If your business is large enough, it is quite possible that you will require many licenses to procure for your end users.  Getting them in bulk, or even using just a couple of licenses on many wireless devices and/or computers is known as “Volume Licensing”.  In this article, we examine some ways in which you can do this straight from your M365 Administrative Center.

Assigning The End Users For Volume Licensing

To get started with the management of Volume Licensing, you first need to take a look at your employee roster in your M365 subscription, and from there, decide who will need to have licenses assigned them.  To do this, follow these steps:

1. Log into the Admin Center, at this link: https://admin.microsoft.com/
2. Once you are logged in, follow these steps:
   • Go to the “Navigation Menu”.
   • Select “Billing”, then “Your Product”
   • Then hover over to “Volume Licensing”.

This is illustrated below:

(SOURCE:  1).

3. When the “Role Assignments” page appears, follow these steps:
   • Select “Assign Users To Contracts”.
   • Or select “Manage VL Role Assignments”.

From here, you then decide what Volume Licensing Role the assigned employees will have.  This can be seen in the matrix below:

The VL Role	The Role In The Admin Center	What They Can Do
The Administrator	The Administrator	“Can assign and remove VL user permissions. Can perform all actions granted to other VL roles.”
The Licensing Information Viewer	The Licensing Information Viewer	“Can view contract details, orders, and contract keys, and create license summaries.”
The Download	The Product Manager	“Can view contracts and download licensed Microsoft software products.”
The Product Keys	The Product Key Reader	“Can view contracts and contract keys, manage activation and redemption of online services, and view keys on the Products and services page.”
The Software Assurance Manager	The Product Keys Reader	“Can view contracts and manage Home Use Program Software Assurance entitlements.”
The Online Services Manager	The Online Services Manager	“Can view contracts and orders, reserve services, manage activation and redemption of online services.”
	The Invoice Reader	“Can view contracts, the list of invoices, and can download invoices.“

(SOURCE:  2).

 Managing The End Users For Volume Licensing

Once you have assigned the end users their Volume Licensing roles, the next step is managing them appropriately, so that one person does not have any more rights, privileges, and permission than what is absolutely needed.  All of this can be done from the “Manage Assignments” page when you log into the Admin Center. The matrix below describes the status that the end users have if they have been assigned Volume Licensing:

Status	Description
Active	The end user already has Volume Licensing assigned to them.
Assignment In Progress	The Volume Licensing is currently in the process of being assigned to the end user.
Failed	The assignment of the Volume Licensing to the end user has failed.
Invitation Sent	The Volume Licensing has been assigned to the end user, but they have not accepted it yet.
Invitation Expired	The time for the end user to accept Volume Licensing Invitation has expired.
User Not Found	The end user is not in the tenant of your M365 subscription.

Editing And / Or Removal Of The End Users For Volume Licensing

Once you have assigned the Volume Licensing Roles that have been assigned to your end users, and have been able to access their status, it may come to the point down the road that you will either want further to edit those roles, or delete them out entirely from your M365 subscription. To do this, follow the steps below:

1. Log into the Admin Center, at this link: cloud.microsoft
2. Once you are logged in, follow these steps:
   1. Go to the “Navigation Menu”.
   2. Select “Billing”.
   3. Then hover over to “Manage CL Role Assignments”.

3. Find the end user that you want to further edit and/or delete and follow these steps:
   1. Select “View Access”.
   2. Select the “Volume Licensing Roles” option.
   3. A drop-down list will now appear for the end user that you want to edit and/or delete.
   4. Select or clear the check boxes for the roles you want to add or remove.

Conclusions

If you need help with any aspect of the Volume Licensing process, contact us today.

Sources

1. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/vlsc-faqs-home-page
2. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/commerce/licenses/user-roles-faq?view=o365-worldwide