The highest-end plans which is the Office 365 E5 will be available to users at a price of $35 per month.
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Office was Microsoft’s toehold in big business, and was followed in the 1990s and 2000s by moves into software to power personal computers, workplace servers and databases.
Microsoft’s Office 2016 is now official to all Windows users.
Case says that compared to the cost of existing communications tools, the E5 tier can save large businesses on IT bills by using Skype and Microsoft’s new conferencing services.
Microsoft said more than half of its business customers are now paying for multiple conferencing solutions, and many are still using legacy PBX phone systems. Companies who want to avail this service can have the access to a new analytics features including Microsoft’s Power BI Pro service for only $10 per user per month and the new Delve Analytics feature.
The new E5 plan offers a whole host of new capabilities for enterprise users, the most widely touted being the newly updated Skype for Business, which now offers the ability to dial into Skype conference calls from a regular phone, and the ability to broadcast teleconferences to thousands of employees.
The previous Office 365 E4, which is now priced at $22 per month. The E1 and E3 versions of Office 365 will stay at their current prices of 8 and 20 per user per month, respectively.
The tech giant unveiled new communications services for Office 365 it said were created to improve voice, video, and meeting experiences.
In addition to the new Skype for Business capabilities, Microsoft is releasing some new security and data analytics tools for Office 365, including protection against unknown malware and viruses. E5 subscribers also get a new Cloud PBX feature that lets IT administrators replace on-premise PBX systems with a cloud-based management portal provided by Microsoft.
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Office 365 subscribers can pay extra for PSTN Calling, a feature that lets them provision phone numbers for employees so that users can dial out from Skype for Business, without having to pay for a traditional landline or VoIP phone provider. Microsoft is offering two plans for E5 subscribers – $24 per user per month for worldwide and domestic calls, or $12 per user per month for domestic calls only. The new Skype for Business was available in beta earlier this year, with about 4,000 organizations trying out the service.
