as Office Online Plan 1 & 2 with SharePoint.  If you or your customers are currently running one of these subscriptions, don’t panic!  You can transition to a new plan by the expiration date (June 30 or 2015, 2016 or 2017, depending on  the license program)

For more details, please reference the original Office 365 Community Blog Post here:  https://community.office365.com/en-us/w/sharepoint/spoplanretirements.aspx

Here is the overview:

In an effort to streamline our subscription plans and to provide clearer plan differentiation, we will retire the following SharePoint Online plans on July 1, 2014:

  • SharePoint Plan 1 w/ Yammer
  • SharePoint Plan 2 w/ Yammer
  • Office Online w/ SharePoint Plan 1
  • Office Online w/ SharePoint Plan 2

The corresponding Government and Academic plans will be retired as well.

How this affects you

Both new and existing customers will be affected by the plan retirement. New customers won’t be able to purchase the retired plans after June 30, 2014, but existing customers will have options depending on several factors, including: the participating channel and/or program, enrollment terms, offers, and subscription lengths. The following table explains.

If you participate in this channel or program

You can renew retired subscription plans until

You can add seats to retired plans on the current subscription until

You can use the retired plan until

Direct

June 30, 2015

June 30, 2015

June 30, 2016

Syndication

June 30, 2015

June 30, 2015

June 30, 2016

Open

June 30, 2014

Not applicable

June 30, 2015

EA

June 30, 2014

June 30, 2017

June 30, 2017

What you need to do

If you currently subscribe to one of the plans that is scheduled to be retired, you can transition to a new plan by the expiration date (June 30, 2015, 2016, or 2017 depending on your channel or program) as shown in the table above. Note that Office Online is now part of all Office 365 suite plans.

Once a new plan has been chosen and a new subscription created, each user in the tenant will need a license for the new subscription. Tenant admins can re-assign licenses to their users for the new subscription either manually or in-bulk using PowerShell.

The table below shows transition options available for each of the retiring plans.

If you have

You can transition to

SharePoint Plan 1 w/ Yammer

  • Office 365 Enterprise E1
  • SharePoint Plan 1, Yammer Enterprise

SharePoint Plan 2 w/ Yammer

  • Office 365 Enterprise E3
  • SharePoint Plan 2, Yammer Enterprise

Office Online w/ SharePoint Plan 1

  • SharePoint Online Plan 1
  • Office 365 Enterprise E1

Office Online w/ SharePoint Plan 2

  • SharePoint Online Plan 2
  • Office 365 Enterprise E3
  • Office 365 Enterprise E1, Office 365 Enterprise E1 to SharePoint Plan 2 Step-up (EA only)
  • O365 Enterprise E1, SharePoint Plan 2

 Frequently Asked Questions

Does this change mean you're getting rid of SharePoint Online as a standalone plan?

No. You can continue to buy SharePoint Online standalone if that’s all you need, but if you’re looking for a combination of features, you’ll get the most value from an Office 365 plan.

Does this change cover Dedicated/ITAR  customers?

No, there are no changes to Dedicated/ITAR plans at this time.

How will the transition options work for the Open channel since the SharePoint and Yammer Enterprise standalone plans are not available for the Open channel currently?

The SharePoint and Yammer standalone plans will be available in the Open channel starting August 1, 2014.

Are special offers or discounts available to help existing customers transition to higher-priced plans?

Yes. We will provide one-time price discounts for EA customers to cover the additional cost associated with transitioning to the higher priced plans.

Syndication partners will be offered wholesale price discounts in order for them to offer similar concessions to their customers.