Microsoft today announced three new Office 365 plans which it says are better designed to fulfill the needs and requirements of businesses in a much more effective manner. The new plans are available starting today and they’re called Office 365 Business Essentials, Office 365 Business and Office 365 Business Premium. The company notes that these plans have been designed for businesses that have anywhere from one to more than 250 employees. They replace the old Small Business, Small Business Premium and Midsize Business plans.
With an annual commitment Office 365 Business will cost $8.25 per user per month. It includes all Office applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher and OneNote as well as OneDrive for Business cloud storage allowing business users to access, share and edit documents across Windows, Mac, iPad, Windows tablets and smartphones.
The new Business Essentials plan will cost $5 per user per month and will include core cloud services such as Office Online, OneDrive for Business, 50GB email, contacts and shared calendars. For $12.5 per user per month Office 365 Business Premium brings everything that’s included in both the aforementioned plans. There’s a 300 seat cap for all three of these new plans.
Businesses now have the option to either continue with the plans that they are already using and hold out until their first renewal after October 1st, 2015. That’s when they’ll have to make a decision about which plan to go with.
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