With its creation of Office 365, Microsoft has truly attempted to make a program that has something to offer everyone. It comes with multiple service bundles for personal users and businesses alike. However, due to our target audience and professional focus on cloud business solutions, we will concentrate on business plans. There are six plans total for business-oriented Office 365 users, enough to be able to choose something fitting for your company, but also enough to feel overwhelmed and unsure of just which option is the right one. If you are currently caught in this dilemma, we’ve composed this article to help you distinguish between plans.
The Enterprise Plans
Microsoft’s Enterprise Plans are perhaps the most comprehensive. They are meant to cater to large businesses. As such, all three plans underneath the Enterprise umbrella offer not only complete 24/7 computer support, but the ability to add as many people to your plan as you need. Plans under this umbrella include:
- E5 is the newest plan available to Office 365 users as well as the replacement service for E4. If you sign up for this plan, you will receive every available feature as well as brand new ones across every category. For security, the E5 plan comes with such features as Safe Attachments. Established features will come with bonus compatibility and productivity enhancements, like Meeting Broadcast. With all of its features, the E5 plan is also the most expensive. You’ll be paying $35/user/month, or $420/user/year.
- E3, the second largest plan available to businesses. You receive the full productivity suite for your smart devices and PC, Access and Office Online; Yammer, Sharepoint, Lync, Exchange and cloud storage of up to 1 TB, as well as a number of “advanced” features, such as early access to new Office 365 features, greater security measures and more. For this package, you pay $20/user/month.
- E1 only grants you access to Office Online, every element of Microsoft’s standard Office 365 package and only a few advanced components. This package costs $8/user/month.
- ProPlus is the simplest plan under the Enterprise umbrella. You receive the entire Office suite, cloud storage space and a few advanced features. You pay $12/user/month for this plan.
The Business Plans
Microsoft’s Business Plans, for all intents and purposes, are far better suited to smaller businesses. These plans offer computer support but only for the most severe of IT-related issues. Additionally, this plan only extends to a total of 300 people. None of these plans include Access as part of your suite bundle. They all offer integration of your business’s Active Directory. Plans under the Business group include:
- Business Premium, the business section’s largest plan. For $12.50/user/month, you receive Office Online, the PC version of the Office suite and matching mobile versions, as well as all of the standard components.
- Business Essentials offers many of the same features as the Business Premium plan. However, users only receive Office Online, rather than the full suite. This plan costs $5/user/month.
- The most bare bones of plans, the Business plan gives you the full productivity suite, cloud storage and integration of your Active Directory. This all comes at a price of $8.25/user/month.
At Single Point of Contact, we make it our priority to help companies find the best customized cloud business solutions to suit their particular needs. If you still need help deciding between Office 365 plans or are curious about any other IT business service or program, we are here to help you. Contact us to learn more about what we do.
