What is Microsoft 365?
“Microsoft 365″ is the new name for Microsoft’s Office 365 subscription service. It includes everything Office 365 included with additional features. Microsoft 365 provides users with the basic productivity applications necessary to get work done in the modern enterprise. It includes applications like Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, OneNote, and OneDrive. As of April 21, 2020, Microsoft has officially changed the name of its productivity suite from Office 365 to Microsoft 365.
Microsoft 365 Plans :
Below list summarises the available Microsoft 365 plans,
Microsoft 365 for home plans
- Microsoft 365 Family
- Microsoft 365 Personal
Microsoft 365 for business plans
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium
- Microsoft 365 Apps for business
Microsoft 365 for enterprise plans
- Microsoft 365 E3
- Microsoft 365 E5
- Microsoft 365 F1
- Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise
One can choose any of the above subscriptions, and evaluate the product.
Office 365 vs Microsoft 365
Many Office 365 subscriptions automatically become Microsoft 365 subscriptions. No action is needed from the customer’s (end users) side. Note that if you are an existing Office 365 subscriber, you do not need to reinstall or purchase another subscription. You do not need to be connected to the internet to use Office apps, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, because the apps are fully installed on your computer. Also, note that there will not be any additional charges for the Microsoft 365 licenses if you already have Office 365 licenses. The below list summarises the various Office 365 editions and their equivalent Microsoft 365 editions.
- Office 365 Personal becomes Microsoft 365 Personal.
- Office 365 Home becomes Microsoft 365 Family.
- Office 365 Business Essentials becomes Microsoft 365 Business Basic
- Office 365 Business Premium becomes Microsoft 365 Business Standard
- Microsoft 365 Business becomes Microsoft 365 Business Premium
- Office 365 Business becomes Microsoft 365 Apps for business
- Office 365 ProPlus becomes Microsoft 365 Apps for the enterprise
There are no changes to the following Office 365 for enterprise plans, and you can get the plan as it is.
Office 365 E1
Office 365 E3
Office 365 E5
Microsoft 365 Home plans :
Microsoft 365 Family
With Microsoft 365 Family recommended for a family of 2 to 6 people. It provides up to 6TB of cloud storage, that’s 1TB per person. Allows creating inspiring documents with smart assistance features in Word, Excel & PowerPoint. Save up to 500,000 photos* & files with 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage (*assumes 2MB file size). Also provides an ad-free email and calendar experience with Outlook.
With an active Microsoft 365 Family subscription, you can share it with up to 5 members of your household. Each household member you share your subscription with can install Microsoft 365 on all their devices and sign in to 5 devices at the same time.
Microsoft 365 Personal
It has all the Microsoft 365 Family editions with additional features such as One Note. With Microsoft 365 Personal you can:
- Access smart assistance features, plus hundreds of premium templates, photos, icons, and fonts in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
- Save and share files and photos across devices with OneDrive
- Experience advanced security protection in OneDrive and Outlook
- Use the subscription on up to 5 devices at the same time
- Contact support via chat or phone at no extra cost throughout your subscription
Microsoft 365 for business plan
Microsoft 365 Business Basic
This plan includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Teams, Outlook, Exchange, OneDrive, and Sharepoint apps and services. This plan also includes the following features
- Chat, call, meet up to 300 attendees
- Web and mobile versions of Office apps
- 1 TB of cloud storage
- Business-class email
- Standard security
- Anytime phone and web support
Microsoft 365 Business Standard
It has all the features of the Microsoft Business Basic plan with additional apps & services and features. It includes Desktop versions of Office apps with premium features, Easily hosts webinars. Attendee registration and reporting tools and Manage customer appointments.
Access and Publisher are the additional apps and services included in this plan.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
It has all the features of the Microsoft Business Standard plan with additional apps & services and features such as Advanced security, Access, data control, and Cyber Threat protection. Intune and Cyber Threat protection are the additional apps and services included in this subscription.
Microsoft 365 Apps for business
This plan allows you to get access to Microsoft desktop apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more anywhere, anytime. You can also create, view, and edit your documents across different devices in real-time making it a perfect solution for all business needs. In other words, it has all the features of the Microsoft 365 Business Standard version without exchange and SharePoint. This Business package includes
- Get desktop versions of Office apps: Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote (plus Access and Publisher for PC only)
- Store and share files with 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage per user
- Use one license to cover fully installed Office apps on five mobile devices, five tablets, and five PCs or Macs per user
- Automatically update your apps with new features and capabilities every month
- Get help anytime with around-the-clock phone and web support from Microsoft
Microsoft 365 Enterprise plans
These plans are designed for Enterprise and Government organizations. Windows 365 Enterprise is for organizations that want to manage their Cloud PCs with Microsoft Endpoint Manager and take advantage of integrations with other Microsoft services, including Azure Active Directory and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. With your Windows 365 Cloud PC, the user can securely stream his Windows experience — including his personalized apps, content, and settings — from the Microsoft cloud to any device. Mainly it has three plans namely Microsoft 365 E3, E5, and F1. All the plans included with the below Apps & Services and features ( Note: Some are fully or partially included depending on the plan ) and are given below under different categories.
Microsoft 365 Apps – This includes Work, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote, Publisher, and Access.
Email and Calendar – Connect, stay organized, and manage your time with business-class email, calendaring, and contacts all in one place. This includes Outlook, Exchange, and Bookings
Meetings and Voice – Deliver elevated meeting experiences with sophisticated call functionality and a central hub for meetings, chat, content, and calling. This includes Microsoft Teams
Device and App Management – Help users be productive wherever they are while keeping corporate information secure. Flexible management and powerful security solutions let the organization deliver protected mobile experiences on any device. This includes Windows Operating System, Windows Autopilot, fine-tuned user experience, and Universal Print, Microsoft 365 Admin Center, Microsoft Intune, and Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager
Social and Intranet – Connect and engage across the organization with an intelligent, mobile intranet and enterprise social networking. This includes Sharepoint, Yammer, and Microsoft Viva connections.
Files and content – Access files from any device, at any time. Engage with intelligent video and create visually striking content in minutes. This includes Microsoft OneDrive for work, Microsoft lists, Microsoft forms, Microsoft streams, and Microsoft Sway,
Work Management – Efficiently manage work across individuals, teams, and organizations. Create and automate your business processes. This includes Power Apps for Microsoft 365, Power Automate for Microsoft 365, Power virtual agents for Teams, Dataverse for Teams, Microsoft Planner, and Microsoft Todo applications.
Advanced Analytics – Work smarter with personal and organizational productivity insights. Make fast, informed decisions with advanced analytical capabilities. This includes Microsoft Power BI Pro and Viva insights.
Identity and Access Management – Secure connections between people, devices, apps, and data. Increase your security and productivity with a single, holistic identity solution that gives you flexibility and control. This includes Windows Hello, Credential Guard, and Direct Access. Azure Active Directory Premium plan 1 or Azure Active Directory Premium Plan 2 depending on the enterprise plan.
Threat protection – Detect and investigate advanced threats, compromised identities, and malicious actions across your on-premises and cloud environments. Protect your organization with adaptive, built-in intelligence. This includes Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics, Microsoft Defender Antivirus and Device Guard, Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, and Microsoft Defender for Identity.
Information protection – Protect your sensitive data everywhere, even in motion and when shared. Gain visibility and control over how any file is being used with a comprehensive and integrated information protection solution. This includes services such as Data Loss Prevention for email and files, Windows Information Protection and BitLocker, Azure information protection and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps.
Security Management – Gain visibility into your cloud apps and services, build insights with sophisticated analytics, and control how your data travels so you can respond to and combat cyber threats. This includes the apps Microsoft secure score and Microsoft Security & Compliance Center.
Compliance Management – Assess compliance risks, govern and protect sensitive data, and respond to regulatory requirements. This include features such as
- Manual retention labels, content search, basic audit
- Basic org-wide or location-wide retention policies, Teams retention policies, core eDiscovery, litigation hold
- Rules-based automatic retention policies, machine learning-based retention, records management
- Advanced eDiscovery, advanced audit
- Insider Risk Management, communication compliance, information barriers, customer Lockbox, privileged access management, etc.
Finding your active subscriptions
In the above section, we have seen various Microsoft 365 plans and their included Apps and Services with the included features. Considering the requirement for his Organisation, the user can choose the Microsoft 365 plan and can register for buying the subscription. Also, Microsoft offers a convenient way of switching your plans from your existing plan through the Microsoft 365 admin center easily by purchasing a new plan using the “Purchase services” option. In this section using the Microsoft 365 admin center, an administrator can find the Organisation’s current plan and can find the various upgrade options.
Login to Microsoft 365 Admin Center using the Global administrator credentials. Under Billing → Your products → You can see your Microsoft product with active status.
Also, you can find the license details such as available licenses, assigned licenses under Billing → Licences. This will give a clear picture of the total licenses you have for the active products. The below screenshot shows you have Microsoft 365 Business Premium license and you are eligible to upgrade to a higher version.
Purchasing a new service from Microsoft 365 Admin Center
Microsoft 365 Admin Center purchase service offers you to buy your required Microsoft 365 plan from the Microsoft 365 admin center itself. If you already have a subscription and want to use the additional apps & services and features, you can easily purchase the required plan ( subscription ), and you can reassign the new subscription license to the existing users, and later you can remove the old subscription license.
Login to Microsoft 365 admin Center using the global administrator account. Under Billing → Purchase services, you can see all the available products to purchase. You can also view the products by their category. The below screenshot shows this page.
Here we have given steps for purchasing a new Microsoft 365 E3 subscription with 10 quantities. You may select the billing frequency per month or per year.
In the “Search all product categories” box type “Microsoft 365 E3” and it will show the results. The below screenshot shows this result. You can compare all of the three products by clicking the three products and compare button.
Also on clicking Details of each product, a new page will appear with the product details, where you can have the option to buy the product. Here we have chosen the product Microsoft 365 E3, and click Details to the next step.
Here you can provide the no of licenses to be purchased and the billing frequency ( either monthly or yearly ). You could also see the “Start free trial” button if you opt for a Microsoft 365 free trial. This Microsoft 365 ree trial includes 25 licenses for a month. Click the Buy button to proceed. This will go to the Checkout page.
Before checkout the product, it is recommended to set up a payment method in the Billing → Payment methods section. Once you complete all the details, you can click the “Place Order” button on the right side of the screen to finish purchasing the required product. Any subscriptions begin immediately, and billing starts with your next monthly invoice. Now you purchased a subscription, and it will be listed under the Billing → Your products section.
Conclusion :
Microsoft 365 combines the power of cloud computing with a full suite of mobile apps, making it easier for employees to stay productive while traveling, on-site, or working remotely. Microsoft 365’s communication and collaboration tools allow your employee base to collaborate effectively with one another as well as with external partners. Office 365 is paid for on a per-user, per-month basis, like a subscription. The cost of your license depends on the level of functionality you choose for your business, and this will reduce the overall cost. Also setting up Microsoft 365 subscription is a straightforward approach, so an average knowledge person can set it up easily.
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