Office 365 for Business becomes Microsoft 365 Business
On Tuesday April 21, Microsoft made 2 significant adjustments to Office 365 for SME’s and also to their personal Office subscription products.
Office 365 Home and Office 365 personal were scrapped. There were replaced by Microsoft 365 Family and Microsoft 365 Personal. More on these products later.
The other big news was a change in name for the Office 365 Business bundles and Office 365 Pro Plus. The name changes are as follows:
- Office 365 Business Essentials will become Microsoft 365 Business Basic
- Office 365 Business Premium will become Microsoft 365 Business Standard
- Microsoft 365 Business will become Microsoft 365 Business Premium
- Office 365 Business and Office 365 ProPlus will both become Microsoft 365 Apps. Where necessary the labels “for business” and “for enterprise” will be used to distinguish between the two
If you subscribe to any of these services, the new product names will appear on your next invoice from PS Tech
If you subscribe to any of the following Enterprise, Education, Firstline Worker or Government plans, then the names of these services will remain unchanged:
Office 365 for Enterprise
- Office 365 E1
- Office 365 E3
- Office 365 E5
Office 365 for Firstline Workers
- Office 365 F1
Office 365 for Education
- Office 365 A1
- Office 365 A3
- Office 365 A5
Office 365 for Government
- Office 365 G1
- Office 365 G3
- Office 365 G5
Why the name change?
Microsoft have had the Microsoft 365 brand running for a while now, and the Business, E3 and E5 plans included the appropriate edition of Office 365 in addition to the security and device management features that M365 offers over and above Office 365. There are 2 main reasons Microsoft have given for this name change:
Simplification – Bring these key products under one brand name will make it easier for our customers to quickly choose the right product for them and their business
Product feature recognition – As a Microsoft Partner, we have spent a lot of time explaining how Microsoft 365 differs from Office 365. Now, with the new tiered naming, this will be much simpler for us! Also, the features in the traditional desktop ‘Office apps’ such as Word, Excel, Outlook etc, have been enhanced with cloud based AI, and existing cloud based apps such as Teams, Forms, Stream etc now integrate better than ever with their desktop counterparts. A unified Microsoft 365 set of plans and features now brings together the common services that underpin these tools we are all using.
Will the price change?
Microsoft have not introduced any price changes to the products already mentioned.
Is Office 365 disappearing?
No, Office 365 has only had its name changed to Microsoft 365. In the case of Office 365 Enterprise plans, there will be no name changes.
Summary
Microsoft have released a blog article with some other details around this name change. You can read more here:
New Microsoft 365 Offerings For Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
Name Change for Office 365 ProPlus
Microsoft 365 Personal and for Families
To quote Microsoft – “Office 365 Personal/Home is now Microsoft 365 Personal/Family. New name, more benefits, same price.”
Existing Office 365 Personal or Office 365 Home subscribers will see their subscription name change in their Microsoft Account from April 21st 2020.
Office 365 Personal becomes Microsoft 365 Personal
Office 365 Home becomes Microsoft 365 Family
In additional to the Office software suite, OneDrive, Premium Outlook.com security features and Skype minutes, 2 new features have also been announced with the new product names:
- Microsoft Family Safety app
- New Teams features to allow families and friends to be closer and collaborate better
Microsoft 365 Family has been extended so that 6 family members can benefit from the tools and features included in your subscription, including 1Tb of storage for each family member (6Tb total)
The prices have remained the same:
Microsoft 365 Personal – £5.99 per month or £59.99 per year
Microsoft 365 Family – £7.99 per month or £79.99 per year
You can read more about the changes and each product here:
Introducing the new Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions
Please get in touch with PS Tech if you have any questions about this announcement
