Today, Microsoft has officially rolled a set of name changes for their Office 365 offerings. In fact, the "Office" part of Office 365 has been retired. From now on, all of Microsoft's subscription offerings will be brought under the single "Microsoft 365" umbrella. Rest assured the Office packages themselves are staying the same, the only change is the name.
What goes where
According to the release from Microsoft, the only SKUs currently affected are non-enterprise (E3, E5, etc) ones. There are several important SKUs in here though that will be changing:
-
Business Essentials becomes Business Basic
The first change is to Office 365 Business Essentials which becomes Microsoft 365 Business Basic. This SKU is most commonly used for light workers who only need cloud-based apps (similar to G-suite) and is handy for organizations to add a "just email" user with a bit more functionality.
-
Business becomes Apps for Business
Office 365 Business is the "meat and potatoes" subscription for most orgs and now becomes Microsoft 365 Apps for Business. This SKU gives you all of the traditional Office desktop apps like Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook and more. This tends to be the subscription most people are looking for when trying to purchase Office.
-
Business Premium becomes Business Standard
Office 365 Business Premium gets it's name change to Microsoft 365 Business Standard. This SKU combines the two previously mentioned packages into one giving you access to both the Office desktop apps as well as exchange email and a few other perks as well. This is the package designed for your everyday employee and it provides them with all the tools they'll need.
-
Microsoft 365 Business to Microsoft 365 Business Premium
To avoid confusion, Microsoft 365 Business gets it's name changed to Microsoft 365 Business Premium. Unfortunately for anyone out of the loop this change may actually cause more confusion as those looking for Office 365 Business Premium may find themselves looking at this SKU and wondering why the price jumped way up. Be advised that this is NOT Office 365 Business Premium! Instead, this SKU encompass more than just the Office suite. It actually provides a Windows 10 license and Windows Virtual Desktop capabilities as well as device management options.
-
Pro Plus is now Apps for Enterprise
Finally, Office 365 Pro Plus becomes Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise. This SKU is similar to Apps for Business but provides higher-level support and allows for unlimited users in a subscription (Apps for Business has a 300 user cap). This package is typically reserved for enterprise environments so only orgs with a large contingent of employees will find themselves looking at this particular package.
Everything else stays the same
There are a handful of other SKUs for Office that will remain the same. Office 365 E3, E5 and so forth will continue to be called such going forward. It's also important to note that there are no price or feature changes, only names. So if you know what SKUs you typically purchase by price or feature set you can use those as guidance to get you to the right package.