Office 365 users versus email accounts
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We use E3 and love it.
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A bit of a mess.
E3 is the least, that comes with the software.
To be honest, it's a pretty good deal
I don't know if you can use the Office licenses with RDS (back in October 2013 you could not) but that's something that interested a lot of people.
There is a lot of vagueness with which product comes with what, not totally transparent, but will get there.
Good luck
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@scottalanmiller said:
You hate that they save you money?
Combo deals or plans are designed by marketing teams to encourage customers to spend more money. They're not designed to save customers money. A lot of SMEs will sign up for an Enterprise plan rather than a MidSize business plan even though it may cost them more money initially, because they want to avoid any hassle further down the line. This is a bit like buying a Happy Meal even when you don't want fries.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Carnival-Boy said:
I really hate plans. Especially Microsoft ones. Why can't everything just be à la carte? It's the one area where I really prefer Google.
But.... Office 365 is a la carte and Google Apps is not. I'm confused
Google don't have plans. Well, they market Apps plus Vault as a plan, but it's not really as you can add Vault at any time to a normal user for exactly the same price. I have a number of Google users and they all use different services - Maps Engine Pro, Maps Coordinate, Vault. Adding services couldn't be simpler. You go to admin.google.com, purchase licences for whatever services you want, then assign the licences to whichever users you want. At the end of the month you are billed for whichever services you have used. It is very much a la carte.
With Google I have one admin console, one invoice and one group of users. With Microsoft, I currently have to maintain 3 different environments - a Small Business plan (previously called P1 plan), a Small Business Premium plan and an InTune plan. All are managed separately with 3 different invoices.
Now I appreciate that if you ignore all Microsoft plans other than the three enterprise ones, you are in a similar position with O365 that you are with Google Apps. And I appreciate that Microsoft have a more extensive product range, so I'm not comparing like with like. So don't take everything I say too literally.
I use Microsoft and Google, and have no loyalty to either. I just think Google services are easier to manage than Microsoft ones and the licencing is simpler and more transparent, as I've said many times before. I guess you prefer Microsoft. It comes down to personal preference. I like apples. You like pears. We can debate this until the cows come home but there is no right and wrong answer (but I'm right
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I agree that Microsoft offers too many options. But they are only extra... Except for there being too many things to choose from, they offer everything anyone might want. They have a la carte. They have plans. They have plans that are flexible and plans that are not. You get to choose any plan or non-plan model that you want.
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Lesson learned from using the trial. If you want smooth sailing from trial to purchase, choose the appropriate product first. I choose E3 which after the trial, I am now on subscription. If I wanted to go to O365 SB Premium, I would have had to shut down my account, sign up for a new account. Connect to SharePoint/OneDrive for Business and upload all my files ect ect.
I have a new client that might be going for the O365 SB Premium and I am pretty well versed with the platform now.
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@technobabble said:
If I wanted to go to O365 SB Premium, I would have had to shut down my account, sign up for a new account. Connect to SharePoint/OneDrive for Business and upload all my files ect ect.
This is what I'm talking about! It's nuts!!
I was the other way round, I wanted to go from Small Business to Enterprise, but couldn't. I thought they'd simplified it from when I first took out a subscription (and got my fingers burnt) but it still sounds like a nightmare. I really don't see how anyone can argue that Google Apps isn't a whole lot easier.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
@technobabble said:
If I wanted to go to O365 SB Premium, I would have had to shut down my account, sign up for a new account. Connect to SharePoint/OneDrive for Business and upload all my files ect ect.
This is what I'm talking about! It's nuts!!
I was the other way round, I wanted to go from Small Business to Enterprise, but couldn't. I thought they'd simplified it from when I first took out a subscription (and got my fingers burnt) but it still sounds like a nightmare. I really don't see how anyone can argue that Google Apps isn't a whole lot easier.
Microsoft has definitely introduced a nasty artificial headache with the inability to switch plans. I can understand that they want the account to be all SMB or Enterprise, one or the other. I can deal with that easily, but they should have a very simple migration path for that. It is all going on the same servers for the same products.
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Not to mention that it took days of posting here, Spiceworks and Twitter to get an answer. I finally was told by Chris@Microsoft that I would have to close an account and open a new one to switch from enterprise to SB.
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It seems that Microsoft now make it easy to upgrade, but difficult or impossible to downgrade. How convenient for them.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
@technobabble said:
If I wanted to go to O365 SB Premium, I would have had to shut down my account, sign up for a new account. Connect to SharePoint/OneDrive for Business and upload all my files ect ect.
This is what I'm talking about! It's nuts!!
I was the other way round, I wanted to go from Small Business to Enterprise, but couldn't. I thought they'd simplified it from when I first took out a subscription (and got my fingers burnt) but it still sounds like a nightmare. I really don't see how anyone can argue that Google Apps isn't a whole lot easier.
But that's specifically looking at "lock in" plans where you save money by opting for total lock in. There are plans for people who like that and plans for people who want options. There is only lock in if you opt for it.
It's offering more, not less.
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@JaredBusch said:
@Carnival-Boy said:
@technobabble said:
If I wanted to go to O365 SB Premium, I would have had to shut down my account, sign up for a new account. Connect to SharePoint/OneDrive for Business and upload all my files ect ect.
This is what I'm talking about! It's nuts!!
I was the other way round, I wanted to go from Small Business to Enterprise, but couldn't. I thought they'd simplified it from when I first took out a subscription (and got my fingers burnt) but it still sounds like a nightmare. I really don't see how anyone can argue that Google Apps isn't a whole lot easier.
Microsoft has definitely introduced a nasty artificial headache with the inability to switch plans. I can understand that they want the account to be all SMB or Enterprise, one or the other. I can deal with that easily, but they should have a very simple migration path for that. It is all going on the same servers for the same products.
Is it on the same servers? I'm not sure that it is.
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@technobabble said:
Not to mention that it took days of posting here, Spiceworks and Twitter to get an answer. I finally was told by Chris@Microsoft that I would have to close an account and open a new one to switch from enterprise to SB.
If you'd have ask NTG, we could have told you
Your partner should be versed on this stuff and provide all of that guidance. The idea is that you never go directly to Microsoft because you bypass the advisor and assistance that is provided for free through the partners.
No idea why no one noticed the post over there but NTG is way more active here than there. You should have pinged us - we are Microsoft's official partners in the community.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
It seems that Microsoft now make it easy to upgrade, but difficult or impossible to downgrade. How convenient for them.
Is that worse than Google who only offers one level? Would it be better if the downgrade just didn't exist?
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I'd like to interject a technical bit:
In this topic, people are referring to changing plans. If I want to change from an E1 plan to E3 or vice versa, I can do that at any time, with just a few clicks. That's changing plans. Changing from Small Business to Midsize Business, for example, is a change of tenant. If you want a comparison for an onsite equivalent, it's like changing over to a new AD forest. It's not something you can just do that easily.
