Microsoft Announces Office 365 E5 General Availability
Microsoft Announces Office 365 E5 General Availability by Robbie Pleasant
Microsoft has announced the general availability of the latest version of Microsoft Office 365, with new capabilities and features. Office 365 E5 features new Skype for Business capabilities, new analytics, and new security features, and is available to all Microsoft customers December 1.
The latest version of Skype for Business, included in Office 365 E5, offers PSTN Conferencing to allow users to dial in from a traditional phone or from their computer or mobile device. Of particular note is the new Cloud PBX feature, Microsoft’s first generation of enterprise voice in the cloud, providing the call control functionality of a traditional PBX now running in Microsoft’s multitenant public cloud. Cloud PBX will be available everywhere where Office 365 is available. Additionally, Skype Meeting Broadcast allows for the creation of large meetings, with up to 10,000 attendees. Microsoft Office 365 E5 is available starting at $35 per user per month, with optional add-ons available for additional costs. One key option is PSTN Calling, which lets customers subscribe to Microsoft-managed calling plans and phone numbers, or use an existing carrier. Microsoft will provide “all you care to eat” calling plans for international or domestic calling, ($12 domestic, $24 international). PSTN calling is available in US only initially.
The new data analytics capabilities are intended to provide more insights into users and time management. Delve Analytics provides dashboards with information on time and relationships, and Power BI is a business analytics service that analyzes data through live data dashboards, interactive reports, and visualizations.
For new security features, Office 365 E5 offers Advanced Threat Protection, which leverages behavioral analysis to protect against unknown malware and viruses, and Data Loss Protection. The Customer Lockbox gives users approval rights, transparency, and control over their data in the cloud, so as to provide better management and monitoring, while Advanced eDiscovery uses Equivio machine learning, predictive coding, and text analytics capabilities, to more effectively and affordably sort through vast amounts of data for eDiscovery purposes.
“With the new Office 365 E5 license Microsoft has doubled-down on bundling as a core value proposition,” states Kevin Kieller, UC Expert for UCStrategies. “For $35 per month, plus a $12 calling plan, I can give a U.S. employee all the tools they need to be successful: a phone, unlimited conferencing, email, voice mail, all the Office tools, webcasting and much more. I am not aware of another company who can offer the same breadth of business enablement services. I expect these new Office 365 offerings to be immediately disruptive in the SMB market. However, robust adoption by larger enterprises will take a few years.”
Marty Parker, UC Expert and Principal Consultant of UniComm Consulting, adds: “Microsoft’s new E5 plan illustrates Microsoft’s broad commitment to advancing productivity for small and large enterprises. Office 365 makes this easy to acquire and use, and the many features enhance collaboration, analytics, information security and, of course, communication. The $8 per month list price for the Cloud PBX will dramatically lower TCO for that portion of enterprise users for whom the initial feature set is sufficient. As Microsoft continues to enhance the product through quarterly updates, the Office 365 Cloud PBX can server a larger portion of the enterprise.”
The following illustrates the new pricing; new or enhanced features are marked in red:
Figure 1 Image via Microsoft.
For more information, visit www.microsoft.com.