Office 365 Fall Updates FAQ: New Office 365 Plans for
SMBs and more!
Table of Contents
Overview ................................................................................................................................................................................. 1
Overview of new Office 365 Business plans ........................................................................................................................... 4
Implications for existing customers – Open, Advisor, Direct .................................................................................................. 6
Implications for existing customers – Syndication ............................................................................................................... 10
Microsoft Field Guidance ...................................................................................................................................................... 11
Open/Advisor Partner Guidance ........................................................................................................................................... 11
Syndication Partner Guidance .............................................................................................................................................. 12
Other FAQs ............................................................................................................................................................................ 13
Rude Q&A.............................................................................................................................................................................. 14
Overview
News Overview
What is Microsoft announcing?
Microsoft is announcing several updates and improvements coming to Office 365 this fall specifically targeted to meet
the needs of small and midsize business customers (SMBs). This wave of updates will begin in August and continue
through H2 CY 2014.
1. New ‘Office 365 Business’ plans: a new set of plans with features and price points tailored for SMBs. These plans
will be available for purchase for new customers on October 1st, 2014.
2. Commitment to existing customers: These plans will replace the existing plans for SMBs over time (Small
Business, Small Business Premium and Midsize Business). Existing customers will be able to use their current
plan for at least 12 months, after which they will be able to move to any Office 365 plan (Business or Enterprise).
Customers will continue to receive updates and value from their subscription until they move.
3. Greater choice than ever: SMB customers will be able to combine any Office 365 Business & Enterprise plan to
meet the exact needs of specific users, cost effectively, while also having access to additional solutions like
Project, Visio, Dynamics CRM Online and more.
4. Simplified getting started experience: We are delivering a simplified trial signup page and improved getting
started experience, both for administrators and end users.
5. Easy and consistent admin controls: We are streamlining and refining navigation in the Office 365 admin center
with a modern look and feel. Most commonly used tasks and settings will be more discoverable and simpler to
use, with increased use of toggles, quick actions and live tiles. This experience will remain the same across all
Office 365 plans, allowing customers to move between plans with a consistent, familiar experience.
Why is Microsoft making these changes?
One of the key benefits of moving to Office 365 is that customers can expect Microsoft to continuously deliver new
value as part of their subscription plan. Over the past 3 years, Microsoft has delivered hundreds of updates and new
features to Office 365 in response to the evolving needs and feedback we hear from our customers.
The new Office 365 plans will provide customers with the following benefits:
1. New Choice: The Office 365 Business plan ($8.25/user/month) makes it simple to get just the familiar, full Office
apps at a great price – always up to date and available on all your devices including your PC, Mac, iPad and
smartphone. The included 1TB of cloud storage makes it easy to access and edit your important files from
anywhere.
2. New Value: Business Premium includes Midsize Business’ services at the Small Business Premium price of
$12.50 user/month. Business Essentials matches Small Business on price ($5/user/month) with improved
features and additional services like Yammer and Active Directory support. The higher seat limit of 300 means
even more businesses can take advantage of the great value these plans provide.
3. New Flexibility: As you grow and your technology needs change, you can move your company (or just specific
users) to an Enterprise plan, a different Business plan, or even add solutions like Project, Visio, Dynamics CRM
Online and more.
This new plan lineup delivers on partner requests for the following:
1. Core Office apps for SMB. The Office desktop applications have been a key revenue generating product for our
SMB partner channel over the past few decades. Partners can now more easily lead with Office when pitching a
customer on moving to the cloud. Office 365 Business provides the core Office applications used by SMBs
together with 1TB cloud storage, Office Online and access, editing and sync capabilities across PCs, Macs, iPad
and smartphones – all at a compelling price point of $8.25/user/month. It is also easier to get customers up and
running, as this plans does not require the movement of email or data.
2. Simplified sales process. The new plan layout will be simpler for partners to sell and for customers to
understand. The new Business plans all have one consistent seat cap of 300 and customers can now choose to
purchase any Office 365 plan, regardless of the specific trial they signed up for. This shortens sales cycles, as
partners don’t need to qualify a customer into a plan before moving to the trial stage.
3. Greater value for SMB plans. Office 365 Business Essentials and Business Premium (which replace Small
Business and Small Business Premium) increases the user limit from 25 to 300 users. This means that these plans
can be sold to a larger set of customers at their affordable price points. We are also delivering additional value
like Yammer, Active Directory support, and improved SharePoint and Exchange capabilities into these plans.
Business Premium is also available at a more affordable price than Midsize Business ($12.5 to $15/user/month).
4. New on-ramps for SMBs. Many customers prefer to get started with a single service in the cloud (e.g. email,
cloud storage). Office 365 offers many standalone plans for this purpose, including the new Office 365 Business,
Exchange Online plan 1 and OneDrive for Business. Customers are now able to start with these plans and move
to Business Essentials and Business Premium. Previously, customers were only able to move to Enterprise plans.
5. Improved upsell opportunities. Previous limitations in movement between Small Business, Midsize Business and
Enterprise plans restricted the ability of partners to increase revenue through an upsell motion. Customers can
now move fluidly between Business and Enterprise plans and add additional services like PowerBI, Project, Visio,
Dynamics CRM, Azure RMS and more as they require.
Additional Detail
What is available in the new ‘Office 365 Business’ plans?
The Office 365 Business plans include features and price points tailored to meet the needs of small and midsize business
customers (SMBs). They are designed to meet the needs of businesses ranging from 1 to approximately 250 employees,
and will be available for purchase on October 1, 2014.
Office 365 Business – the core Office applications businesses use every day, offered as a cloud service so they
are always up to date. Includes Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Publisher. Comes with Office
Online (online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote) as well as 1TB of OneDrive for Business cloud
storage to access, edit and share your documents across your Windows PC, Mac, iPad, Windows tablet and
smartphone.
Office 365 Business Essentials – the core cloud services for running your business – business class email and
calendaring, Office Online, online meetings, IM, video conferencing, cloud storage and file sharing and much
more.
Office 365 Business Premium – get everything from both the Office 365 Business and Business Essentials plans.
Customers are able to combine any of these plans together to meet the needs of their business, and can purchase up to
300 seats of each individual plan. All Office 365 plans come with a financially-backed 99.9% uptime service level
agreement and 24/7 technical support by a global network of experts, for critical, service impacting events1.
1
Some partners may offer additional or alternative support plans.
What does this mean for customers on existing Small Business & Midsize Business plans?
The new Office 365 Business plans will eventually replace the following existing plans for SMBs - Small Business, Small
Business Premium and Midsize Business. It is Microsoft’s policy to give a 12 months’ notice for any changes to a
customer’s core subscription. Customers will have No Required Action to take regarding their Office 365 plan
subscription until their first renewal starting October 1, 2015.
Customers will continue to receive all the benefits of Office 365, including any feature and security updates (e.g. admin
center updates, new suite navigation) and any new services (e.g. adding Yammer to Midsize Business, increase in
OneDrive for Business storage) that are relevant to their subscription. Customers will also be able to add seats, add new
subscriptions, and renew their existing subscription.
Starting October 1, 2015, customers will no longer be able to renew to their existing Office 365 plan. Customers will be
able to renew to either a similar Business plan or a more advanced Enterprise plan.
How is Microsoft providing “Greater choice than ever”?
On October 1, 2014, new customers will have the flexibility to combine Business and Enterprise plan together to cost
effectively meet the exact needs of specific users. These customers will also be able to purchase other cloud services,
such as Project, Visio, Dynamics CRM Online and more. Currently, this capability is available only for customers using our
Enterprise plans.
What changes are coming to the getting started experience for new customers?
Microsoft is delivering several updates to improve the getting started experience for new Office 365 customers. We
recently launched an improved trial signup page on Office365.com, focused on requiring the least amount of
information possible to get started. We are also releasing a new getting started experience after signup, to surface up
the most common actions users need to take when first logging-in to Office 365 (e.g. downloading Office, setting up
mobile devices).
Further, users will see a new navigation menu to move between their Office 365 services and applications. This new
navigation will unify our experience across Microsoft consumer and business products and provide a consistent, yet
customizable navigation across the Office 365 services.
Both the new getting started experience and updated navigation menu will be rolling out to customers this fall.
What changes are coming to the administration experiences?
We are streamlining and refining navigation in the Office 365 admin center with a modern look and feel. Most
commonly used task and settings will be more discoverable and simpler to use, with increased use of toggles, quick
actions and live tiles. This experience will remain the same across all Office 365 plans, allowing customers to move
between plans with a consistent, familiar experience.
This updated administration experience will begin rolling out to new and existing customers this fall, ahead of the
October 1, 2014 launch of the new Office 365 Business plans.
Read more about our recent improvements to the admin center on our Office 365 blog here and here.
Overview of new Office 365 Business plans
What types of businesses are the new ‘Office 365 Business’ plans designed for?
The Office 365 Business plans include features and price points tailored to meet the needs of small and midsize business
customers (SMBs). They are designed to meet the needs of businesses ranging from 1 to approximately 250 employees.
Office 365 Business – the core Office applications + OneDrive for Business cloud storage
Office 365 Business Essentials – the core Office 365 cloud services
Office 365 Business Premium – Business + Business Essentials plans
Customers are able to combine any of these plans together to meet the needs of their business, and can purchase up to
300 seats of each individual plan. All Office 365 plans come with a financially-backed 99.9% uptime service level
agreement and 24/7 technical support by a global network of experts, for critical, service impacting events1.
1
Some partners may offer additional or alternative support plans.
When will the new Office 365 Business plans be available for purchase?
New customers will be able to purchase the new Office 365 Business plans on October 1, 2014, directly on
http://Office365.com or through a Microsoft partner.
Customers on existing Office 365 plans for SMBs - Small Business, Small Business Premium and Midsize Business - will
have the option to move to these plans over the next 12-24 months. See “Implications for existing customers” section.
What is included in Office 365 Business?
The core Office applications businesses use every day, offered as a cloud service so they are always up to date. Includes
Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Publisher desktop applications. Comes with Office Online (online
versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote) for collaborating on documents as well as 1TB of OneDrive for
Business cloud storage to access, edit and sync your documents across your Windows PC, Mac, iPad, Windows tablet
and smartphone.
This plan is great for customers who want the latest version of the Office desktop applications and a way to access and
work on their documents on any device.
What is included in Office 365 Business Essentials?
The core cloud services for running your business:






Business-class email and calendaring – 50GB mailboxes, custom domains and built in spam and malware
protection
Office Online – online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote for collaborating on documents
Online meetings – screen sharing, audio, video and IM for up to 250 participants
OneDrive for Business - 1TB cloud storage and file sharing
Yammer – private social networking
…and more.
This plan is great for customers who have Office today and want to supplement it with simple-to-use but enterprisegrade cloud services that light up their Office experience.
What is included in Office 365 Business Premium?
Get everything from both the Office 365 Business and Business Essentials plans.
This plan is great for customers who want the latest version of the Office desktop applications and a way to access and
work on their documents on any device, as well as simple-to-use but enterprise-grade cloud services that light up Office.
How do the Office 365 Business plans differ?
How do the new Office 365 Business plans fit in the Office 365 plan lineup?
On October 1, 2014, the Office 365 plan lineup will look like this:
Customers can now choose to purchase any Office 365 plan, regardless of the specific trial they signed up for. At
purchase, customers will be able to combine many different types of plans together in a single Office 365 account to
cost effectively meet the exact needs of specific users. Business plans have seat cap of 300, per plan, while Enterprise
plans have no seat cap.
What plans will be available for trial?
In addition to the existing Enterprise E3 trial, new customers will be able to trial the Office 365 Business and Office 365
Business Premium plans. Regardless of the plan customers choose to trial, they will be able to purchase any Business or
Enterprise plan when their trial is expiring. Any data created during the trial is retained.
How does Office 365 Business compare to Office 365 ProPlus?
Office 365 Business provides customers the core Office applications business use every day plus the ability to edit
documents across devices, tablets and smartphones, delivered as a cloud service so it is always up to date. Office 365
ProPlus adds additional Office applications as well as features for advanced or larger organizations.
What countries and languages will the new Office 365 Business plans be available in at launch?
The Office 365 Business plans will be generally available in the same markets, languages and currencies as the currently
available Office 365 Small Business, Midsize Business and Enterprise plans.
Implications for existing customers – Open, Advisor, Direct
Guidance for existing customers
What do the new Office 365 Business plans mean for customers on existing Small Business & Midsize Business plans?
The new Office 365 Business plans will eventually replace the following existing plans for SMBs - Small Business, Small
Business Premium and Midsize Business. It is Microsoft’s policy to give a 12 months’ notice for any changes to a
customer’s core subscription. Customers will have No Required Action to take regarding their Office 365 plan
subscription until their first renewal starting October 1, 2015.
From now until October 1, 2015, what is our guidance to customers on existing Small Business & Midsize Business
plans?
Customers should continue using the Office 365 plan they are using today. When customers’ plans come up for renewal,
they should renew to their current plan.
Customers will continue to receive all the benefits of Office 365, including any feature and security updates (e.g. admin
center updates, new suite navigation) and any new services (e.g. adding Yammer to Midsize Business, increase in
OneDrive for Business storage) that are relevant to their subscription. Customers will also be able to add seats, add new
subscriptions, and renew their existing subscription.
Starting October 1, 2015, what is Microsoft’s guidance to customers on Small Business & Midsize Business plans?
Starting October 1, 2015, customers will no longer be able to renew to their existing Office 365 plan. When their current
plan comes up for renewal, customers will be able to renew to either a similar Business plan or a more advanced
Enterprise plan. Microsoft provides this guidance:
Customer’s current
Guidance for customers
Guidance for customers
Notes
plan
renewing before
October 1, 2015
Office 365 Small
Business
Office 365 Small
Business Premium
Renew to new Business
Essentials plan
Stay on current plan
Renew to current plan
Office 365 Midsize
Business
renewing starting October
1, 2015
Most customers should
renew to new Business
Premium plan
Some customers may choose
to renew to Enterprise E3
Business Essentials includes all
features in Small Business, plus
additional capabilities
Business Premium includes almost
all the features found in the
existing plans. Customers that
require Access, Lync PSTN
capabilities, advanced Excel BI
scenarios or advanced IT
management should consider
moving some or all of their users
to Enterprise E3.
After October 1st, 2015, up until renewal onto a new plan, customers will continue to receive all the benefits of Office
365, including any feature and security updates and any new services that are relevant to their subscription. They will
also be able to add new seats to their current plan.
What does the ‘renew to a new plan’ process look like for customers after October 1, 2015?
Starting October 1, 2015, customers should renew to a new Office 365 plan once their current subscription plan is
ending. Customers will be able to renew to their new Office 365 plan without any downtime or data loss.
Customers who have purchased through Advisor and Direct will be able to use the ‘Switch Plans’ tool within the Office
365 administration center to move to a new Office 365 plan. This tool automates the process down to just a few clicks.
Microsoft will be delivering an update to Office 365 to enable prepaid customers (Open, FPP, ESD) to move to the new
plans by October 1, 2015.
Microsoft is working additional in-product capability to streamline this process for all customers.
When will the existing Small Business & Midsize Business plans be retired?
Between October 1, 2015 and September 30, 2016, all customers will have reached their renewal date, and chosen a
new Office 365 plan. After all customers have moved, the existing plans will be retired on September 30, 2016.
I am using Office 365 Small Business, Small Business Premium or Midsize Business. I want to move to one of the new
Office 365 Business plans before October 1, 2015.
Microsoft’s guidance is that customers should continue using their existing plans until their first renewal after October 1,
2015.
A majority of customers who have purchased through Direct and Advisor will be able to use the “Switch Plans” tool to
move to these new Business plans. This includes the following key plans for SMBs - Small Business, Small Business
Premium, Midsize Business, Exchange Online plan 1, as well as most other standalone plans.
There are a few restrictions that exist today with the Switch Plans tool. Small Business & Midsize Business customers
with add-ons or multiple subscriptions will not be able to use the Switch Plans tool on October 1st, 2014. These
customers will be able to move to the new subscriptions by October 1, 2015. Learn more about the Switch Plans tool at
http://aka.ms/switchO365plan.
Customers who have purchased Enterprise plans or standalone plans (e.g. Exchange Online plan 1) through Open
licensing program will be able to move to any of the new Office 365 Business plans at launch, using the manual licensing
reassignment process. This process has no downtime or data loss.
Customers who have purchased Midsize Business through Open, or Small Business through FPP/ESD, will not be able to
move to the new Office 365 Business plans at launch on October 1, 2014. These customers will be able to move to the
new subscriptions by October 1, 2015.
Will customers or end users lose any content while making the transition, either with the Switch Plans tool or at
renewal?
No. There is no content loss when a company transitions to a new plan. Customer will continue to use the same Office
365 account, they simply need to change each user’s license from the old plan to the new plan.
Will existing customers see price changes after the launch of the new Office 365 Business plans on Oct 1, 2014?
Office 365 Small Business and Small Business Premium plans will remain the same price.
At their next renewal, existing Office 365 Midsize Business customers who have purchased through Direct and Advisor
channels will see a price reduction from $15/user/month $USD with an annual commitment to $12.50/user/month
$USD with an annual commitment. This is to match the new Office 365 Business Premium plan, which has a similar
feature set, priced at $12.50/user/month $USD with an annual commitment.
Open customers may be able to purchase additional seats and renew their subscription of Office 365 Midsize Business at
a reduced price. Microsoft is lowering the ERP for 1 year of Midsize Business from $180/user/year USD to
$150/user/year USD. Actual purchase price may vary from partner to partner.
Will there be any other changes to existing Office 365 Small and Midsize Business plans on October 1, 2014?
The seat cap for Office 365 Small Business and Small Business Premium will be raised to 300, to match the new Office
365 Business plans. Office 365 Midsize Business already has a seat cap of 300, which will remain the same.
Comparing existing and new Office 365 plans
Comparing Small Business to Business Essentials
Starting October 1, 2014, Microsoft is automatically increasing the seat cap of Small Business (25) to match Business
Essentials (300).
Services &
Features
What stays the same
Price
Business-class email (Exchange)
What is added
Ability to combine Business and Enterprise
plans (if some users in organization need
advanced functionality)
Online Meetings, IM (Lync)
Private social networking (Yammer)
Online document storage & file sharing
(OneDrive for Business)
Support for Active Directory synchronization
Team collaboration sites & internal portals
(SharePoint)
There are no features removed when moving from Small Business to Business Essentials.
Comparing Small Business Premium to Business Premium
Starting October 1, 2014, Microsoft is automatically increasing the seat cap of Small Business Premium (25) to match
Business Premium (300).
Services &
Features
What stays the same
Price
Microsoft Office applications
– Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
Outlook, OneNote, Publisher
Business-class email
What is added
Ability to combine Business
and Enterprise plans (if some
users in organization need
advanced functionality)
Private social networking
(Yammer)
What is removed1
Microsoft Access
PSTN capabilities of Microsoft
Lync (required on-premises
deployment of Lync Server
2013)
(Exchange)
Online Meetings, IM (Lync)
Support for Active Directory
synchronization
Online document storage &
file sharing (OneDrive for
Business)
Team collaboration sites &
internal portals (SharePoint)
1
With the added ability to combine Business and Enterprise plans, customers who need access to the removed features
and functionality are able to move some (or all) of their users to the Enterprise E3 plan, while keeping the rest on
Business Premium.
Comparing Midsize Business to Business Premium
Starting October 1, 2014, Microsoft is reducing the price of Midsize Business to match Business Premium. Customers will
be able to realize this benefit at their next renewal.
Services &
Features
What stays the same
Seat cap
Microsoft Office applications
– Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
Outlook, OneNote, Publisher
Business-class email
(Exchange)
Online Meetings, IM (Lync)
Online document storage &
file sharing (OneDrive for
Business)
What is added
Ability to combine Business
and Enterprise plans (if some
users in organization need
advanced functionality)
What is removed1
Microsoft Access
PSTN capabilities of Microsoft
Lync (required on-premises
deployment of Lync Server
2013)
IT controls: Group policy, app
telemetry
Excel BI features: PowerPivot,
Corp Data Access,
spreadsheet compare/inquire
Team collaboration sites &
internal portals (SharePoint)
Private social networking
(Yammer)
1
With the added ability to combine Business and Enterprise plans, customers who need access to the removed features
and functionality are able to move some (or all) of their users to the Enterprise E3 plan, while keeping the rest on
Business Premium.
How does the Office applications experience in Office 365 Business Premium compare to what customers have in
Office 365 Small Business Premium and Midsize Business today?
Office 365 Midsize Business plans include Office 365 ProPlus, an always up to date version of the Office Desktop
applications. Office 365 Small Business Premium plans have a custom version of the Office desktop suite.
The Business Premium plan includes include Office 365 Business, the core Office applications business use every plus the
ability to edit documents across devices, tablets and smartphones, delivered as a cloud service so it is always up to date.
What is the end user experience like when a customer moves from Office 365 Small Business Premium or Midsize
Business to Office 365 Business Premium?
When a customer chooses to renew from their existing plan to Office 365 Business Premium, their users will need to
move from their current Office applications to the Office applications included in Office 365 Business. Each of the
organizations users will receive a prompt from their Office apps, indicating action is required.
1. A prompt will appear, indicating the subscription to Office 365 has expired. It will prompt the user to Buy, Enter
a Product Key, or Sign In to an Active Account.
2. The user must select “Sign In to an Active Account”.
3. The Office prompt will notify them they must now install Office 365 Business, which is will note “is not currently
installed”. (Note: this may be confusing to end users, as they likely don’t know what version of Office they have,
only knowing that they currently do have a version of Office installed).
4. Process will proceed, uninstalling the existing Office apps and re-installing the new Office 365 Business apps.
This process will remove the Access and Lync applications for their computer.
Microsoft is working on an update to update this prompt, so the user will see they have “updates to install”, rather than
the current confusing expiration message.
Although the Lync 2013 application will be uninstalled, Office 365 Business Premium includes a separate, Lync Basic
download. Lync Basic provides the core capabilities SMBs use today, but does not include the advanced PSTN
capabilities of Lync 2013. Users will have to separately download their application from their Office 365 settings, located
at https://portal.office.com/OLS/MySoftware.aspx, after the update.
Implications for existing customers – Syndication
Note: Availability of current and future offers, timing on transitions and end-customer terms are the discretion of the
syndication partner and do vary between syndication partners. Therefore below Q&A does not include timing details.
Guidance for existing customers
What do the new Office 365 Business plans mean for customers on existing Small Business & Midsize Business plans?
The new Office 365 Business plans will eventually replace the following existing plans for SMBs - Small Business, Small
Business Premium and Midsize Business. The new Office Business plans can be made available by syndication partners
starting October 1, 2015.
What is our guidance to customers on existing Small Business & Midsize Business plans?
Syndication partners will provide guidance and timing to their customers regarding the use of the existing offers,
availability of the new offers and the appropriate approach to move to the new offers.
When will the existing Small Business & Midsize Business plans be retired?
The window of introducing the new Business offers and retiring the current offers is between October 1, 2015 and
September 30, 2016. Detailed timing is provided by your syndication partner. After all customers have moved, the
existing plans will be retired on September 30, 2016.
Will there be Trials available?
Yes. We will have Trials for Business and Business Premium.
Will customers or end users lose any content while making the transition to the new Business plans?
No. There is no content loss when a company transitions to a new plan. Customer will continue to use the same Office
365 account.
Will existing customers see price changes after the launch of the new Office 365 Business plans?
Pricing and terms & conditions are defined by the syndication partner.
Will there be any other changes to existing Office 365 Small and Midsize Business plans?
The seat cap for Office 365 Small Business and Small Business Premium will be raised to 300, to match the new Office
365 Business plans. Office 365 Midsize Business already has a seat cap of 300, which will remain the same.
I am using Lync-to-phone with one of the current Small Business or Midsize plans. How do I get access to the Lync
client to consume the PSTN services?
Lync-to-phone includes the rights for the Lync client. Lync-to-phone customers will get provided the Lync client for
download.
Comparing existing and new Office 365 plans
[same as section from above in Advisor/Open section]
Microsoft Field Guidance
Where can I find assets to help me learn about the new Office 365 Business plans?
Office BEST is the single location for demand generation, sales enablement and readiness content for selling Office 365
to small and midsize customers. Office BEST can be found on Infopedia at http://OfficeBEST.
Open/Advisor Partner Guidance
Who can sell these new Office 365 plans? What channels are these new plans available to purchase in?
The new Office 365 Business plans will be available for partners to sell through the Open and Advisor programs on
October 1, 2014.
What do these announcements mean for my existing Office 365 sales process? Do I stop selling Office 365 Small
Business and Midsize Business plans?
Partners selling Office 365 should continue to sell Office 365 as they do today. All customers who are sold Office 365
Small Business or Midsize Business plans before October 1, 2014 will be able to move to a new Office 365 Business plan
in the future.
In the meantime, these customers will continue to receive all the benefits of Office 365, including any feature and
security updates (e.g. admin center updates, new suite navigation) and any new services (e.g. adding Yammer to Midsize
Business, increase in OneDrive for Business storage) that Microsoft releases that are relevant to their subscription.
Customer will also be able to add seats, add new subscriptions, and renew their existing subscription.
Open customers on Midsize Business and ESD customers on Small Business Premium who are renewing their plan before
October 1, 2015, should purchase their equivalent “renewal SKU” off their respective pricelists.
How does this work with my existing partner incentives and payments?
Incentives for selling the Business, Business Essentials and Business Premium work the same as any other and previous
Office 365 plans. Partners selling through the Advisor model will continue to earn advisor fees using the same payment
structure leveraged for Office 365. Partners selling through Open will be able to earn upfront margin and rebates (if
eligible) on seats sold.
Is Microsoft notifying customers directly?
Microsoft will inform the impacted SMB customers about the service changes in the Office 365 Message Center during
September 2014, with a link to Office365.com where they can learn more.
Where can I find assets to help me learn about the new Office 365 Business plans and how to sell them?
Partners should contact their Microsoft representative to learn more. Partners can also get access to resources directly
on the Partner Marketing Center. The Office BEST pages on the PMC are the single location for demand generation, sales
enablement and readiness content for selling Office 365 to small and midsize customers. Office BEST can be found on
the PMC at http://aka.ms/BEST.
Syndication Partner Guidance
Do I have to introduce the new Business plans?
For partners selling the current SMB offers, introducing the new offers is a mandatory requirement since the current
offers will be retired by September 30, 2016.
For partners not selling the current SMB offers we strongly encourage to add the new Business plans to the service
portfolio. These offers are addressing many of the partner requests regarding flexibility and additional end-customer
value.
The new offers represent significant additional end customer value and are a great opportunity to increase the Office
365 syndication business.
When do I have to introduce the new offers?
We encourage partners to introduce the new offers at the earliest possibility. For partners with customers on the
existing Office 365 Small and Midsize Business plans the new offers need to be in place by September 30, 2015. After
that date only the new plans can be used for renewal for existing customers and/or sold to new customers.
What do these announcements mean for my existing Office 365 sales process? Do I stop selling Office 365 Small
Business and Midsize Business plans?
Syndication partners selling Office 365 should continue to sell Office 365 as they do today. All customers who are sold
Office 365 Small Business or Midsize Business plans before October 1, 2015 will be able to move to a new Office 365
Business plan in the future.
In the meantime, partners will plan their respective sales and support readiness for the new services after they have
decided on their individual implementation timeline of the new plans.
Is engineering work required to enable the new Business plans?
The level of configuration or development work depends on the individual implementation approach of the provisioning,
billing and support environment of a partner.
Is Microsoft notifying the customers?
We will inform customers about the service changes in the Office 365 message center.
Will there be other changes?
We will use the same window until September 30, 2016 to finally retire the E2 and K2 offers with their respective
subscriptions. This is a change that has been already announced in spring 2013. We will provide guidance to the affected
partners.
When will you provide more details on the new plans and on the required transition approach?
By end of July 2014, we will provide the required level of detail to land the new plans successfully in your systems,
processes and with your customers.
How does this work with my existing partner incentives and payments?
The current incentive structure stays intact. We will share the commercial details using the established partner
communication vehicles for syndication partners.
Where can I find assets to help me learn about the new Office 365 Business plans and how to sell them?
We will share sales and support readiness assets throughout the established communication processes.
Other FAQs
Will Office 365 Business be available for my on-premises customers?
Office 365 Business includes the same applications as Office Standard, a SKU for our on-premises customers. Office 365
Business provides additional cloud features, including 1TB of OneDrive for Business cloud storage and Office Online,
online version of the Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. It also provides customers the ability to access, edit and
sync documents across their favorite devices, including their PC, Mac, tablet and smartphone.
Office 365 Business, and all the Office 365 plans, are cloud-based offerings and are not available for on-premises
customers.
Office 365 Enterprise plan licenses do provide the equivalent access rights as client access licenses (CALs) for their
respective on-premises servers (e.g. Exchange Online license provides same access rights as Exchange CAL, Enterprise E3
provides same access rights as Exchange, SharePoint and Lync CALs). This simplifies licensing for customers who want to
run hybrid cloud and on-premises deployments.
My customer is currently using a trial of one of the soon-to-be discontinued Office 365 plans?
Customers who begin a trial on or after October 1, 2014 will be able to purchase either an Office 365 Business or
Enterprise plan.
Customers who begin a Small Business Premium or Midsize Business trial before October 1, 2014, should expect to
purchase that plan.
Rude Q&A
In February 2013, Microsoft released a new set of updated plans. These new plans, and their advanced functionality,
were available for new customers only. Existing customers were left behind, some taking almost a year to be
updated. Are you doing this again?
During our February 2013 update, we made significant changes to the underlying platform that runs Office 365. This
required non-trivial end customer action, as well as engineering resources from Microsoft, to move each customer to
the new platform.
This update is simply a delivery of a new Office 365 plan (Office 365 Business), as well as a re-packaging of the Office 365
services and features we offer to SMB customers (Business Essentials, Business Premium). Customers will not have any
required actions until October 1, 2015. After October 1, 2015, customers will be renew to one of the new Business plans.
In the meantime, customers will continue to receive all the benefits of Office 365, including any feature and security
updates (e.g. admin center updates, new suite navigation) and any new services (e.g. adding Yammer to Midsize
Business, increase in OneDrive for Business storage) that are relevant to their subscription. Customer will also be able to
add seats, add new subscriptions, and renew their existing subscription.
The majority of customers will be able to move earlier that October 1, 2015, if they choose.
Some features that were available in Small Business Premium and Midsize Business are not available in Business
Premium. Why are you taking these away?
In listening to our customers and reviewing usage data, we know which services and features customers value and use.
The features not included in Business Premium were only used by a small number of SMBs, often by a few specific types
of users (e.g. finance team, data scientist, etc.). By redesigning the SMB lineup, the vast majority of customers will be
receiving more value compared to the plan they have today.
Additionally, the new lineup allows customers to purchase Enterprise E3 for specific users who still need these features,
like Access, while providing the more affordable Business Premium to the broader organization.
How are you notifying customers of these changes?
It is Microsoft’s policy to give a 12 months’ notice for any changes to a customer’s core subscription. Microsoft is making
these announcements at WPC and through our public blogs in July, which will give customers 14 months’ notice.
Microsoft also communicates directly with Office 365 administrators through the Office 365 Message Center. Customers
affected by these changes will receive a message during September 2014, with a link to Office365.com where they can
learn more.
Further, Microsoft will work to ensure all of its Office 365 partners are aware of and prepared for the changes.
How many seats can be in an Office 365 tenant?
Customers will have the ability to combine any Office 365 Business and Enterprise plan together. There are no longer
any seats limits for a specific Office 365 customer at the account level. There are seat limits at the subscription level, for
Office 365 Business family plans (Business, Business Essentials, Business Premium). Each of these plans can have up 300
users. Each Office 365 Enterprise plan can have an unlimited amount of users.
For example, an Office 365 customer could have 50 seats of Business Essentials, 290 seats of Business Premium, 1000
seats of Enterprise E1 and 15 seats of Enterprise E3.
Why do the Office 365 Business plans have seat limits of 300 users?
These offers have features and price points tailored to meet the need of small and midsize business customers (SMBs).
They do not have the advanced capabilities that our larger customers need, so we have capped the offers to ensure a
good customer experience.
What if I have not redeemed my Office 365 Small Business or Midsize Business product keys by October 1, 2016?
Un-redeemed product keys will be reassigned to the Office 365 Business Premium plan after October 1, 2016. Business
Premium is the most similar product to both Small Business Premium and Midsize Business.
What if I have already extended my Small Business Premium or Midsize Business subscription past October 1, 2016?
Customers will no longer be able to purchase the existing plans after October 1, 2016, so customers will need to move to
the new SKU on your next renewal after that time.
Does the changes to the to the Office 365 admin experience mean small customers are getting a more complicated
experience than they have today?
No. In fact, we are bringing much of the simplicity and ease-of-use of the current Small Business Admin Center to all of
our customers, rather than the other way around. We feel all customers can benefit from a streamlined navigation and
simpler controls. All the rich capability will still be available and customers and partners can choose to dive deeper into
the advanced admin controls if they choose. This experience will remain the same across all Office 365 plans, allowing
customers to move between plans with a consistent, familiar experience.
Why put Yammer in the Office 365 Business plans? Isn’t it for Enterprises?
We refer to Yammer as ‘Enterprise Social’, but Yammer is really for anyone who wants to work like a network - from
SMBs to Schools to Enterprises. We’ve found significant traction of Yammer in SMBs for team projects and external
collaboration. Adding it to the Office 365 Business suites will enable these customers to have greater control over their
networks.