Services Increasingly Expanding Beyond Microsoft 365 Suites

• New tiers of several Microsoft 365 core services are quite expensive and are not available as part of any existing Microsoft 365 suite.
• Two paths lead to à la carte features that are also included in more expensive suites – evaluate and pilot the features before jumping to the full suites.
• Customers should evaluate these new tiers of service carefully and negotiate prices before adopting them, as all are still new and immature.

Within the past two years, Microsoft has increased the price of all Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites other than Microsoft 365 E5. In addition, in the last 12 months, Microsoft has introduced a significant number of add-ons to the services included in Microsoft 365, all requiring licensing premiums above and beyond the previously inclusive enterprise suites. These new add-ons could indicate plans for a new tier of Microsoft 365 enterprise suites (likely an “E7”), or they could be intended simply to generate additional revenue for the time being. The availability of several features within new suites as stand-alone is likely intended to help drive adoption over time by offering more appeal than the more expensive full suite that bundles them with others.