On October 1, 2014 Microsoft launched three new plans for Office 365. These three new plans for Office 365 are launched keeping the requirements of small and mid-sized businesses in mind.
Just two weeks back Microsoft had released new features in Office 365 for business public roadmap. After this, releasing some more features for small and mid-sized businesses; is certainly a commendable step. Regarding these new plans for Office 365, Microsoft mentions,
“On October 1, 2014, we will release three new Office 365 plans tailored to meet the needs of small and midsized businesses (SMBs), ranging from 1 to approximately 250 employees.”
What happens to the existing plans
Microsoft has considered the requirements of existing customers as well. Regarding the existing customers Microsoft says:
“This new lineup will replace our current plans for SMBs over time – Small Business, Small Business Premium and Midsize Business. Our policy is to provide 12 months’ notice for any changes to a customer’s core subscription, therefore as an existing customer you have no required action to take regarding your Office 365 subscription until your first renewal after October 1, 2015.”
Office 365 new plans
The three new plans for Office 365 are as follows:
- Office 365 Business: This plan consists of a complete set of Office applications which can be installed locally. These include Publisher, OneNote, PowerPoint, Outlook, Word and Excel. The installation can be done for up to 5 PCs, Macs, Smartphones or iPads. The plan comes with 1 TB of free OneDrive for Business cloud storage. However, the plan doesn’t include online SharePoint, Lync or Exchange. Office 365 Business is a combination of software and storage that users can get as a subscription. The plan will cost you $8.25 per user per month, or $99 per year.
- Office 365 Business Essentials: Out of the three new plans for Office 365, this is the second plan. This plan consists of Exchange Online, Lync online, video conferencing, instant messaging, online meetings as well as SharePoint Online. With this plan, users get 1 TB of free OneDrive for Business cloud storage. The users can also avail social-networking support from Yammer. However, with Office 365 Business Essentials you won’t get Office apps which can be downloaded. For this plan, you need to pay $5 per user per month, or $60 per year.
- Office 365 Business Premium: This is the last plan in the new plans for Office 365. The plan will cost you $12.50 per user per month, or $150 per year. You can install all the local Office applications on up to 5 PCs. You get features such as SharePoint online, Lync Online, Exchange online as well as social networking support from Yammer. Besides, users will also get 1 TB free OneDrive for Business cloud storage.
You can see the breakdown of various features offered by these new plans for Office 365 in the following table:
As the next step to this new addition, Microsoft mentioned in their official blog that they will share more details about this announcement in the next week at the Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington D.C.
