LATEST 365 NEWS
Microsoft applied price increases in March 2022 that affected many versions of Office including 365. Some items increased as much as 30%.
In July 2022 Microsoft are also changing 365 licensing so that the annual license is enforced. Previously they would often let you out of an annual license early and at no cost. However going forward they are offering a monthly recurring license at 20% more cost and are being far more strict about making you keep your annual licenses until their anniversary.
What does this mean to you and your business?
In truth not very much most likely as long as you are careful. Look at the following hints:
- If you normally transfer licenses to a new user when a staff member is replaced it wont cost you any more. Transferring shouldn’t cost you anything as long as you have some form of management contract in place with your support provider.
- If you are adding licenses then you simply pay for the additional on an annual 12 month basis.
- When you want to reduce the number of licenses, say through redundancy or similar then bear in mind that each individual license may have its own anniversary and you will need to pay to its full 12 months. Again licenses can be transferred so if you always remove your oldest and transfer a newer license onto the same employee you can regularly avoid long anniversaries.
- If you have a need to keep a mailbox fully active for say 3 months after somebody leaves then it would cost you an additional 12 month of license fee!
Instead you can convert the old address as an alias of the new employee and you don’t need an extra license. The new employee receives emails from new and old addresses, however they reply only as the new email address. This way you don’t lose any mail, keep communication easy and don’t pay extra cost.
If you still want to have the flexibility to review license levels downwards on a monthly basis you can, but Microsoft are asking for 20% more cost to compensate for the extra admin!
Why 365 rather than buying outright?
365 still gives the best way to have the very latest software that is key to your business. a decade ago you bought a copy of office and it had fixed features and options. However when the next company bought a later version you struggled to open each others files. It didn’t matter as much because a decade ago you didn’t share files as easily. You probably still printed and put copies in the post.
Nowadays you are used to quickly sending a client a file and discussing the contents immediately. To do that you all need similar versions of the software and that’s why 365 has become part of teh infrastructure rather than an option.
There are alternatives – OpenOffice or Libre Office but they don’t handle such large files and end up frustrating users. As your business grows you will end up just needing to use the leading software
365 updates every time you turn ion and as long as you pay a subscription you can use it. Although that feels like blackmail the truth is that over 3 years its the same price as buying and upgrading retail purchase versions. You also get extra features that are only available in 365. Graphing is better, you can zoom into maps in Powerpoint and you get the latest security constantly.
If you need help understanding licensing, migrating to Microsoft 365 and transferring your email history / contacts or want to simply get moving with a 365 project then see Microsoft 365 Migration
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