365 Licenses - Overview

Owned by Andrew Clark
Apr 26, 2022
3 min read

This article describes different capabilities of Microsoft 365 licenses. There are 3 different 365 licenses we have available to provide to new users: Business Basic, Business Standard, and Business Premium.

1. Business Basic

Business Basic licenses provide access to web app versions of the 365 office suite. To access any of these web apps, users would log in at login.microsoftonline.com. From there, they get an overview of their office account. This pane on the left side has buttons which allow access to the different apps:

Since Outlook is generally the most used of the apps in the office suite, here is a general view of the Outlook Web App (OWA):

So, when should I choose this license for a new employee?

For users that are only doing light work in spreadsheets or word docs, need access to Teams, and do not need functionality of the Outlook desktop app this would be the best choice. If a user needs to edit spreadsheets and documents on occasion, we can always provide open source software such as Libre Office. Outlook on the web is very simple and accessible from anywhere. If a user wanted to log directly in to their email, they can log in at http://outlook.com as well.

Business Basic is great for situations where the goal is to provide access to Teams and an Outlook mailbox, and where open source software can be used for light work on spreadsheets and word docs. If this doesn’t sound like it fits the bill, a Business Standard license may better suit the situation.

Please note that the Business Basic license still provides access to the Teams desktop app, even though the other 365 suite software apps can only be accessed on the web

2. Business Standard License

The Business Standard license is similar to the business basic license with one main difference, which is access to the desktop apps. When this license is provided, a user can download and install the 365 Office Suite desktop apps by logging in to login.microsoftonline.com > Near the top right, hit “Install Office” > Select “Premium Office apps”:

So, when should I choose this license for a new employee?

Since the main distinction between the standard license and the basic license is the desktop apps, this license should be provided when a user needs all of the functionality of each of the office suite desktop apps

3. Business Premium License

To keep this brief, the Business Premium licenses would most likely have to be requested on a one-off basis. If a Business Premium is to be provided consistently to a particular role, it will have to be discussed with the Manager of IT Systems for justification.