Chapter 1: Licensing Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 is a suite of productivity and collaboration tools for individuals and enterprises.
You might already be using this great platform, but there are a few tips we want to give you so that you can make the most of the tool.
In this chapter, you will see some of the licensing models that are available in Microsoft 365.
We will cover the following key topics in this chapter:
- What plan suits you best
- Microsoft 365 Personal
- Office Home & Business 2019
- Microsoft 365 Enterprise
- Additional subscriptions
Once you have worked through each of these topics, you will understand which version of Microsoft 365 will best suit your requirements.
Important Note
It is important to state that licensing is something that is not always clear and can change often.
What plan suits you best
Of course, this is a tricky section and topic to tackle for a chapter, but we intend to provide some inspiration and benchmarks that might help you pick the right plan for your requirements.
The great thing about Microsoft 365 is that since it is a service with a subscription-based model, you can change your license and add or remove it at any time.
If you are implementing Microsoft 365 in your organization, you might want to contact Microsoft or a partner to get discounts, packages, and different payment methods that might fit better with your scenario.
In the following sections, we are going to understand the different types of licensing for Microsoft 365 so you can find the one that fits best with your needs.
Microsoft 365 Personal
Microsoft 365 Personal (formerly Office 365) is a subscription designed to help you have all Office apps, storage, and security for your personal use as a service – you can pay for it monthly or annually.
You can work across multiple devices, installing Office desktop apps and having a place in the cloud to store all your files securely. As it is a subscription, you will always have the latest features, fixes, and security updates, along with tech support, which you can reach out to at no extra cost.
Office apps can be installed on Windows PCs, macOS, Android, and iOS, and can be used on five devices at the same time. If you choose to subscribe to Microsoft 365 Family, you can have the same features for up to six people.
Regarding storage, you have 1 TB of cloud storage in OneDrive for your personal/professional use.
Microsoft 365 Personal is meant to be an open door when it comes to starting to use Microsoft Office tools for your personal...
Office Home & Business 2019
Office 2019 is a one-time purchase that enables you to have the Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook) installed on one PC or Mac.
It has the 2019 version of Office with no version upgrades included, but with Microsoft support for 60 days at no extra cost.
It is designed for families and small businesses that need to use one or more Office apps and mail.
Now that we have been introduced to the personal, family, and small business versions of Microsoft 365, it is time to start looking into the versions designed for bigger companies that need to use productivity, collaboration, storage, and other capabilities. Let's do this in the next section.
Microsoft 365 Enterprise
Focused on serving as the digital transformation bridge for companies, the main goal of Microsoft 365 Enterprise plans is to provide cloud and desktop tools that help organizations to modernize, connect, be more productive, and collaborate.
This subscription can be purchased monthly or annually, per user within your organization that needs to have access to the enterprise apps.
There are (as of the time of writing this book) three types of plans available, which can be purchased according to the types of users that you have in your organization.
The E3 plan enables your organization to use all productivity apps with core security features and compliance capabilities.
The E5 plan has the same features as the E3 plan, but with voice and analytical capabilities included.
The F3 plan (formerly F1) was built to empower frontline workers to access and use productivity apps and cloud services, thereby helping them to work better.
Applications included...
Additional subscriptions
Microsoft 365 is a productivity and collaboration suite that helps you personally, and your organization as a whole, to work better. That is a fact. But another great thing is that Microsoft has some other products that, combined with Microsoft 365 applications, can improve these capabilities even more.
They have separate subscriptions that can be purchased for specific users depending on the requirements of your organization. Let's have a look at each of them in turn.
Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a complete suite of intelligent business applications that can help organizations in managing sales, marketing, field services, finance, operations, commerce, and HR.
You can purchase a Dynamics license per user (monthly or annually) for each of the applications described previously.
Power Platform
Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents are the applications that are part of the Power Platform. As you saw...
Summary
In this chapter, we have seen many ways in which organizations and people can use Microsoft 365 and complementary applications by purchasing licenses in subscription mode.
Licensing is usually tricky and changes very often, so having a Microsoft partner or following the updates from Microsoft will give you leverage when choosing the right license for your needs. In the next chapter, we'll see how we can organize and find information from our users and organizations using Microsoft Delve, one of the central products within the platform.