Microsoft Office 365 Business
It's the Office you know, plus tools to help you work better together, so you can get more done — anytime, anywhere.

Overview:

Your Office anywhere

With Office 365 Business, familiar tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook are available where and when you need them.

Simplify how you work together

Store, sync, and share your files online so they’re always up to date. Plus, you can edit documents with others in real time.

Easy setup and management

With step-by-step guidance, you can set up users easily and start using the services fast. And Office 365 takes care of IT for you.

Office 365 Business includes:

Familiar Office tools:
Office suite	Always have the latest versions of: Capture your ideas however you work best—using a keyboard, pen, or a touchscreen. Easily format information in Excel with tools that recognize your pattern and autocomplete data. Easily incorporate content from PDFs to create your own great-looking Word documents. Design customized marketing materials that fit your brand and customers.
Office on PCs, tablets, and phones	Enjoy a fully installed Office experience across PCs, Macs, Windows tablets, iPad® and Android™ tablets, and most mobile devices. Each user can install Office on 5 PCs or Macs, 5 tablets (Windows, iPad, and Android), and 5 phones.
Plus these online services:
Email and calendars	Use business-class email through a rich and familiar Outlook experience you can access from your desktop or from a web browser using Outlook Web App. Get a 50 GB mailbox per user and send attachments up to 150 MB. Learn more
Online conferencing	Host online meetings with audio and video using one-click screen sharing and HD video conferencing.
Instant messaging and Skype connectivity	Connect with other Skype for Business users via instant message, voice calls, and video calls, and let people know your availability with your online status. Share presence, IM, and audio calling with Skype users.
Corporate social network	Yammer collaboration software and business applications allow your employees to connect with the right people, share information across teams, and organize around projects so they can go further, faster.
File storage and sharing	OneDrive for Business provides 1 TB of storage for each user for virtually anywhere access to their documents. Share files with others inside and outside your organization, control who can see and edit each file, and easily sync files with PCs/Macs and devices.
Team sites	Enable easy access and sharing of documents with 10 GB baseline storage plus 500 MB of storage per user
Office Online	Create and edit Word, OneNote, PowerPoint, and Excel documents from a browser.
Professional digital storytelling	With Sway, a new Office 365 app, you can easily create engaging, interactive web-based reports, presentations, newsletters, trainings and more—right from your phone, tablet, or browser. Sways are easy to share and look great on any screen.
Search and discovery	Stay in the know. Search and discover content across Office 365 based on personalized insights. Office Delve is the first experience to be powered by Office Graph, a collection of analyzed signals or insights derived from each user’s behavior and relationships to content, topics, and contacts.
All Office 365 for business plans include:
Reliability	Get peace of mind knowing your services are available with a guaranteed 99.9% uptime, financially backed service level agreement (SLA).
Security	Cutting-edge security practices with five layers of security and proactive monitoring help keep customer data safe.
Privacy	Your data is yours. We safeguard it and protect your privacy.
Administration	Deploy and manage Office 365 across your company, no IT expertise required. You can add and remove user in minutes.
Up to date	No need to pay for version upgrades; updates are included in your subscription. New features are rolled out to Office 365 customers regularly.
Active Directory Integration	Manage user credentials and permissions. Single sign-on and synchronization with Active Directory.
Support	Microsoft Support provides telephone and online answers, how-to-resources and connections with other Office 365 customers for setup and quick fixes.

Office 365 Business Essentials

Get work done anywhere

Work across your devices to create, edit, and share your Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote files online. Anytime, anywhere.

Simplify how you work together

Store, sync, and share your files online so they’re always up to date. Plus, you can edit documents with others in real time.

Easy setup and management

With step-by-step guidance, you can set up users easily and start using the services fast. And Office 365 takes care of IT for you.

Office 365 Business Essentials includes:

Online services:
Email and calendars	Use business-class email through a rich and familiar Outlook experience you can access from your desktop or from a web browser using Outlook Web App. Get a 50 GB mailbox per user and send attachments up to 150 MB. Learn more
Online conferencing	Host online meetings with audio and video using one-click screen sharing and HD video conferencing.
Instant messaging and Skype connectivity	Connect with other Skype for Business users via instant message, voice calls, and video calls, and let people know your availability with your online status. Share presence, IM, and audio calling with Skype users.
Corporate social network	Yammer collaboration software and business applications allow your employees to connect with the right people, share information across teams, and organize around projects so they can go further, faster.
File storage and sharing	OneDrive for Business provides 1 TB of storage for each user for virtually anywhere access to their documents. Share files with others inside and outside your organization, control who can see and edit each file, and easily sync files with PCs/Macs and devices.
Team sites	Enable easy access and sharing of documents with 10 GB baseline storage plus 500 MB of storage per user
Office Online	Create and edit Word, OneNote, PowerPoint, and Excel documents from a browser.
Professional digital storytelling	With Sway, a new Office 365 app, you can easily create engaging, interactive web-based reports, presentations, newsletters, trainings and more—right from your phone, tablet, or browser. Sways are easy to share and look great on any screen.
Search and discovery	Stay in the know. Search and discover content across Office 365 based on personalized insights. Office Delve is the first experience to be powered by Office Graph, a collection of analyzed signals or insights derived from each user’s behavior and relationships to content, topics, and contacts.
All Office 365 for business plans include:
Reliability	Get peace of mind knowing your services are available with a guaranteed 99.9% uptime, financially backed service level agreement (SLA).
Security	Cutting-edge security practices with five layers of security and proactive monitoring help keep customer data safe.
Privacy	Your data is yours. We safeguard it and protect your privacy.
Administration	Deploy and manage Office 365 across your company, no IT expertise required. You can add and remove user in minutes.
Up to date	No need to pay for version upgrades; updates are included in your subscription. New features are rolled out to Office 365 customers regularly.
Active Directory Integration	Manage user credentials and permissions. Single sign-on and synchronization with Active Directory.
Support	Microsoft Support provides telephone and online answers, how-to-resources and connections with other Office 365 customers for setup and quick fixes.

Office 365 Business Premium

Office across your devices

Always have the latest versions of your familiar Office applications, no matter which device you're using-PC/Mac, tablet, or phone.

Simplify how you work together

Store, sync, and share your files online so they're always up to date. Plus, you can edit documents with others in real time.

Easy setup and management

With step-by-step guidance, you can set up users easily and start using the services fast. And Office 365 takes care of IT for you.

Office 365 Business Premium includes:

Familiar Office tools:
Office suite	Always have the latest versions of: Capture your ideas however you work best—using a keyboard, pen, or a touchscreen. Easily format information in Excel with tools that recognize your pattern and autocomplete data. Easily incorporate content from PDFs to create your own great-looking Word documents. Design customized marketing materials that fit your brand and customers.
Office on PCs, tablets, and phones	Enjoy a fully installed Office experience across PCs, Macs, Windows tablets, iPad® and Android™ tablets, and most mobile devices. Each user can install Office on 5 PCs or Macs, 5 tablets (Windows, iPad, and Android), and 5 phones.
Plus these online services:
Email and calendars	Use business-class email through a rich and familiar Outlook experience you can access from your desktop or from a web browser using Outlook Web App. Get a 50 GB mailbox per user and send attachments up to 150 MB. Learn more
Online conferencing	Host online meetings with audio and video using one-click screen sharing and HD video conferencing.
Instant messaging and Skype connectivity	Connect with other Skype for Business users via instant message, voice calls, and video calls, and let people know your availability with your online status. Share presence, IM, and audio calling with Skype users.
Corporate social network	Yammer collaboration software and business applications allow your employees to connect with the right people, share information across teams, and organize around projects so they can go further, faster.
File storage and sharing	OneDrive for Business provides 1 TB of storage for each user for virtually anywhere access to their documents. Share files with others inside and outside your organization, control who can see and edit each file, and easily sync files with PCs/Macs and devices.
Team sites	Enable easy access and sharing of documents with 10 GB baseline storage plus 500 MB of storage per user
Office Online	Create and edit Word, OneNote, PowerPoint, and Excel documents from a browser.
Professional digital storytelling	With Sway, a new Office 365 app, you can easily create engaging, interactive web-based reports, presentations, newsletters, trainings and more—right from your phone, tablet, or browser. Sways are easy to share and look great on any screen.
Search and discovery	Stay in the know. Search and discover content across Office 365 based on personalized insights. Office Delve is the first experience to be powered by Office Graph, a collection of analyzed signals or insights derived from each user’s behavior and relationships to content, topics, and contacts.
All Office 365 for business plans include:
Reliability	Get peace of mind knowing your services are available with a guaranteed 99.9% uptime, financially backed service level agreement (SLA).
Security	Cutting-edge security practices with five layers of security and proactive monitoring help keep customer data safe.
Privacy	Your data is yours. We safeguard it and protect your privacy.
Administration	Deploy and manage Office 365 across your company, no IT expertise required. You can add and remove user in minutes.
Up to date	No need to pay for version upgrades; updates are included in your subscription. New features are rolled out to Office 365 customers regularly.
Active Directory Integration	Manage user credentials and permissions. Single sign-on and synchronization with Active Directory.
Support	Microsoft Support provides telephone and online answers, how-to-resources and connections with other Office 365 customers for setup and quick fixes.

Office 365: Compare Plans

All of the Office 365 plans above include:

Other plans and related information

• Please note: Office 365 Business can only be combined with an Office 365 Business Premium subscription or Office 365 ProPlus and Windows Intune. Office 365 Business Premium can only be combined with Office 365 Business and Windows Intune. An Office 365 Midsize Business subscription cannot be combined with Office 365 Business or Office 365 Business Premium. Office 365 Enterprise plans enable you to combine the Office 365 Enterprise E1, E3, and E4 plans, the Office 365 Enterprise K1 plan (for kiosk workers), and the full range of standalone offers for individual services.
• Individual services: get business-class email with Exchange Online or online storage, file sync and sharing with OneDrive for Business. Kiosk plans are also available for deskless workers.
• Office options: if your organization is just looking for Office and no IT services, there are two options for businesses that need more applications for a larger employee base and there is also Office 365 ProPlus, a subscription-based version that offers additional capabilities.
• Plans that do not include the desktop version of Office work with the latest version of Office, Office 2010, Office 2007 (with slightly limited functionality), Office 2011 for Mac, and Office 2008 for Mac.

1. Windows PC client programs and/or features only. Cannot be used across devices.
2. Users can connect the following versions of Outlook to their hosted email, so they can use the rich client application they already know: the latest version of Outlook, Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007 (with slightly limited functionality), Outlook 2011 for Mac, and Outlook 2008 for Mac.
3. These mobile apps do not require a subscription, but may have other requirements.
4. Lync Server 2013 Plus CAL requires a customer to purchase and deploy an on-premises Lync Server to enhance or replace traditional PBX systems.

System Requirement:

Applies to: Office 365 Business Premium, Office 365 Business, Office 365 Midsize, Office 365 Government K1, Office 365 Government G4, Office 365 Government G3, Office 365 Government G1, Office 365 Enterprise K1, Office 365 Enterprise E4, Office 365 Enterprise E3, Office 365 Enterprise E1, Office 365 Education A4, Office 365 Education A3, Office 365 Education A2, Office 365

For the best experience using Office 365, we recommend that you always use the latest browsers, Office clients, and apps. We also recommend that you install software updates when they become available.

Office 365 is designed to work with the following software:

• The current or immediately previous version of Internet Explorer or Firefox, or the latest version of Chrome or Safari.
• Any version of Microsoft Office in mainstream support.

Although Microsoft does not recommend that you connect to Office 365 by using older browsers and clients, we provide limited support so long as that software is supported by its manufacturer. Specifically, if you continue to use older browsers and clients:

• Office 365 won’t deliberately prevent you from connecting to the service.
• Office 365 won’t provide code fixes to resolve problems related to those clients, but it will offer security fixes as needed.
• The quality of the user experience will diminish over time.

Office 365 does not support any software used with the service that is not supported by its manufacturer.

Web browsers: Internet Explorer

Office 365 is designed to work with the current or immediately previous version of Internet Explorer. We recommend that you upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer after it is released. Office 365 might continue to work with versions of Internet Explorer other than the current and immediately previous versions for some time after the release of a new version of Internet Explorer, but Office 365 can’t provide any guarantees.

When accessing Office 365 from older versions of Internet Explorer, users may experience known issues and limitations depending on the versions of Internet Explorer, including:

• Internet Explorer 9 Office 365 does not offer code fixes to resolve problems you encounter when using the service with Internet Explorer 9. You should expect the quality of the user experience to diminish over time, and that many new Office 365 experiences might not work at all.
• Internet Explorer 8 The user experience sending and receiving email with Outlook Web App and Internet Explorer 8 might be substantially diminished, especially when used on Windows XP or with low memory devices. Office 365 does not offer code fixes to resolve problems you encounter when using the service with Internet Explorer 8, and new Office 365 experiences might not work at all. You should also expect the quality of the user experience with Internet Explorer 8 to diminish further in the near future. Beginning in May 2014, Internet Explorer 8 will only display Outlook Web App Light. If you are an Office 365 admin, you will see a notification of this change in the Message Center in the Office 365 admin center 30 days before the change takes place.

If your organization is dependent upon Internet Explorer 8 to access older Web apps and services, you may want to consider upgrading to Internet Explorer 11 and evaluating Enterprise Mode for Internet Explorer 11. This update helps provide better backward compatibility for legacy Web apps.

Note: Beginning January 12, 2016, only the most current version of Internet Explorer available for a supported operating system will receive technical support and security updates.

Web browsers: Firefox, Chrome, and Safari

Office 365 is designed to work with the current or immediately previous version of Firefox, or the latest version of Chrome or Safari. Microsoft supports only browser versions that are also supported by the browser’s manufacturer. Typically, this is only the most current version. Firefox and Chrome are both designed to stream updates your devices every six weeks. Many common problems with these browsers are resolved in the next update.

Office clients in mainstream support

Most Office 365 plans provide you with the latest versions of Office desktop applications, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. To compare the availability of Office applications and features across Office 365 plans

You can also use supported Microsoft Office clients with your Office 365 subscription. Office 365 is designed to work with any version of Microsoft Office that is in mainstream support. Although most new Office 365 experiences are designed for the latest version of Office, some new features might work with older versions of Office that are in mainstream support.

Office subscription software licenses (Office 365 ProPlus, Office Professional Plus 2010, and the Lync client provided with your Office 365 service) entitle you to use the current version of the software and do not include downgrade rights to older versions of the software. Microsoft may provide an upgrade period during which your subscription entitles you to use both a current and previous version of the software.

Note: [1] Mainstream support ends for Office Professional Plus 2010 on October 13, 2015. [2] Mainstream support ends for Office Professional Plus 2013 on April 10, 2018.

Office clients in extended support

Although Office clients in extended support were not designed to work with Office 365, they should continue to connect to the Office 365 service. We will provide a notice consistent with our Service Pack Support Lifecycle Policy if there is a substantial degradation of the user experience with an Office client that is in extended support or if that Office client no longer connects to the Office 365 service.

Office 365 Support provides assistance with older clients, offering workarounds or how-to information when possible. However, in many cases, the only solution Office 365 Support can offer for a problem with an older browser or client is to upgrade it.

Note: Office 365 is not designed to work with Office 2007 because Office 2007 left mainstream support on October 12, 2012. Office 365 does not offer code fixes to resolve problems you encounter when using the service with Office 2007. You should expect the quality of the user experience to diminish over time, and many new Office 365 experiences will not work at all. We recommend that you upgrade as soon as possible to Office 365 ProPlus or Office Professional Plus 2013 for the best experience with Office 365.

Operating system requirements

Office 365 does not have an operating system requirement, except that the operating system you use must be supported by its manufacturer. However, there might be advanced Office 365 configuration options, features, scenarios, or tools that have explicit dependencies on an operating system or behave differently on different operating systems.

Note: Windows XP leaves extended support on April 8, 2014. Although Office 365 will not block users from connecting to the service from Windows XP devices after this date, you should expect the user experience to diminish over time. Users with low-memory devices running Windows XP and Internet Explorer 8 will have a substantially diminished browser experience with Office 365.

Office Service Packs and public updates from Microsoft

The Microsoft Service Pack Lifecycle Support Policy requires you to install Office Service Packs within 12 months of its release. Office 365 requires you to be in compliance with this policy.

Automatic public updates contain critical security fixes for Microsoft products. Office 365 strongly recommends that customers accept automatic updates from Microsoft both to secure their environments and to have the best experience with Office 365. Office 365 ProPlus and Lync Basic users can only defer installing updates for 12 months from date of release.

FAQs

How many users does Office 365 Business support?

Office 365 Business supports a maximum of 300 users. If you have more than 300 users or think you will soon, take a look at our other plan options.

Will Office 365 Business work with my copy of Office?

Office 365 Business works best with the latest version of Office, Office 2013, and Office 2011 for Mac. Previous versions of Office, such as Office 2010 and Office 2007, may work with Office 365 with reduced functionality. You do not need a desktop version of Office to use Office 365 Business. However, you will receive a much richer experience and be able to work offline if you do connect a desktop version of Office to the Office 365 services.

What forms of payment can I use?

You can pay with all major credit cards, and your subscription amount will appear on your credit card statement.

What payment options are available? Can I pay monthly or annually?

You can choose monthly commitment payment or annual commitment payment for Office 365 Business.

Monthly commitment payment: You pay month by month, and you can cancel at any time.

Annual commitment payment: You sign up for a one-year subscription, but you can choose to pay month to month or pay for the entire year at the time you sign up. There is a discount for using this payment option.

Can I cancel my subscription at any time?

You can cancel your subscription at any time. Office 365 Business subscriptions are available for monthly commitment payment or annual commitment payment. For monthly commitment subscriptions, there is no penalty for canceling your contract at any time. Annual commitment subscriptions that are paid month to month may incur some penalties if canceled early. Annual commitment subscriptions that are paid up front do not receive a refund if canceled prior to the full contract period. Read the complete Microsoft Online Subscription Agreement.

What happens to my data if I cancel my subscription?

Your data is yours. If you decide to cancel your Office 365 subscription, you can download your data—for example, your email and documents on team sites—and save it to another location. You should save your data before you cancel. After you cancel your subscription, data associated with your Office 365 account will be available to your administrator(s) in a limited function account for 90 days.

Can I switch to other Office 365 plans?

Yes. If you need to upgrade, you can transition your account to a different plan. For example, you can upgrade from an Office 365 Business plan to an Office 365 Enterprise plan.

In most cases, you can use the Switch plans wizard in your Admin center to upgrade your plan. If your subscription has more than 300 users or if you used a prepaid card to purchase your plan, the Switch plans wizard is not available. Plans that are not eligible for the Switch plans wizard can be upgraded manually. Learn more about upgrading Office 365 plans.

NOTE: When you upgrade your account, your domain name is transferred to your new account, whether you brought your own domain name to the Office 365 account or you set up a domain name with Office 365.

Can I mix and match different Office 365 plans?

Yes, you can mix and match Office 365 plans. Please note that there are some license limitations at the plan level. The Office 365 Business, Business, and Business Premium plans each have a limit of 300 users, while the Enterprise plans are for an unlimited number of users. For example, you can purchase 300 Business Premium seats, 300 Business seats, and 500 Enterprise E3 seats on a single tenant.

What if I already own a domain name?

You can add the domain name you own to Office 365 to create domain-based email addresses. Find your domain registrar or DNS hosting provider. Compare domain management in Office 365 subscriptions.

I will need extra help setting up Office 365. Who can help?

Microsoft experts are trained IT and development companies that can help you move to Office 365 or develop custom solutions for your business. You can find a listing of all of our Microsoft experts in Microsoft Pinpoint.

What is the cloud?

"The cloud" is a friendly way of describing web-based computing services that are hosted outside of your organization. When you use cloud-based services, your IT infrastructure resides off your property (off-premises), and is maintained by a third party (hosted), instead of residing on a server at your home or business (on-premises) that you maintain. With Office 365, for example, information storage, computation, and software are located and managed remotely on servers owned by Microsoft. Many services you use every day are a part of the cloud—everything from web-based email to mobile banking and online photo storage. Because this infrastructure is located online or “in the cloud,” you can access it virtually anywhere, from a desktop, PC or Mac, laptop, tablet, smartphone, or other device with an Internet connection.

What happened to the Office 365 Small Business plan?

Office 365 Small Business has been renamed Office 365 Business. Office 365 Business includes all the features of the Office 365 Small Business plan, plus additions and improvements. For example, Active Directory has been added to Office 365 Business and the maximum number of users has been increased from 25 to 300.