April 9, 2024
WHAT'S HAPPENING: Teams Premium preview is now available
WHEN: December 16, 2022
Microsoft Teams Premium is now broadly available for preview as a limited trial for commercial customers through the Microsoft 365 admin center. The features under this offering began rolling out this past December and will continue to roll out through January.
You can enroll your tenant into the preview as a trial through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center by searching for Teams Premium in the catalog. Once enrolled and activated, tenant admins receive a limited number of 30-day trial licenses that they can assign to users in their organization.
Admins can also enroll in the public preview to gain access to Teams Premium features—such as understanding the configuration options for the capabilities or assessing how they'll be used in their environment—without assigning the trial licenses to end users.
If a user is assigned an expired Teams Premium trial license, they won't have access to those Teams Premium features. Similar to user license assignment, after the public preview duration has expired, IT admins lose access to these features.
General availability of Teams Premium is scheduled for early February 2023. If you’d like to get updates about Teams Premium direct from Microsoft, you can sign up for those here: https://aka.ms/GetTeamsPremiumUpdates
WHAT'S HAPPENING: Microsoft has introduced a new Volume Licensing invoice experience
WHEN: January 2023
Microsoft has begun updating the invoice format and delivery for Microsoft Volume Licensing programs in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico.
This invoice improvement is aimed to provide a more standardized, simpler invoice experience for easier consumption and reconciliation along with self-serve capabilities to view and download your invoice from Azure Portal and Microsoft Admin Center.
Key changes are as follows:
Invoice format
Invoices will have multiple formats:
- Invoice summary: This is a 3-page summary view of charges listed by product family (only available for Azure invoices).
- Invoice: This is a document with line-item level details, such as item, price quantity, and tax (available for Azure and non-Azure invoices).
- CSV file: This is a spreadsheet file with all invoice line-item details (available for all Azure and non-Azure invoices).
Invoice delivery
In addition to current delivery methods, customers can access invoices on Microsoft portals:
- Customers receiving email delivery will continue to receive invoices via email with applicable new formats attached.
Action required: Safelist this new “From” email ID: [email protected]. - Customers receiving EDI, hardcopy, or other delivery will continue to receive invoices with applicable formats.
- Customers may download their invoices themselves via Azure Portal (Azure invoices) or Microsoft Admin Center (non-Azure invoices).
Note that all types of VL programs are supported except MPSA, Federal Government, Special agreements, and Select Plus agreements.
For more information, please contact your Long View Licensing Specialist or review the information linked below:
Learn about non-Azure Microsoft Volume Licensing invoices
Learn about Azure Microsoft Volume Licensing invoices
WHAT'S HAPPENING: Support for Windows 8.1 has ended
WHEN: January 10, 2023
Windows 8.1 has reached end of support on January 10, 2023. At this point technical assistance and software updates will no longer be provided. Windows 8.1 has reached end of support on January 10, 2023. At this point technical assistance and software updates will no longer be provided. Microsoft recommends updating these devices to a later version to reduce any associated security risks.
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