Substantial changes to Microsoft Office Home Use Program (and a big increase in cost)

Many of us take advantage of the Microsoft Home Use Program, which allows staff at firms with a Microsoft Office licence to purchase the latest standalone copy of Office (currently Office 2019) for use at home for £12.

Buying this directly from Microsoft costs over £400, or an annual Office subscription costs around £80 per year.

On 30 June 2019, you will no longer be able to buy this heavily discounted copy of Office 2019, forcing you to buy an annual subscription instead and swapping a £12 one-off cost for a £80 annual subscription.

If you haven't got the latest version of Office, I suggest buying it while you still can and to contact your firm's IT department quickly! Tell your coleagues about this too and ask them to put a request in so your firm understands this is a valuable benefit.

Instructions on what your IT team may need to do to allow you to buy Office 2019 can be found in a recent Reddit post set out below:

https://www.reddit.com/r/k12sysadmin/comments/bmyfit/microsoft_home_use_program_changes/

"I received the following email from msvlop@microsoft.com this morning.

Dear Software Assurance Benefits Administrators,

Your company continues to be eligible for the Microsoft Home Use Program (HUP) as one of your Software Assurance (SA) benefits. To continue to access the benefit you need to take additional steps. This email is a follow-up to the email we had sent on April 12, 2019 and March 20, 2019.

This is a final reminder of the approaching deadline to take the necessary steps to continue to access the Home Use Program benefit by migrating over the management of the program from the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) to the Microsoft Store for Business (MSfB).

Please take a look at these questions to understand the action you need to take:

1. What do I need to do to make these HUP offers available to my employees: Office Professional Plus 2019, Office Home and Business for Mac 2019, Visio Professional 2019 and, Project Professional 2019 offers (Office 2019 offers only available until June 30, 2019 as previously communicated)?
   

• Until May 15, 2019: The current process will be available for you to manage these offers through VLSC and your employees can continue to claim these offers on www.microsofthup.com.
  
• Starting May 15, 2019: VLSC will not be available to manage the HUP benefit and you will have to activate and manage your company’s HUP benefits in MSfB following the steps listed in the ‘Microsoft Home Use Program – A guide for Software Assurance Customers’. Employees will be able to claim the offer on the new Microsoft Home Use Program store and the old HUP store at www.microsofthup.com will redirect them to the new one.
  

1. What do I need to do to make the following Home Use Program offers available to my employees: Office 365 Home or Office 365 Personal annual subscription?
   This offer cannot be managed through VLSC and is only available through MSfB. To access this benefit, you will have to follow the steps listed in the ‘Microsoft Home Use Program – A guide for Software Assurance Customers’.
   
2. Where can I find more Home Use Program Resources?
   We understand that process changes can be challenging- we have created multiple resources to guide you through this transition.
   

• Start here: Home Use Program Overview: This overview is for Software Assurance benefit administrators. We constantly update this page to address all your questions. Check out the 'Microsoft Home Use Program – A guide for Software Assurance Customers’ guide on this page.
  
• HUP Employee FAQ: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/home-use-program/frequently-asked-questions.
  

Still have questions?

Administrator Support Resources

1. For questions or issues in the Microsoft Store for Business, contact: Store for Business Admin support (Please also see the FAQ page for admins within MSfB).
   
2. For questions or issues with eligibility, licensing agreements, or other issues with the VLSC site, contact Volume Licensing Support.
   

Employee Support Resources

1. If your employees purchased products on the Microsoft Store, they can view their order history using the Microsoft account at https://account.microsoft.com/services/.
   
2. If they purchased on www.microsofthup.com (now retired) and can no longer reach that site, then please ask them to review the FAQs on www.microsoft.com/homeuseprogram to find a link for how to request their order history.
   
3. Employee Support: https://support.microsoft.com/.
   

Thank you,
Microsoft Volume Licensing Services"

Whether you are successful or unsuccessful, please report back on what steps you took and what you were told.

Either way, in a month this very valuable offer is gone for good, so act quickly.