Microsoft came to PCMag.com's offices to demo Microsoft Office 365 in advance of a beta rollout that will widen beyond Microsoft's partners on November 19. In addition to showing off what looked to be a robust beta of Microsoft's answer to Google Docs, complete with working capabilities that included collaborative document editing, mobile document editing, presence-detection features, and live video meetings, the Microsoft demo team left us with a few pricing examples.
While the complete pricing menu has yet to be released, the examples below offer some insight into what you might get for your dollar with Office 365, including examples with and without local versions of Microsoft Office 2010.
Small Business Example
This example would suit organizations with up to 50 users and minimal IT resources.
For $6 per user, per month, you get:
- Office Web Apps Web productivity applications
- SharePoint Online for Microsoft Office Access services, team sites, and an easy-to-build public website
- Lync Online for instant messaging and virtual meetings
- Community support
- Simplified setup and management.
Existing BPOS Customer Conversion
Potential enterprise will want to consider this example. Customers switching from Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite would receive the same services (with new enhancements) for the same list price they pay today.
For $10 per user, per month, you get:
- Exchange Online, including e-mail, mobile access, calendar, discovery, anti-virus, and anti-spam
- SharePoint Online, including advanced portals for collaboration
- Lync Online, including IM and virtual meetings
- 24x7 IT-level phone support
- On-premises licenses
- Control and management features.
Office Desktop Software Included
This pricing structure is for organizations that want Office Professional Plus desktop software along with the full functionality of Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync Online.
For $24 per user, per month, you get:
- Office Professional Plus desktop software
- Office Web Apps Web productivity applications
- Exchange Online, including e-mail, mobile access, calendar, discovery, anti-virus, anti-spam, voice mail, unified messaging, and archiving
- SharePoint Online, including advanced portals for collaboration, Microsoft Office Forms, Access, Visio, and Excel services
- Lync Online, including IM, virtual meetings, and on-premises voice
- 24x7 IT-level phone support
- On-premises licenses
- Control and management features.