Helping organisations from SMB’s to Enterprises, charities to commercial, Microsoft 365 is available in many different licensing subscriptions and this article has been written to help you compare the different Enterprise options.
Microsoft 365 combines Office 365, Windows 11 and Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) providing selected offerings of each suite into two different groupings: Business and Enterprise. Microsoft 365 Business is aimed at organisations with fewer than 300 employees, while Enterprise is available to those with more than 300 employees, or organisations that wish to have advanced features. These combinations within Microsoft 365, give organisations access to a range of powerful productivity and security solutions and at a more cost-effective price than purchasing these products separately.
The Enterprise versions correlate nicely to their relevant suite versions:
In April 2024, Microsoft announced updates to how Microsoft 365 and Teams will be licensed for commercial organisations, with Teams Enterprise now being split out from the Microsoft 365 Enterprise licences. New commercial customers will no longer be able to purchase Teams included in the Microsoft 365 Enterprise licence. Instead, customers will now need to purchase two SKUs: Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 (no Teams) and Teams Enterprise. You can read more on this here.
Microsoft 365 Business is available in: Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium. In this article, we are focusing on the Enterprise editions but recommend the Microsoft Business comparison webpage to compare features, or the M365 Business Plan chooser to walk you through guided questions.
Note: It is useful to note than organisations can currently combine Business and Enterprise licences, however there is a 300 maximum limit for Business licences (i.e. 150 Business Standard and 150 Business Premium). If you go over 300, you will then need to purchase Enterprise licensing.
Image source: Microsoft
Microsoft 365 pricing has been a little more complex with the introduction of the New Commerce Experience (NCE). The NCE model means that organisations need to choose the term commitment, which affects pricing – choosing either annual or monthly commitments.
Monthly commitments give you the flexibility to increase and decrease seats as and when you need, but it comes with a 20% price premium for this luxury. Annual term commitment offers better pricing but means committing to a set number of seats for 12 months as your baseline but if you need to decrease the number of seats, you will have to still pay the set baseline. You can mix and match annual and monthly terms – i.e. choosing 100 annual seats but then getting 30 monthly seats for seasonal workers and fluctuations.
As of June 2024, the pricing for Microsoft 365 in £GBP ERP is:
Please note, pricing is subject to change from Microsoft.
The above graphic acts as an overview of key products and features but is not extensive of all features. We highly recommend viewing https://m365maps.com/ to see an extensive overview that is regularly updated.
As well as being able to purchase different Microsoft 365 versions, there are security and compliance add-ons available to enhance your base licensing functionality. These can only be added onto Microsoft 365 E3 and are aimed at companies that want to gain the advanced security and compliance tools within Microsoft 365 E5, but are not ready to make the leap in cost or do not require the Telephony and Power BI Pro licences included in E5. The two add-ons are:
If you’re starting your Microsoft 365 journey or looking to ensure you’ve rolled out all the features available, you may be interested in our Microsoft 365 implementation roadmap on-demand webinar showing our recommended implementation approach and best practices.
Today, many organisations are using Microsoft 365. Our main reasons why we recommend Microsoft 365 include:
If you have any questions around Microsoft 365 or you would like a review to ensure that you are paying for the most appropriate licensing and getting the full value from the solutions and features within it, please get in touch. We offer Microsoft 365 consultancy services to help organisations get the most from Microsoft 365.