Microsoft offer some of the most impressive business suites in the world, all of which host a range of powerful business tools that help you operate more effectively, more cost-efficiently, and more securely.
As you might be aware, Microsoft 365 – their most recent suite of apps – has several tiers that each offer different features and functions for business users. Today, we’re going to help you understand the differences between Business Standard vs Premium, and show you the true power that Microsoft 365 holds for your organisation.
What Is Microsoft 365 Business?
For anyone who is just getting into the world of Microsoft and cloud business suites, you might be wondering what it actually is and what purpose it serves.
Microsoft 365 Business is a complete productivity and cloud service solution that combines a range of productivity apps – including favourites such as Word, Excel, Outlook, and Teams – with powerful cloud and data tools, along with device management and cyber security.
In short, it gives small and medium sized businesses a cost-effective way to manage, collaborate, share, store, and operate!
Why Should Your Business Choose Microsoft 365 Business?
There’s a good reason for so many businesses choosing Microsoft 365 Business as their primary solution: it’s packed full of incredibly useful apps and features that can transform how a business operates.
Both the Standard and Premium packages include all of the following apps, services, and tools:
Everything included here makes even Business Standard a great choice. It also includes latest security and compliance offerings from Microsoft. Having said that, Standard does leave out a handful of features that have huge potential to completely transform your business and which provide you with everything you could need to scale like never before.
Business Standard vs Premium – What Extra Features Do You Get?
Premium is the highest tier from the Microsoft 365 Business plans, and as a result is the most robust and advanced. In addition to everything you get in the Standard plan, Premium offers several impressively deep features that are well worth considering when choosing the right plan for your business.
Premium users will benefit from advanced cloud services such as Intune, Azure Information Protection (AIP), and incredibly comprehensive mobile device management (MDM).
On top of that, you will also have access to Microsoft’s most advanced security tools which include Advanced Threat Protection, Conditional Access, and Microsoft Defender which proactively keep your business secure from a number of different angles.
Intune
Intune is Microsoft’s endpoint management solution, allowing you to simplify app and device management across your entire organisation. It allows you to automate policy deployment across apps, manage access to devices, data, and apps across all devices including those that aren’t running on Windows, and integrates with mobile threat defence services to keep your endpoints secure.
Mobile Device Management
Microsoft 365 Business Premium delivers a number of MDM tools that give you powerful tools to manage any device, anywhere within your organisation. You will be able to remotely set up desktops, update them, and even wipe machines entirely remotely, keeping you in full control of access to company data regardless of whether they’re company owned or BYOD.
Conditional Access
If you want full control of your data access, you need Business Premium. This plan gives you the ability to create specific rules and access controls across data and files that prevent the wrong people from viewing or even modifying them. You can create limited access controls based on attributes such as audience, time, and even location.
Microsoft Defender
Microsoft Defender for Business is an optimised, comprehensive security solution that effectively keeps your endpoints secure. It uses built-in intelligence to protect, detect, and respond to threats keeping you safe against ransomware, malware, phishing and other cyber threats.
Advanced Threat Protection
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) is a sophisticated add-on for Defender which further helps to prevent attacks, and will investigate post-incident. It provides you with automated investigation and remediation features, active threat hunting to detect and block potential threats, regularly updated security scores that rate your current security configuration, and much more to keep your business and its data safe.
Why It’s Worth Upgrading
Although the additional features included in the Premium plan come with an extra cost, for many businesses it’s still worth the price to upgrade and gain access to them.
Not only do these features allow you to scale far more efficiently, saving you unpredictable costs down the road, they also take your cyber security to a new level that will keep you safe against the constant threats that are becoming more and more challenging to avoid in 2022.
Just take a look at these cyber threat statistics:
Need Help With Your Microsoft 365 Business? Get In Touch With Us
Due to Microsoft’s tools being so comprehensive, it is often difficult to decide on a plan that is right for you, and which apps might be best suited to your business.
If you’d like advice on the right Microsoft 365 Business plan, or need help with implementing it across your business, request a call back from one of our advisors today.
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If you are already using Microsoft 365 Business but would like to upgrade your plan, we can support you through the process and implementation of any new features. Fill out our contact form today and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
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