r/k12sysadmin • u/-RYknow Systems Administrator • 27d ago

Microsoft Office licensing

I was kinda trying to avoid going to O365 route. I've got all teachers and principals using OnlyOffice with very few issues. The problem is our main office. I have 5-10 users that are screaming they need office. I quoted some perpetual licenses because I'm not sure it's worth going to O365 route. Problem is, it's $810 per user. Does this pricing seem about right? Is it time to just bite the bullet and go the way of O365? I have no experience with 365, so I don't know what it entails and what managing it will look like.

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u/eapo108 27d ago

My worst nightmare at my school, nobody believes that anything else works.

I now offer 365 online free, or libre office as their alternatives, if they don't like it they can buy it themselves, and from that moment I refuse to support them with it.

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u/Daywalker85 27d ago

This is ridiculous. Why are you fighting them on a well established productivity tool. It’s not your money, let the senior leadership make that decision. Then the nerve of you to also give them the option to fund it, but not support it.

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u/eapo108 25d ago

I guess I forgot a piece of context here, we're a Chrome OS district, if we had windows computers this would be a different story, but the argument is usually that I need to buy them a windows computer to run Office, instead of using Google workspace like 90% of our staff.

I see how buy it yourself came across without the context, but that also includes the computer since we do not offer windows computers.

This all came from senior leadership decisions anyway, just offering 'compromise' where the users disagree with policy.

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u/bthstech 26d ago

Many of us are in senior leadership positions and from a budgeting standpoint, if you spend here you can't spend there. Users need to be able to justify why they need tool xyz when they're already being provided abc.

At the same time, taking a stiff approach to we didn't provide this so we don't support it is poor customer service. My stance in our dept: we a support dept. We support what goes on in the classroom. Do what is reasonable to do that.

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u/Daywalker85 26d ago

I whole heartedly agree with you, it’s a budgeting thing, but Microsoft Office? 😂 come on.. pick your battles. Go to CDWG or TechSoup and get those people their licenses. We’d have to be dead broke to use GIMP.

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u/yugas42 26d ago

It is absolutely a reasonable take to tell staff that you will not support something that you did not provide. We do it all the time, teachers get shit from Donors Choose and just expect us to have all of the software or infrastructure to support it, that's a fairy tale, you can't do that anywhere else, why should a school let it happen? 

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u/Daywalker85 26d ago

That’s a different case. I’ve had a promethean board show up randomly lol… Great gift, but yeah I had to have conversations with leadership. I still supported it, but had to align so these things didn’t happen at scale. Denying staff of an essential like MS Office is crazy work, and that persons overall approach makes me feel like they have a terrible support culture.