Decision time for N365 is ‘nigh’?

Microsoft has worked with NHS Digital on behalf of the Department of Health to create a pan wide O365 Central Deal for the NHS which will guarantee significant cost savings for those organisations who signed up in July. This deal will help the NHS save millions of pounds and bring the vision of joined up patient care one step closer and eacs is here and able to support you in realising these savings.

Those of you that signed up to the N365 deal before the July deadline are now under pressure and must have purchased their licenses by 15^th September 2020 or miss out on the discount being offered.  Once the licenses have been purchased organisations will have until October 2021 to migrate their services fully away from Office2010.

This is a no-brainer and depending on the agreement you take; your discount can vary from FREE to 50%. For example, for many the online version of Office is FREE whilst other Microsoft 365 products can realise a 50% percent saving from the standard digital transformation agreement price, so why not come and speak to eacs and see how we can help you.

What actually are your N365 Options?

In short, having signed up for N365 you now have 2 options:

• Obtain a significant discount versus standard Microsoft 365 licenses that you can then apply to your existing O365 tenancy, or it can be used to build and run your own O365 tenancy;
• Obtain double the above discount on standard Microsoft 365 licenses by agreeing to join a centrally managed shared O365 tenancy.

What are the benefits of the Own Tenant option?

• Simplicity – you can simply add these licenses to your existing tenant with no other real changes required;
• Cost Effective – it is a great way of starting your cloud journey by taking advantage of a lower overall license cost;
• Greater cost savings – can potentially help you make wider structural savings within your organisation;
• Greater Control – You can exercise control and management over the features, services and administration;

Future proofing – future-proof your organisation from any changes that might occur later on.

What are the benefits of the Shared Tenant option?

• The costs associated are significantly lower than the Own Tenant option;
• You don’t need any in-house Office 365 skills to run;
• The tenant is centrally administered so there is no overhead to the NHS entity to consume the service once you are in.

So, what do you do?

The aim of the agreement is not to simply buy new licenses to be used with the old versions of Microsoft Office, SharePoint, Outlook etc. Instead, N365 has been specifically geared to give NHS organisations greater access to modern workplace technologies and their functionality.

N365 licenses are not a direct like-for-like swap with your existing Office 365 licenses, and organisations need to ensure that they are fully aware of what is included and then map them against the services they need and, perhaps more importantly, what they want to consume. 

As a verified supplier on the Digital Workplace Solutions Framework, eacs can help you with this and navigate what can be a complex and difficult path. Our experts are on hand to guide you through the choices and ensure that you are able to realise the full benefits and savings whilst at the same time making sure that you have access to those products that you really need. Finally, eacs can help you to put together a cost comparison so that you fully understand what the budgetary commitment will be before you make the final decision.

Summary

In short, it is decision time for many organisations. With Office 2010 and Exchange 2010 shortly going end of support on 13^th October, it is imperative that organisations still using these products make plans now or there is a very real security threat to their environment. 

For these organisations, N365 could be a very real opportunity to move on to a supported product thereby fully mitigating and closing off that security risk.

To learn more about how we can help you make that decision, speak to one of our experts by calling 0800 8047 256 or emailing SBS_DWS@eacs.com. 

Remember you only have until 15^th September to decide to realise the cost benefits, and the clock is ticking.