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Microsoft Office 365

The Microsoft Office 365 overview shows detailed information on the subscription plans, users, subscriptions, and costs for the cloud service. It is possible to analyze the information to see for example the number of subscriptions that has not been assigned to users and the cost for these subscriptions.

The information is imported from the Microsoft Office 365 portal via Snow Integration Connector, see the User guide for Microsoft Office 365 Connector for more information.

The information on the Microsoft Office 365 overview is organized in content tabs. On each content tab, a graph enables the user to analyze the information during a period of time and a table enables the user to analyze detailed information since the last import.

The following table describes the content tabs for Microsoft Office 365.

Content tab

Description

Total users

A graph enables the user to follow the total number of Microsoft Office 365 users over the last 12 months.

A table shows all users within Microsoft Office 365 shown per subscription plan since the last import. The activity graphs show a preview of when users last used any of the subscriptions included in the subscription plan.

Click a subscription plan to analyze the information for the plan, for example:

Assigned subscriptions

A graph enables the users to compare the total number of Available subscriptions, Assigned subscriptions, Expiring subscriptions,and Total subscriptions for the last 12 months.

A table shows the subscription plans and the number of available, assigned, and expiring subscriptions, and the total number of subscriptions since the last import.

Total cost per month

A graph enables the user to compare the costs for the Available subscriptions and the Assigned subscriptions for the last 12 months.

A table shows the subscription plans and the associated costs since the last import.

Note

The Accumulated total cost is the sum of the costs for the subscription plans for the last 12 months.

Note

Snow License Manager imports information from the Microsoft Office 365 portal about the total number of subscriptions and the number of subscriptions that have been assigned to users. However, there is no information about the costs for the Microsoft Office 365 subscriptions in the portal. Therefore, the cost periods must be added in Snow License Manager to be able to analyze this. For information about how to add cost periods, see Edit cost information.

Link Snow License Manager users with Microsoft Office 365 users

To get the most value out of the Microsoft Office 365 features in Snow License Manager, a match between existing users gathered from the inventory sources and the Microsoft Office 365 portal users must be made. The usage of on premise applications, such as Microsoft Office 365 Pro Plus and Project or Visio Pro for Microsoft Office 365, can then be connected to the corresponding user and subscription plan. Also, to automatically detect license coverage of applications included in Microsoft Office 365, Snow License Manager users must be linked with Microsoft Office 365 users.

To see the users that need linking for each Office 365 subscription:

  1. On the Microsoft Office 365 overview and on the Total users tab, click the row for the subscription plan that you want to analyze.

    A list of all users in the estate who have been assigned to this subscription plan appears.

  2. Click Not linked users.

Link users when using Snow Inventory 5

If Snow Inventory 5 is used, enable Active Directory user discovery in the Snow Inventory Admin Console to link Snow License Manager users with Microsoft Office 365 users. The Active Directory data will then be used to match against the Microsoft Office 365 portal data. For more information on how to enable Active Directory user discovery, see the User Guide for the Snow Inventory Admin Console.

Link users when not using Snow Inventory 5

If Snow Inventory 5 is not used, link the Snow License Manager Users with the Microsoft Office 365 users by importing an update of the users:

  1. Find and export a list of Snow License Manager users that you want to match to a corresponding Microsoft Office 365 user.

    The Snow License Manager users are found in the All users report or in the List all users view.

  2. Remove all columns except the user name and add a column called Office 365 UPN to the user export and add the matching Microsoft Office 365 User Principle Name for each user.

    The Microsoft Office 365 users are found on the Users tab on the Microsoft Office 365 overview or in the Microsoft Office 365 portal.

  3. Import the data by updating the existing users according to Import data.

    At the Field mappings step, ensure that the Office 365 UPN field is mapped to the Email address field.

During the next import of the Microsoft Office 365 connector, correctly mapped users will be linked. The import can be manually triggered in the Snow Integration Manager user interface.

Note

If less than 80 % of all Snow License Manager users are not linked with Microsoft Office 365 users, then an information message is displayed showing the percentage of linked users.

To show more information about how to increase the number of linked users, click Learn more and follow the instructions.

Analyze Microsoft Office 365 data

The Microsoft Office 365 overview can be used to analyze the Microsoft Office 365 data. The overview can for example be used to find users that are not using their subscription plan, users that should switch from one subscription plan to another, and the cost for a specific subscription plan.

Find users that are not using their subscription plan

  1. On the Microsoft Office 365 overview and on the Total users tab, click the row for the subscription plan that you want to analyze.

    A list of all users in the estate who have been assigned to this subscription plan appears.

  2. Click Not linked users, to filter the list of users.

    A list of users that have not been linked to an existing user in any inventory source appears.

  3. Investigate the not linked users to find out why the users are not linked.

    For more information about not linked users, see Link Snow License Manager users with Microsoft Office 365 users.

  4. In the Active last column, filter the list of users.

  5. Analyze the users that have no activity and no activity for more than for example 30 days.

Find users that should switch from Microsoft Office Plan E3 to E1

Users that subscribe to the Microsoft Office 365 Plan E1 are not allowed to install desktop versions of Microsoft Office applications. Users that subscribe to the Microsoft Office 365 Plan E3 are allowed to install desktop versions of Microsoft Office applications.

By filtering the data on recent application activity, it is possible to find users that should switch from Microsoft Office 365 Plan E3 to Microsoft Office 365 Plan E1. It is also possible to find users that might have left the company and should no longer have a subscription plan.

To find users that should switch from Microsoft Office Plan E3 to E1:

  1. On the Microsoft Office 365 overview and on the Total users tab, click the Microsoft Office 365 Plan E3 row.

    A list of all users in the estate who have been assigned a subscription for Microsoft Office 365 Plan E3 appears.

  2. Click Not linked users, to filter the list of users.

    A list of users that have not been linked to an existing user in any inventory source appears.

  3. Investigate the not linked users to find out why the users are not linked.

    Note

    If a user is not linked to an inventory source it is not possible to determine whether or not the user is using installed desktop versions of Microsoft Office applications.

    For more information about linked users, see Link Snow License Manager users with Microsoft Office 365 users.

  4. Click Application usage to view detailed information about which applications each user is using.

  5. In the Last activity columns, filter the list of users for each application. 

  6. Investigate the users that should be migrated from an E3 to an E1 plan and users that no longer should have a subscription plan:

Analyze cost per subscription plan

  1. On the Microsoft Office 365 overview, perform one of the following:

    • On the Total users tab, click the row for the subscription plan that you want to analyze, and then click the Total cost for the current month tab.

    • On the Total cost for the current month tab, click the row for the subscription plan that you want to analyze.

  2. On the Total cost for the current month tab, analyze the total costs, for example the costs for available subscription licenses, the cost for users with no activity, and the accumulated total cost.

Optimize Microsoft Office 365 subscription plans

The report Microsoft Office 365 user activity and cost per subscription plan found in the Microsoft category can be used as input for optimization of Microsoft Office 365 subscription plans. The report contains for example the following information:

  • All data from the Microsoft Office 365 portal

  • Costs for the subscription plans

  • User activity

  • If the user is linked to an inventoried user

Manage Microsoft Office 365 subscription plans

The Microsoft Office 365 overview shows detailed information about the users assigned a Microsoft Office 365 subscription plan and if they are using it. To optimize the costs and to ease the management, subscription plans can be added and removed in Snow License Manager.

Note

Subscription plans can only be added and removed in Snow License Manager if the Automation book Office 365 Automation is imported. For more information see the document Automation book Office 365 Automation.

Add subscription plan

  1. On the context menu of a subscription plan, click Add subscription plan to users.

    AddRemoveSubscriptionPlan.png

    The Add subscription plan view appears.

  2. In the list of users, click Add subscription plan for the users that this subscription plan should be added to.

  3. Click Preview and finish.

    A summary of the selected users appears.

  4. Review the users.

  5. To remove a user from the summary, click Undo.

  6. Click Request addition.

    A summary of users that are pending addition of the subscription plan appears. The subscription plans will be added when the requests have been processed by Automation Platform.

Remove subscription plan

  1. On the context menu of a subscription plan, click Remove subscription plan from users.

    The Remove subscription plan view appears.

  2. In the list of users, click Remove subscription plan for the users that this subscription plan should be removed from.

  3. Click Preview and finish.

    A summary of the selected users appears.

  4. Review the users.

  5. To remove a user from the summary, click Undo.

  6. Click Request removal.

    A summary of users that are pending removal of the subscription plan appears. The subscription plans will be removed when the requests have been processed by Automation Platform.