Processes in Microsoft 365 for setting up Office apps, redeeming product keys, and activating licenses.
At first I thought I must have been making some sort of mistake. So I just activated them all by phone once a different user logged in.
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We are a small business providing IT products and support for a number of small to medium businesses in our local area. Providing new PCs with MS Office has long been a big part of what we do. With Office 2013 OEM, it seems that activation requires creating a unique MS account for each installation with no obvious way around it.
This is utterly stupid. Office is supposed to activate on HARDWARE - not an individual. Companies that have many computers and a high turnover of staff use the same computer for many different people. Linking Office to an individual's email account is a very bad idea - especially in a business environment where using personal email is not acceptable.
Creating a company-wide MS account to activate all the software seemed like a usable workaround; until MS informed us that each activation had to be with a unique account.
Add on to this the confusion that many people face when asked to create an MS account of their own and activate their software (things that are completely unfamiliar to many of our customers) and MS seem to have created a support nightmare for us front-line support engineers.
And what about re-installing Office in the future? If an MS account is created but only used for the Office Activation, surely it will expire after so long?
And what about customers that have no internet access? They do exist! How are they supposed to use the software?
MS have tried to cut out their long-time sales partners by introducing and pushing subscription-based Office 365, which eliminates the profit we made from selling physical products with machines - and the latest Office OEM versions that we CAN sell have shot up in price to almost unsalable levels. Volume licensing is also not a solution for many businesses that simply do not have the cash flow to purchase large numbers of licenses at once. Customers also do not want to be tied in to subscription services for software that they are used to owning outright with no recurring costs.
We desperately need an easy solution to this - any suggestions appreciated. Or should I just start recommending OpenOffice to our customers now?
Thanks,
Alex
EDIT 12/04/13:
It is even worse than I thought originally. I have just been contacted by a customer complaining that they activated their new Office 2013 using the Administrator account before rolling the machine out to their user, only to find that Office then prompted the user to activate AGAIN when they logged on. it then refused to activate again, saying that it had already been activated!
This is completely unacceptable. Some customers have a large turnover of staff using the same machine; most require at least a couple of different users. What are MS playing at?
Processes in Microsoft 365 for setting up Office apps, redeeming product keys, and activating licenses.
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At first I thought I must have been making some sort of mistake. So I just activated them all by phone once a different user logged in.
Maybe it makes them more money, or maybe people are smarter than that and realize their underhanded tactics which results in them avoiding Microsoft products whenever possible.
Sorry for the late response though, I just got around to reading the rest of this thread.
The only answer I've found is to use Libre Office:
My personal solution:
1- Buy the product, whichever version. Keep your proof of purchase and license key.
2- Go to your favorite Swede bucaneers website and get rid of that god awful DRM.
3- Never worry about it ever again.
Before you start calling me a thief, the thief in this case is Microsoft, trying to prevent me from using software I overpaid for.
Volume Licensing is $470 for the same basic product. The advantage is that when the computer is replaced, you just install office again, with no additional cost. If you can go 5 years, replace the computer, install office again, and go another 5 years then it's cheaper than OEM licensing. My client has Office 2007, office 2010, or office 2013 on most of their computers. it's rare to find people who don't know office, and it's hard to replace outlook, particularly since many people know the product and it works well with their Exchange server. So far, OEM office has provided the most cost effective solution. I believe I need to recommend a replacement to my client unless Microsoft rethinks it's licensing strategy.