Microsoft has announced it is still rolling out new features for Teams Premium as it continues its availability in preview.
General availability for Premium is scheduled for early next month.
The preview, which has been slowly rolling out since 16th December, can be accessed by IT admins by clicking through to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center IT to activate a free trial licence.
A Microsoft 365 admin blog stated: “Not all Teams Premium features are available in this preview release, but more features will be released throughout the preview period.”
The announcement contains comparisons between Teams Premium and ‘Teams’ but is not specific about which tariffs, whether all or some. Teams Premium is being marketed as an add-on licence to enhance the Teams experience. It promises “personalised and intelligent meetings and webinars, enhanced protection for meetings, advanced management and reporting capabilities for IT and advanced Virtual Appointments”.
Microsoft cited the preview’s impacted audience as Solution Provider (CSP) partners. It stated: “Partners can start sharing the news with their customers to start enrolling tenants in the preview as a trial through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center by searching for Teams Premium in the catalogue.”
Teams Premium for Organisation’s Users
In noting the differences between Teams Rooms Pro to Teams Premium, Microsoft documentation states: “Teams Premium licenses are assigned to your organisation’s users, and Teams Rooms Pro licenses should only be assigned to Microsoft Teams Rooms devices.
“These two licenses aren’t dependent on one another, don’t overlap features, and won’t cause license enforcement conflicts.”
Interestingly, and probably to accentuate the difference in the assignation, the same documentation refers to the change in branding: “Before the release of Teams Rooms Pro, Microsoft offered a Teams Rooms license called Teams Rooms Premium. Teams Rooms Premium has been retired and isn’t related to Teams Premium.”
Microsoft Teams Premium was first revealed last October at Ignite 2022, promising to provide “more personalised, intelligent and secure” meetings. This is to include one-to-one meetings, virtual appointments and webinars.
Nicole Herskowitz, Vice President of Microsoft Teams, said of Premium that it would be: “Built on the familiar, all-in-one collaboration experience of Microsoft Teams, this new offering makes every meeting from one-on-ones to large meetings, to virtual appointments to webinars more personalised, intelligent, and secure.”
Teams Rooms Basic, Standard and Pro
As UC Today reported, the new lower tier that replaced Microsoft Teams Standard, Teams Rooms Basic, removed advanced features, such as Front Row. At the same time, Teams Rooms Pro became a middle tier and listed a comparable set of features to Premium for $10 cheaper. The Pro package was downgraded to the managed server platform, and some new features were promised.
There have been some surprised reactions in the Microsoft Community as the tier restructuring has meant many companies would have to pay an extra $25 for previously already available features: literally before, as Standard. Teams Basic’s tariff meant many large and medium-sized companies could no longer qualify with the change from unlimited tenants to a maximum of 25 tenants.
Price Jump to Maintain Features
Tom Arbuthnot, on his blog Tom Talks commented: “$40 a month will be a big cost jump for lots of customers who have gone with Microsoft Teams Rooms Standard ($15) licencing today and want to maintain the features they have today and have the future advanced features.
“The changes in tariffs also restrict device use, encouraging those wanting versatility to upgrade. Microsoft’s licence documentation states: “A Teams Rooms Basic license can be used to license a single certified Teams Rooms device in a room. If you want to log into more than one device in a room using the same resource account (for example, a Teams Rooms console, a Surface Hub, and a Teams panel), you need to use a Teams Rooms Pro license.”
Teams Standard also had supported experiences, meeting scheduling, meeting join, meeting engagement and collaboration, meeting and device controls, security, management and administration, and managed operation. However, Basic comes free with certified Teams devices and Standard costs $15 per device.
