Microsoft 365 comes with a suite of products to make small business owners’ lives easier. But unless you understand what you’re getting access to and how to choose the correct licences for each of your employees, you could be paying for more than what you need.

Would you be happy paying four times more per user for a software licence if you didn’t have to?

Whether you run a small business or manage the IT needs of any business, you probably want to make sure you’re spending your precious time, money and resources on Microsoft 365 products your team actually needs.

The tech giant offers a range of solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises with its web-based apps that include Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Outlook, Exchange, Teams, OneDrive and Sharepoint.

Four user-based licences are available: Business Basics, Apps for Business, Business Standard and Business Premium.

The basic licence provides all the above-mentioned apps along with standard security. The next three licence levels offer extra features from desktop versions of the apps to advanced storage security and cyberthreat protection.

But not everyone in your workplace needs the same features or licence.

“The premium licence is generally used by higher-level people in a business like CEOs, CFOs, or the IT staff,” Vishal Vinchurkar, account manager at SoftwareONE, a reseller of Microsoft 365 products, tells Kochie’s Business Builders.

Why user-based licences are important

Microsoft 365 issues licences per user and since every user’s usage is different, it’s important to ensure your staff have the right licence that fits their needs.

A reseller like SoftwareONE can help with this. Not only is it cheaper to go through a reseller compared with buying direct from Microsoft, extra support is available.

SoftwareONE’s 365Simple service, for example, helps you figure out what licenses you need to run your business efficiently.

Its proprietary platform Pyracloud provides a simple dashboard for IT managers or whoever is designated to look after software licences in a business to buy the right licences – and importantly – monitor usage.

“Let’s say a user has been assigned an advanced licence costing around $30 a month but she’s not using all the services,” says Vishal. “The IT manager can drop that user to a lower-level license. This saves the business money and ensures the employee is using the features she does have access to effectively.”

The Microsoft 365 suite on a Surface Pro. Image: Microsoft

Conversely, if a user needs access to premium features, they can be quickly and easily upgraded to a higher-level licence.

“Whether it’s a small business where the IT manager could be a CFO or a CEO or an accounts person, or a larger organisation that has dedicated IT people, they can manage all their licenses effectively,” says Vishal. “This frees up their time so they can focus on other work.”

User-based licenses are particularly cost-effective when a business needs to hire temporary contractors to work on a project for a specific time.

“There are two important factors when any user comes into a business,” says Vishal. “The first is what type of licence you need to assign them. And the second is the amount of information sharing they’ll be doing.”

For example, if a temporary staff member joins for a six-month project and is assigned a Business Standard licence giving them access to Sharepoint (Microsoft’s secure data and file storage app), this allows all their data such as documents and emails to be stored.

When that person leaves, their licence is deactivated, saving the business money. If that contractor needs to return to work on a second part of the project at a later date, they can be assigned a new licence and still have access to all of their original data and emails.

Take the headache out of renewals

Renewing your Microsoft 365 licences can be challenging without the help of a reseller. SoftwareONE’s 365Simple service ensures your licences renew at the right time.

“Renewals are generally missed by businesses if they buy direct from Microsoft,” says Vishal. “They might not even remember when they bought the original licence.”

Using the Pyracloud dashboard, IT managers can handle renewals efficiently, keeping your business compliant. “You just add the number of users you want during the renewal process,” says Vishal.

Don’t cut corners with licences

While you don’t want to pay more for your Microsoft 365 licences than you have to, don’t be tempted to buy home licences to use in your business. It’s something Vishal has seen a lot of small business owners do and he urges against it.

“Make sure you get business-grade licences,” he says. “Don’t go for cheaper options that won’t give you the security for your business. You’re risking your business and your data. We’ll help you choose the correct business licence that’s also cost-effective for you.”

Find out more about SoftwareONE and its 365Simple services to help you with your Microsoft 365 licences by visiting the website.

This article is brought to you by Kochie’s Business Builders in partnership with SoftwareONE.

Feature image: AdobeStock