14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has yet to announce officially the launch of Office 365, but the pricing details for the company’s Cloud productivity suite are already live. There are different flavors of Office 365, tailored to customer segments with different needs, and priced accordingly.
Based on the size of their organization, companies can opt either for Office 365 for professionals and small businesses or for Office 365 for midsize businesses and enterprises.
The Office 365 for professionals and small businesses (Plan P) is the most affordable, at just $6 per user per month.
According to Microsoft, the $6 per month version of Office 365 includes:
“- Email, calendar, contacts, personal archive, and 25 GB mailbox storage with 35 MB attachments with Exchange Online;
- Office Web Apps and SharePoint Online
- instant messaging, presence, online meetings, and PC-to-PC audio/video calls with Lync Online
- premium antivirus and anti-spam filtering with Microsoft Forefront Online Protection for Exchange.”
Larger companies will be able to choose from a number of enterprise plans, no less than four, superseding one another in terms of the services offered.
E1 which costs $10 per user per month comes with “advanced administration capabilities, Active Directory integration and 24/7 support; Exchange Online; SharePoint Online; Lync Online; Microsoft Forefront Online Protection for Exchange; and license rights to access on-premises deployment of Exchange Server, SharePoint Server and Lync Server.”
E2, at $16 per user per month offers everything in E1, plus “view, edit and share content created in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote desktop applications online with Office Web Apps.”
E3 is priced at $24 per user per month and offers Office Professional Plus, additional SharePoint Online capabilities, and extra Exchange Online goodies and unlimited email storage on top of what’s available with E2.
E4 is the most expensive Office 365 offer at $27 per user per month, delivering everything in E3, as well as “enterprise voice capabilities to replace or enhance a PBX with Lync Server on-premises.”
There are also two versions of Office 365 for kiosk workers, one at $4 per user per month which includes: a 500MB Exchange Online mailbox and POP email access, SharePoint Online, and view only Office Web Apps. For just the extra Office Web Apps editing capabilities, customers will need to select K2 at $10 per user per month.