SearchAnnounced officially at Inspire in July and released last week, an evolution to Microsoft Secure Productive Enterprise is available. The newly named Microsoft 365 Enterprise has additional benefits taking it beyond a simple name change. The intent remains the same of streamlining device management, security, and employee collaboration features while reducing cost to maintain them. Microsoft 365 Enterprise still follows an E3/E5 plan format with E5 getting the requisite level feature set from Office 365 and advanced analytics through Power BI Pro.
Other newer features include those that will be generally included with the products if purchased individually. These include enhanced features in Azure Active Directory, Azure Information Protection, and the latest features only available to Office 365 subscribers like Editor for Word and advanced Inking features across the Office suite.
Exact pricing will vary depending on which plan and the number of seats. Businesses can only get Microsoft 365 Enterprise via an Enterprise Agreement, MPSA, or from a Cloud Service Provider like eimagine. SMB companies won’t be left in the dust though.
Microsoft 365 Business just entered public preview and opens the door to businesses up to 300 users with limited IT resources to partake in Microsoft’s best cloud productivity, security, and device management offerings for a nominal fee. It includes the same features as Office 365 Business Premium (Office tools, online collaboration tools, cloud storage, and more) as well as device management and security tools that commonly previously required on-site equipment and IT overhead to maintain that are now Azure based.
This allows a single administration location to manage mobile devices including the ability to remote wipe all or configured business apps/data. To ensure employees have laptop/desktop security covered, Microsoft 365 Business also includes upgrade benefits to Windows 10 Pro from Windows 7 or 8/8.1 Pro. This enables features including AutoPilot for provisioning and on-boarding devices, control of Windows Update policy, and centralized device management.
Microsoft 365 Business will be made available later this year after the current free preview. If a business already has Office 365 Business Premium, they can take advantage of the preview within their tenant. However, those users with other Office 365 products (like E3/E5) should not deploy the preview to avoid functionality loss. Those users interested in checking out the features or getting more information should reach out to a Microsoft or a Microsoft Partner like eimagine.
