What are the real differences between the types of Office 365 plans?
There are 4 broad types of Office 365 plans and choosing between them isn’t as simple as it may appear from their descriptions.
Home
This group of options is more comparable to the traditional Microsoft Office Suite (now up to Office 2013) that we are all familiar with. While you can still buy standalone versions of Microsoft Office 2013 with different components (such as Access), the Office 365 Home plans include some internet based features such as OneDrive that are not available in the standalone plans. There is an Office 365 Home plan for individuals and one for families. For individuals you can install on a single PC plus a single tablet but the family licence can be installed on up to 5 PCs or Macs and up to 5 tablets. The Office 365 Home plans include Outlook, but don’t include Exchange or any other communication or collaboration features.
Small Business
These plans include all the familiar components listed above, but also include additional features such as Exchange Online, Sharepoint Online, Lync Online and OneDrive for Business – all fully integrated. You are however limited to just 25 users and there are a number of Enterprise grade features missing that some small businesses may need such as Active Directory integration (see below for details).
Mid-Sized Business
This plan is designed to bridge the gap between the Small Business Plans and Enterprise plans by allowing up to 300 users instead of 25. It also includes some advanced features such as Active Directory integration and Business Intelligence Tools (Power BI) however it doesn’t include the other Enterprise grade features listed below and transitioning from Mid-Sized to Enterprise is not as easy as you might expect if you grow beyond 300 users.
Enterprise
These are the most comprehensive plans with no user limits and features that may be needed by businesses of any size, not just Enterprises. These additional features include:
- Active Directory Integration
- Archiving and legal hold capabilities for email
- Compliance tools that allow you to search across Sharepoint sites and Exchange mailboxes
- Advanced Voice Features such as voicemail and auto-attendant capabilities
- Enterprise social networking
- Business Intelligence Capabilities through Power BI
What are the key things to consider in choosing a plan?
Microsoft has published a great comparison tool for all their Office 365 business plans, but every business will have different requirements so it helps to discuss your options with us before you make any decisions. There are some obvious considerations to help you narrow down the choices.
Are you likely to grow beyond 25 or 300 users?
Consider the Mid-Sized and Enterprise Plans.
Do you already have stand-alone versions of Office?
Consider the plans without desktop Office 2013 licences included - Small Business and Enterprise E1.
Do you need to be able to edit Word, Excel and Powerpoint docs on tablets or smartphones?
Consider the top plans in each category – Small Business Premium, Midsize, Enterprise E3 and Enterprise E4.
Do you need active directory integration?
Consider the Mid-Sized and Enterprise Plans.
Do you need advanced email and search capabilities?
Consider the Enterprise plans only.
If we choose the wrong Office 365 plan, can we change plans?
Changing across the four broad plan categories above can be challenging as there are different ways of setting up the program and this needs to be taken into consideration with any change. You can change plans within the category as needed although you need to consider that shifting plans may also mean losing features that someone may be using. If you have less than 300 users, there is a Switch Plans Wizard in your admin centre to help - however when it comes to licencing and fees, there are a number of rules and considerations that can be confusing to understand. We can explain your options in more detail depending on your situation.
Can we use any existing copies of Microsoft Office that we have?
You can use existing copies of Office 2010, Office 2013 or Office 2011 for Mac with Office 365. Office 2007 has slightly limited functionality so any earlier versions will need to be upgraded.
In deciding whether to use your existing Office licences, rather than buying a plan with desktop licences, you need to consider the type of Office licence you have. If you have OEM licences (bought with a new PC) or used a Product Key Card to upgrade a preinstalled starter or trial copy of Office, then these licences can’t be transferred to a new PC. That means if those PCs are nearing the end of their life, you will have to buy a new Office licence anyway therefore you should think about an Office 365 plan with a desktop licence instead. Once you are using an Office 365 desktop licence, future product upgrades will be included which can be a significant saving.
Some of our users have desktop versions of Office and others don’t. Can I combine Office 365 plans with and without desktop versions of Office 2013 to save money?
The short answer is that you can.
- You can run Outlook through Office 365 and maintain the desktop version
- You can install the full Office 365 and run the two instances of the office suite in parallel.
This means if you have a number of people with existing standalone copies of a compatible version of Office (see above) then you could purchase an Office 365 plan without a desktop licence for them (saving money) and just purchase plans with a desktop licence for new staff or those that don’t already have Office.
If at some point in the future, you decide you need to upgrade those users without a desktop licence plan, then you can simply upgrade the individual licences as needed.
How do I migrate all my existing email, calendar, contacts and documents to Office 365?
It really depends on what system you are migrating from. There are some tools and a number of documents available that can guide you through this process but it can be time consuming and risky to do it yourself. If you absolutely can’t afford to have data lost in the migration, then the best option is to use a certified provider such as Datacom to help.
Are there any differences between keeping my existing version of Exchange in my data centre or Hosted Exchange and Office 365?
All the things you are familiar with in an on-premise version of Exchange continue as is, you just need to manage the upgrade cycle etc yourself.
In the days before Office 365, Hosted Exchange was a cost effective way for a business to implement an email service without the need for onsite hardware and software. Different service providers like Datacom offer their own copies of Microsoft Exchange, with different features, configurability options and Service Level Agreements depending on the expertise of the provider and what they can support. Datacom can still provide Hosted Exchange as an option, delivered from our infrastructure based in Australia.
Office 365 includes Exchange Online which is effectively a Hosted Exchange service, but one run by Microsoft themselves. These centres offer high availability, robust security and there are no question marks over expertise. The service is provided through a world-wide network of data centres with Singapore servicing the ANZ marketplace.
What is Datacom’s Office 365 adoption process?
Our Professional Services team will provide a tailored cloud adoption solution suited to your business. The high level steps in a cloud migration are:
- Gathering of Requirements (including architecture, business, functional and non-functional requirements) through workshops, facilitated sessions and discovery tools
- Design phase – Using identified requirements as inputs, our consultants design a tailored cloud solution. This includes technical designs, implementation plans & migration planning
- Testing/Proof of Concept – Datacom can rapidly provision cloud services to test and prove the designs
- Implementation & build phase – Taking all of the previous steps and learning points, we implement the solution
- Migration – We formulate the migration strategy that suits your business needs and implement it with our proven methods
- Post migration – We can decommission your old infrastructure, provide documentation, and perform handover to your IT team or alternatively we can support the cloud services through Datacom’s Managed Services offerings.
What’s the difference between OneDrive and OneDrive for Business?
There is a lot of confusion between these two services, formerly referred to as SkyDrive and SkyDrive Pro. OneDrive is free cloud storage designed for personal use and provided with a Microsoft or Outlook.com account.
OneDrive for Business is provided with Office 365 and is used for business purposes such as sharing and collaborating on documents with your colleagues. Each user currently receives 25GB of space with OneDrive for Business - however that is due to rise to 1TB per user in the next few months.
What are the key things I should consider in choosing a cloud based productivity solution?
The most common comparison we get asked about for businesses considering a move to Office 365 is Google Apps. There are a lot of technical considerations beyond the core features and benefits that should be explored before making a decision – too much to cover here in an FAQ.
How does Datacom ensure the project is successful?
Datacom Professional Services has an enviable track record in project delivery. Each Professional Services team has project managers embedded within the delivery teams as close collaboration with the consultants and engineers is the key to ensuring project success.
Issues are called out early and rectified before they become a problem. We keep the lines of communication honest and provide fixed cost engagements to manage expenditure. All of our project managers follow the Prince 2 methodology for Project Management.
Why choose Datacom Professional Services for Office 365?
Datacom is a multi-award winning service provider; we understand what Office 365 offers to a business and how it relates. We see IT as a business transformation tool allowing your company to focus on what is important with Office 365 being an enabler.
We can provide the following services for Office 365:
- Office 365 demonstrations and consultancy – we can rapidly demonstrate to your business the value of Office 365
- Assessment services - is your infrastructure and business ready for Office 365?
- Licensing procurement and advice
- Migration services – whether it is 10 mailboxes or all of your data
- Transition services for Exchange , Lync and SharePoint – we know how to go from legacy on premise applications to Office 365 in the best way possible
- Designs & Consultancy – we have skilled consultants to help you assess and adopt Office 365
- Managed Services – Datacom have a proven track record in managed services; we can administer and maintain your Office365 tenancy letting you get on with your business.