Table of Content:     1. New Office Download    2. Licensing Information    3. Marketing Activities    4. Marketing Material    5. Readiness and Trainings        6. Other News

On October 29, 2012 the final "bits" of the new Office were released and have been made available to our Software Assurance (SA) customers. Since that date all on-premise products including Office, SharePoint, Lync, Exchange, Visio and Project have been available to your customers on the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC).

However, the new Office is not only available for your customers but also for you.

1. Download the new Office:

You can download, install, test and use the new Office from:

• License Benefits of the Microsoft Partner Network
• TechNet
• MSDN

The volume licenses of the on-premise products of the new Office will be available on the corresponding price lists as of December 1, 2012. You can start selling the new office from then on.

2. Licensing Information

The new Office SKU Pricing Guide is now available on Explore.ms and as part of the Get Licensing News on MPN. The new User CAL Pricing will also take effect December 1, 2012 (device CAL pricing is unchanged). Learn more about the CAL licensing here.

Review the new Office and Office 365 FPP overview deck and the frequently asked question document.

3. Marketing Activities

Campaign

• Das neue Office – medienübergreifende Kampagne (Deutsch)
• Le nouvel Office – paquet de campagne (francais)
• Office 365 BEST: Office 365 BEST Campaign is the single, evergreen campaign for everything Office in SMB

Case Studies Collection
Case studies have proven to be a valuable tool to communicate the value and benefits of the Office platform and to showcase your competencies to business decision makers. Therefore, we are reaching out to you with this call for case studies. We are looking for interesting case studies that demonstrate the business value and innovation of the new Office platform that your customers have realized together with your support. Therefore, we are reaching out to you with this call for case studies. We are looking for interesting case studies that demonstrate the business value and innovation of the new Office platform that your customers have realized together with your support. We are planning to create a Case Studies Collection that will have both physical and digital aspects. Get all the details about the Case Studies Collection and the details for participating.

4. Marketing Material

• Downloads from the Swiss Partner Marketing Factory: Presentations, Flyers etc. (Deutsch / Francais)
• Downloads from the German Partner Marketing Center: Deutsch
• Downloads from the US MPN Site: English

5. Readiness and Trainings

Ignite Trainings

Distribution Bootcamps

6. Other News

Windows Live ID™ Becomes Microsoft Account:

As our consumer products embrace the cloud, it's increasingly important to have one simple and secure identity to enable your experience. We call that your Microsoft account. Formerly known as Windows Live ID™, we renamed it Microsoft account to be in line with our consumer offerings and a recognition that this is the consumer account system for all of Microsoft.

What is a Microsoft Account?

A Microsoft account is the way you sign in - with an email address and password - to services like Hotmail, Messenger, SkyDrive, Xbox LIVE, or Outlook.com as well as products including Windows 8 PCs, Windows Phone and Xbox. This was formerly known as a Windows Live ID™. If you use one of these services, or use Windows Phone or Windows 8, or have ever made a purchase from Microsoft online, you probably already have a Microsoft account. For more information on this topic, check out this video we put together with the Microsoft store to help customers.

Get Ready: New Office On Prem VL Milestones Coming Soon!

In November and December there are a number of ways for business customers to get access to the on premise VL new Office products:

• Volume Licensing customers with Software Assurance will be able to download the Office 2013 applications as well as other Office products including SharePoint 2013, Lync 2013 and Exchange 2013 through the Volume Licensing Service Center by mid-November.
• The above products will be available on the Volume Licensing price list on December 1.
• IT professionals and developers will be able to download the final version via their TechNet or MSDN subscriptions by mid-November.

The blog post containing this content is here.

Office for Windows RT

• Office for Windows RT Blog Post
• Introducing Office Home & Student 2013 RT Preview