Microsoft 365
Do you know the differences between the Microsoft 365 products available?
If you are a small or medium business and use Microsoft Office products, such as Outlook, Word, Excel and Powerpoint, then you probably already have a subscription for Microsoft Office. But which version do you have?
The standard subscription provides the ability to install the desktop applications onto your PC or Mac. However, with a Microsoft 365 Business subscription you get a range of cloud-based services that can complement your business and may even allow you to replace your on-premise server (if you have one) to save costs in power, maintenance and support. The cloud-based services include Exchange Online (a fully featured Email and Scheduling service), SharePoint Online (a complete file storage and workflow system which forms the backend to Microsoft Teams) and OneDrive to provide you with ample cloud storage.
The Plans that are available from Microsoft or your Microsoft Partner are:
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic
- This includes only the Cloud-based Microsoft 365 services of Exchange Online for email and calendar, SharePoint Online for collaboration plus Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Office Online.
- This is equivalent to what was Office 365 Business Standard
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard
- This includes the Cloud-based Microsoft 365 services of Exchange Online for email and calendar, SharePoint Online for collaboration plus Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Office Online.
- Plus it includes the desktop Microsoft Office 2019 suite including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Publisher.
- This is equivalent to what was Office 365 Business Enhanced.
- Microsoft 365 Business Enhanced
- This includes everything in Microsoft 365 Business Standard, plus a range of enhanced security features, such as:
- Azure Active Directory P1
- Advanced Threat Protection
- This is equivalent to what was Microsoft 365 Business.
- This includes everything in Microsoft 365 Business Standard, plus a range of enhanced security features, such as:
We would highly recommend you consider Microsoft 365 Business Enhanced for your business if you would like control over your data and user access, especially to restrict who can access the cloud and from where, plus ATP includes Azure Rights Management to help you control confidential documents being shared across the Internet and Windows Defender anti-virus for your Windows 10 PC.
Subscribing to a Microsoft 365 plan though a Microsoft Partner will take the uncertainty out of the setup and support, as they will help you get the right product and install it to work seamlessly with your current system and even help you migrate your data. Don’t forget, your Microsoft Partner can also provide you with ongoing technical support too.