This blog is to talk about why Microsoft 365 Business Premium is such great value for money that it makes Business Standard obsolete. If your users need access to desktop versions of Office 365, then you are already looking at forking out $18.90 per user. So then it comes down to “what do you get with an $11 uplift per user per month? Security!
Azure Active Directory P1 unlocks Self Service Password Reset and Conditional Access are the 2 greatest features in this addon. Allow your users to bypass MFA when logging in from within the office. Block logins when attempting from outside New Zealand to protect your organisation from malware and phishing attempts.
Passwordless authentication, Dynamic groups and Administrative Units as well as some other quality of life improvements to name a few.
Azure Information Protection provides your users with some nifty tools to classify your data and customise what your users can do with those types. Want to stop In-Confidence or Business Confidential information from leaving the organisation by email? AIP allows you to do that. Conditional Access allows you to define safe locations from which your users can login without MFA (ie within your business on-premise) or to decline based on unsafe locations (ie outside of NZ).
You also get access to unlimited email archiving, eDiscovery searches, sensitivity and retention labels, DLP plans and more.
Intune Management allows you to use configuration policies to dictate safe user behaviour with their devices. Things like enforced pin on phones or work profiles to separate work from personal data. This addon is worth it if you provide your organisation with laptops and desktops as it allows you to device manage them from the cloud. If you currently have an on-premise Active Directory environment and are managing domain joined devices, then this is the cloud version.
Windows Defender for O365 P1 unlocks advanced mail content filtering, spam and phishing protection, spoof intelligence and more. Safe links and Safe attachments is a key feature which I rate well worth it at $3 a month as an addon for all users on the O365 basic plan.
So in summary Microsoft 365 Business Premium offers tremendous value over Standard that I cannot see any reason to get Standard. Unlock the power the full power of Office 365 cloud with Intune, Azure AD premium, Azure Information Protection and Windows Defender for O365 P1. You can find more details information here.
