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More and more of those services require cloud services that only Microsoft can provide. Not only has Microsoft increased dominance in office software and server related technologies. Microsoft always has one main reason behind a price increase – it’s because they can. The real reason for the Microsoft price increase The downside of these cloud services is the loss of privacy and greater reliance on Microsoft’s centralized services. What Microsoft calls ‘AI’ has enhanced Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook plus there’s better translation and transcription services available. For larger organizations there’s Content Search, eDiscovery and Litigation Hold options to keep the legal department happy (well, happier). There are now better data loss prevention features, sensitivity labels and some encryption improvements (though not enough in our view). Teams especially is a major boost to the power available in each plan. The Microsoft 365 services now have things like Teams, To-Do, Planner, Forms, OneDrive and more.
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So have the mobile apps for iPhone, iPad and Android. The real-time collaboration and sharing options have improved out of sight during the last ten years. The core Office 365 apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) have considerable changes and improvements over that time. But the plans have a lot more functionality and options now than when the prices were set back in 2011. Microsoft makes a good case that there’s been no price increase in the Business plans for a decade. Let’s look at the official reasons first, they have some factual basis, but there’s a clue to the real reason in the ‘% increase’ column above. The stated reasons and the real but unspoken ones. Spoken and unspoken reasonsĪs always with a Microsoft price increase, there are two reasons for the change. There are no prices changes to Education or Consumer plans … at this time. % increase based on annual price comparison. In US dollars, there will be similar changes in other countries.
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