After you have made the decision to move your email and productivity services into the Microsoft Cloud, you must select the plan that matches your business requirements. An Office 365 selection is not a simple process as Microsoft Office 365 has a number of suites which are similar in many ways. But there are critical distinctions which must be considered. We've summarized the differences between Office 365 Business Premium and Office 365 E3 which continues to confuse buyers. 

Both suites have similar core offerings: Email, Document Management, Instant Messaging, and presence from Skype for Business and Office Pro Plus (that’s Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.). But the catch with these plans, when looking at your Office 365 selection, is they cannot be mixed for one company or tenant. You can mix plans within a category but the E plans like E3 and Business plans like Office 365 Business Premium cannot be mixed. (Don't worry, more on mixing various plans in a blog soon to come). 

The differences addressed here are functionality. The price differential is apparent with the price per month for E3 set at $20.00 per user and Premium set at $12.50 per user. But before digging into this comparison, there is a key constraint: if you have 300 users or plan to exceed that number, the only consideration is E3 since Office 365 Business Premium does not scale for 300 users. 

For your Office 365 selection, when looking at Office 365 Business Premium versus E3, consider the services you require which may only be found in E3.

User Management:   Enterprise management of apps with Group Policy, Telemetry, Shared Computer Activation

Archiving:  Compliance archiving with Legal Hold eDiscovery Center tools to support compliance

Security:  Rights Management and Data Loss Prevention for email and files.  

Business Intelligence:  Office Pro Plus includes Access for database applications and additional Self-service Business Intelligence to discover, analyze, and visualize data in Excel

Microsoft has created two very rich suites, Office 365 Business Premium and E3. With the prices so compelling, be sure to review your requirements and the specifications before your Office 365 selection and migration! In need of a free professional evaluation to help clear up your decision?

Contact us today, and we'll help you understand and move forward with the next decision-making steps for your Office 365 migration.