Microsoft Refreshes Office 365 SMB Plans

Microsoft is refreshing its Office 365 subscriptions for SMBs, claiming the new plans will bring greater choice, value and flexibility when they are introduced on 1 October.

The three new plans for the cloud-based office suite are designed for business with between one and 250 employees, although the maximum number of users is 300, and will replace Microsoft’s existing SMB plans – Office 365 Small Business, Small Business Premium and Midsize Business.

Office 365 Business costs $8.25 (£4.81) per user per month and brings the full complement of Office applications, including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Publisher, along with 1TB of OneDrive storage and online versions of applications for collaboration.

Office 365 SMB refresh

Business Essentials is $5 (£2.92) a month per subscription and offers what Microsoft describes as the “core cloud services for business”, including email, calendars and contacts as well as online Office applications, instant messaging and video through Lync and SharePoint and Yammer for collaboration.

Office 365 Business Premium includes all of the above for $12.50 (£7.30) per month per user, and Microsoft promises that companies will have the ability to move plans or even upgrade to an enterprise plan should the need arise.

Existing Office 365 subscribers don’t have to do anything until 1 October 2015 and will be free to use and add users to their plans until they renew their contract. Until then, Office 365 Small Business and Small Business Premium customers will see their user limit increased to 300 users while Midsize Business customers will see their cost per user fall from $15 to $12.50.

Earlier this year, Microsoft released Office iPad applications for Office 365 subscribers, while it has also launched personal subscriptions for individuals, costing $6.99 (£4.08) per month.

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