Microsoft Teams Unbundled from Office Suite - What's the Impact?

Published 04/04/24 under:

Here’s what’s happening?

In a bid to simplify licencing and product usage for users worldwide, Microsoft has rolled out significant changes to the licensing of its Microsoft 365, Office 365, and Teams products. With immediate effect, Microsoft is introducing a fresh set of commercial Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites outside of the EEA and Switzerland (impacting the UK). Notably, Microsoft Teams will no longer be bundled with these suites, aligning with recent shifts in licensing strategy. Moreover, there’ll be a standalone Teams offering for Enterprise customers in these regions.

How does this impact existing Teams users?

There shouldn’t be much disruption. Existing Teams users who subscribe to Microsoft 365 or Office 365 suites can sit back and relax. They can continue using, renewing, upgrading, and tweaking their subscriptions just like before. They also have the flexibility to switch to suites without Teams upon renewal or add new user subscriptions to ‘No-Teams’ suites, or opt for the new standalone Teams package at any time.

How does this impact new customers?

Beginning today in regions beyond the EEA (which includes the UK):

• New enterprise customers aiming to equip their employees with both Microsoft Teams and the existing value of Microsoft 365 E3/E5 or Office 365 E1/E3/E5 suites will need to purchase two SKUs: one E1/E3/E5 suite (No-Teams) and Microsoft Teams Enterprise.
• Small and medium business customers will have the option to select between the existing Microsoft 365 Business Basic/Standard/Premium suites with Teams or the new ‘No-Teams’ versions.
• As for Frontline workers, they’ll get to choose between the current Microsoft 365 F1, Office 365 F3, and Microsoft 365 F3 suites bundled with Teams or the new Teams-free versions.

For a full breakdown of new SKUs and pricing, you can read the Microsoft announcement here.

Why Microsoft Teams?

Following the recent regulatory news regarding the European Commission, this move from Microsoft enables even more flexibility and choice for businesses looking to adopt productivity and collaboration tools. However, we believe the power of Teams – especially when integrated into a wider Microsoft ecosystem – is phenomenal. Here’s why:

Productivity:

In addition to its familiar features like chat and meetings, Microsoft Teams continues to enhance its productivity toolkit. With innovations like Teams Meeting Rooms (included in Microsoft Teams Premium), which create a virtual experience similar to being there in person, and the new Microsoft 365 Copilot, facilitating automatic meeting actions and enabling absent attendees to get the key takeaways instantly, Teams is leading the way in business-wide productivity and collaboration.

Telephony:

By integrating your voice communications with Microsoft Teams, you can eliminate your existing telephone connections and significantly reduce costs. Users who require Teams telephony would still need to purchase phone system licencing and leverage an external solution like Voxivo4Teams.

Compliance:

Regulated businesses often require surveillance monitoring of such communications where they may be potentially related to a financial transaction taking place. Microsoft Teams is a compliant solution which is able to be monitored and recorded for compliance purposes.

As a Microsoft Solutions Partner, we provide Microsoft Teams support with an end-to-end digital workplace consultation where we align a modern workplace vision with your business goals and available technology to ensure you get the most out of Microsoft Teams so that it works for you.