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An open laptop displays the Microsoft 365 logo, along with ten other Microsoft app logos. In the background, a large Microsoft logo is on the wall above a modular couch in what appears to be an office lobby.

What to Know About OIT's New Microsoft Licensing Automation

Submitted by crei1741
on
 

On June 16, OIT is rolling out a more transparent, predictable and user-friendly experience for faculty, staff, students and others whose eligibility for campus-provided Microsoft services has changed.

In May 2025, OIT's first wave of Microsoft licensing automation focused primarily on building out the technical infrastructure for this second wave of improvements. On June 16, we will fully automate the process by which we assign, adjust and remove Microsoft licenses for campus users, including deleting data for users who are no longer eligible for Microsoft OneDrive and/or CU Boulder email.

This multi-phase automation initiative is intended to ensure that faculty, staff, students and affiliates are consistently and efficiently assigned the appropriate Microsoft license for their role in line with existing campus policy. These improvements support the campus's objectives to foster operational excellence and responsibly steward campus resources.

What to Expect

Most current CU Boulder students, faculty, staff and affiliates already have the appropriate CU Boulder-provided Microsoft license for their role and will not receive any communication or experience any service changes due to this automation.

However, those experiencing a role change—such as graduating, changing jobs or leaving CU Boulder—will benefit from a more guided and transparent process. Anyone whose Microsoft access needs to be adjusted will receive timely, targeted email notifications explaining what's changing, how it may affect them and when it will occur.

These communications will also provide links to relevant self-service resources, including:

  • OIT's Microsoft license comparison tool (coming soon), which allows users to directly compare which Microsoft services and applications are gained, adjusted or lost when changing from one license type to another.
  • OIT's digital offboarding and data preservation page, which provides clear guidance to help departing employees, former students, retirees and new graduates preserve important files from their campus-provided Microsoft OneDrive and/or CU Boulder email account.

This structured communication approach is intended to alleviate the uncertainty users experienced in the past and make it easier for the campus community to plan ahead for changes to their Microsoft access.

Additional Resources

If you would like to learn more about this project, including the different Microsoft license types, communication timelines and impacts to specific user groups, please visit the Microsoft Licensing Automation Project webpage.