A new report suggest that many organizations are paying too much for Microsoft 365 (Office 365). The same might apply to some individuals with Microsoft 365 Family/Home.
The Coreview report identifies three costly mistakes with Microsoft 365 licencing.
- Buy too many licenses; ‘err on the side of caution’.
- Not assigning inactive licenses to new users, instead buying another licence.
- Licenses that provide more than employees need or use.
The number of inactive and unassigned licences is astonishing.
- Office 365 E1: 37% are inactive, and 39% are unassigned
- Office 365 E3: 12% are inactive and 42% are unassigned
- Office 365 E5: 23% are inactive and 27% are unassigned
That’s a lot of money flowing to Microsoft that could be saved.
Perhaps the biggest saving could be moving E2 or E3 users to the cheaper E1 plan. E2/E3 plans include desktop Office programs (for $20 per user/month or more).
E1 gives access to the browser-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams plus the mobile apps on smaller devices. For just $8 per user/month. That might be all that some staff need.
Microsoft 365 Personal vs Family
We’ve seen many individuals who have an Office 365/Microsoft 365 Home plan when all they need is Microsoft 365 Personal.
The Personal plan is enough for an individual. Microsoft 365 lets one person run Office for Windows or Mac on 5 computers at a time plus five mobile devices. And all the usual Microsoft 365 goodies, a Terabyte of OneDrive, 60 Skype minutes of calls etc.
Yet many solo users have the Family/Home plan for six users .. why? Microsoft 365 Home is sold much more prominently both online and in stores. Sometimes stores don’t even have Personal ‘cards’ available.
If you’re on your own, maybe check what you’ve purchased by logging into your account at Office.com . If it’s the Home plan, don’t renew but buy Microsoft 365 Personal near the expiry date and switch to the cheaper plan.
Remember: don’t buy direct from Microsoft, look for cheaper prices elsewhere. Microsoft 365 Personal isn’t discounted as much as the Home/Family plan.
Goodbye Office 365, Welcome Microsoft 365
Office 365 Personal gets a big boost
Significant improvements in Office 365 Home, Personal and University
Protect yourself buying Microsoft Office from Amazon or Ebay
