Demystifying N365

An agreement struck between NHSX, NHS Digital and Microsoft will save the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds and enable all eligible organisations in England to access Microsoft 365 digital tools. The agreement guarantees significant cost savings for both individual NHS organisations and the NHS as a whole, which will improve productivity, enhance collaboration and strengthen cyber security across healthcare services. You will be in one of these three scenarios below:- Scenario 1 – Decided on the shared tenant Organisations that probably have NHSmail currently as the existing solution and are happy remaining on the shared tenant. Scenario 2 – Decided on your own tenant Organisations with an on-premise architecture, potentially already using Office 365 and thinking about migrating away from NHSmail and utilising your own tenant. Scenario 3 – Undecided or Mixed Organisations who are unsure which tenant model they will go on to use, or those that will potentially have a need for both. The Journey      Talk to us about maximising your N365 investment

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  We recently ran a webinar discussing this subject if you would like to watch.  

Q&As Key questions and answers from the customer facing webinars ran by SCC:

1. Will moving to the shared tenant affect any SA benefits that are available as part of the ESA? Our understanding is that any SA benefits will remain as is with this agreement as any other enterprise agreement. Microsoft still need to confirm this though.

2. We are in both buckets and do not want to pay twice. How do we separate out? You can switch tenants at any time, initially you are asked to opt for one or the other. The only issue would be the migration and transition costs of doing this switch.

3. Opp to use bridging “cals” to take us forward? (E1 min agreement, squeeze more out of it re the cost) There are some additional products on the N365 list that is a CAL step up and other such licence that could be utilised. We would welcome a discussion on each individual area to determine the best route forward.

4. Currently, we have Teams, Windows 10 and some of the functionalities. Can Intune and Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager be procured separately on an own or shared tenant? Teams is part of O365 (RE3, E1, E3, E5) and cannot be purchased separately, whilst Windows 10 is separated under the general NHSD agreement. Intune/SCCM aka MECM is a separate product (contained within EM&S3+ suite) that can be procured separately from the N365 base license (RE3, E1, E3).

5. In the shared tenant info you talked about Skype 4 Biz rather than Teams. But isn’t Teams part of the N365 Shared Tenant deal (it’s currently already available via the NHS Mail portal)? Skype 4 Biz is the standard under the current hybrid arrangement, but Teams is available and will be fully function able and interoperable when EOL goes live (NHSmail migration from hybrid to MS cloud).

6. If we have already invested heavily in UEM from a 3rd party are we forced to switch to Intune for this to work? If you buy the technology under N365 you don’t need to utilise it, but if you have additional solutions quite often these will integrate and complement the N365 services.

7. Given the significant reduction in NHS capital, can you stage the payments for licenses into FY21/22? Our understanding is that the normal ESA rules will apply. Anniversary declarations and increased licensing through the portal will be allowed and within anniversary years.