Get Your Workforce Aligned with Microsoft 365
SoftwareONE’s 365Simple will help your team adopt these new features and functionalities quickly, allowing your organization to enjoy the benefits in no time.
Discover 365SimpleOn March 31st, 2020, Microsoft announced they would move away from standalone Office 365 licensing and start to align the licensing plans for SMB customers with up to 300 users solely to their complete solution, Microsoft 365. On April 21st, they began automatically rolling out these changes across every user with an existing Office 365 deployment.
If you use Office 365 applications on a regular basis, you may have already noticed that upon startup, the old Office 365 logo shifted to the logo of Microsoft 365. However, you may not understand exactly how these new offerings will change the way you work. Let’s take a closer look at what these changes mean for you.
For Microsoft customers, there are several benefits to making this transition. First, the add-ons and programs within a Microsoft 365 deployment will help home and business users work more effectively within a single suite of products. This way, they won’t need to rely on an ensemble of fragmented applications from different providers.
Additionally, the previous SKU system used an unclear tier-system for Microsoft products. For example, the mid-price offering for small-to-medium businesses was called “Office 365 Business Premium,” but the premium tier for small-to-medium businesses was called “Microsoft 365 Business.” This didn’t just create a confusing sales pitch, it muddied how customers understood Microsoft’s offerings.
To help create this alignment in Microsoft’s SKU system, licensing for SMB customers (meaning companies with up to 300 users) will be subject to new naming conventions whereas licensing plans for Small Medium Corporate or Enterprise accounts stay untouched. According to Microsoft, the following name changes will take place. ?
Don’t worry – with your upgrade to Microsoft 365, you won’t lose any of the Office features or applications that you’ve grown to love, nor will you be forced to pay more for an upgraded service. Instead, you will simply enjoy a range of new apps and capabilities. Here are a few new add-ons and capabilities that Microsoft 365 users will be able to enjoy.
In addition to this, users that upgraded from Office 365 will now enjoy a few programs and applications that they may not have had access to in their initial plans.
With an upgrade to Microsoft 365, your organization will experience a whole new suite of services and capabilities that improve user productivity while enabling a higher degree of collaboration. This change is quite timely as the coronavirus outbreak has highlighted the business value behind remote collaboration.
However, keep in mind that while these new applications provide a range of benefits, they may create a few challenges. For instance, organizations may find that these new services have created unintended redundancies, therefore making a software audit advantageous. On the other hand, some organizations may struggle to encourage employee adoption of these new solutions. You should begin thinking about how the update to Microsoft 365 will affect your workforce and software environment in the long-term – this forethought will help you enjoy all of the new, exciting capabilities for years to come.
SoftwareONE’s 365Simple will help your team adopt these new features and functionalities quickly, allowing your organization to enjoy the benefits in no time.
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Leave a commentTony Mackelworth
Head of Microsoft Advisory
Cloud, Digital Transformation, Licensing, Software Procurement Services