14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft will start transitioning customers from the Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (BPOS) to Office 365 in September 2011. Office 365 is the Redmond company’s Cloud-based productivity suite and the evolution of BPOS. In fact, all services packed under the BPOS brand umbrella are also found under Office 365, along with some new additions.
The software giant is gearing up to work closely with existing BPOS customers in order to ensure that the migration to Office 365 will be as smooth as possible.
“Microsoft will begin contacting customers and partners this summer with September and October 2011 transition dates. Each month, we'll send out more transition scheduling notices,” revealed Microsoft’s Michael O'Neill.
“The transition schedule is designed to best accommodate all customers and their needs, and that could mean your transition won’t be scheduled for several months. Don’t worry if you don’t receive a transition date immediately.”
The Microsoft Office 365 transition center has been set up in order to provide BPOS customers with information and guidance related to the imminent transition to the company’s new Cloud productivity offering.
It’s important to note that customers will see their existing BPOS subscriptions change in the transition to Office 365. Microsoft has already mapped the new Microsoft Online Services equivalents to the old BPOS.
The BPOS Standard Suite for example will become Office 365 (Plan E1), and here are some additional equivalents: BPOS Deskless Worker Suite - Office 365 (Plan K1), Exchange Online - Exchange Online (Plan 1), Exchange Online Deskless Worker - Exchange Online Kiosk, SharePoint Online - SharePoint Online (Plan 1), SharePoint Online Deskless Worker - SharePoint Kiosk (K1), Live Meeting Standard - Lync Online (Plan 2), Office Communications Online - Lync Online (Plan 1).
The promise from Microsoft is that customers will not need to get new subscriptions or pay anything extra after they’re transitioned from BPOS to Office 365.
“All active subscriptions will be transitioned to the new offers while maintaining your current price through the end of your subscription term,” the company said.
