Forum Discussion
Office 365 Fragmentation?
VasilMichev Agreed, we can see from yesterday's earning report Microsoft is doing very well from the cloud, Office 365 included and this has really paid off. Saying that having licencing that's understandable and where customers don't feel like they will have to buy add-on after add-on to get everything they need. With E5 out of reach for some and also the feature intersection with EMS a factor, though the upcoming Microsoft 365 Business and Enterprise offerings may help.
John Wynne Also agree, I think we are looking for simplicity with licencing as much as possible, that's what we were promised with the cloud in a way. The value proposition with Office 365 is huge anyway but I just wonder how much more add-ons will we see and when will they be bundled.
Ivan54 I don't think we will know about that until Visio Online goes GA but it would be surprising if it's not included with Visio Pro for Office 365!
Don DeCarlo Good points, paying for only what you need I could see working well for some organizations, rather than upselling to something like the E5, where half the extra features aren't really needed. Agree that this will evolve and will be driven by demand and other factors.
Yes, the subscription model will be very lucrative for Microsoft. In the past customers bought office for a one-time fee and didn't upgrade for years. That saved customers money versus the subscription model where they pay each month. But did they really save money?
I find the subscription pricing a better value. You get continuous updates with many great features (and new apps too). Your monthly cost becomes a variable expense and you only pay for the users you need. You get multiple installs per user which covers all your devices.
More importantly your infrastructure is more standardized and there are many efficiencies gained for the business through the integration of all the online services working together. In my view, the public cloud is enabling productivity that a few years ago was unimaginable and the Microsoft services offer a great value even with subscription pricing.
Couldn't agree more, from the origins of Office 365 with BPOS to where we are now, it's amazing really.