Microsoft Delivers Small Business Strategies for the Age of Collaboration

Simple collaboration success for the SMB

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Unified Communications

Published: September 22, 2017

Rebekah Carter - Writer

Rebekah Carter

It seems that Microsoft is obsessed with making constant improvements to their collaboration portfolio. Following recent updates revealed at Microsoft Inspire, it seems that the brand will now be meeting the collaboration demands of small to medium sized businesses too, with their “Microsoft 365” solution.

Microsoft 365 was one of the major announcements to hit the stage at Microsoft Inspire this July. The system brings together the functionality of Windows 10, and Office 365 with an extra dose of enterprise security and mobility for incredible peace of mind. According to the latest news, the solution will come in two options: “Microsoft 365 Enterprise” (E3 and E5), and “Microsoft 365 Business“. The “Business” plan was designed exclusively to help smaller businesses find their way into the collaboration era.

What to Expect from Microsoft 365 Business

The Microsoft 365 Business kit is already available in public beta format. So, if you want to see what the system feels like for yourself, you can give it a try before it becomes fully available at the end of 2017. That could be ideal for customers who want to know exactly what they’re getting into with their Microsoft collaboration services before making a real investment.

While in the past, Microsoft services have been a little bit “unfinished” to begin with, the Microsoft 365 Business solution should come pretty much ready to go. Since the solution is made up of time-tested products and software, you won’t have to wait around for security features or mobile apps to be released. At the same time, you can access a fully-centralised solution for collaboration that places everything you need in one space.

If you’re worried about approaching collaboration technology from the investment side of things – don’t panic. Microsoft 365 Business could also be ideal from that perspective too, as companies will get multiple products and services wrapped up in a single bill. In fact, it’s already been announced that the system should cost about $20 per user, per month.

Exploring the Collaboration Solution

As you might expect, you won’t necessarily get all the same features you’d receive in the Microsoft 365 Enterprise package, in the Business alternative. The system is missing a few things like SharePoint Online, and Yammer. However, you will get Outlook email, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, and Skype for Business.

Ultimately, the Business kit is intended to power employee-to-employee collaboration, while the Enterprise version is more structured around organisational collaboration. The upcoming “Ignite” conference held by Microsoft at the end of September should help us to shed a little more light on what we should come to expect from Microsoft 365.

 

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