I\u2019ve been getting one of our SMB customers organized with a new Office 365 tenancy and we\u2019ve hit an \u201cunderstanding\u201d stumbling block that may be of interest to many of you smaller businesses (and larger ones, for that matter) that are mulling over the various O365 subscription plans.<\/p>\n
The stumbling block, in this case, is understanding the \u201c5 copies of Office\u201d that come with the E3 and other plans.\u00a0 For some reason or other, my customer is equating \u201c5 copies of Office\u201d with \u201c5 machines can access O365\u201d while also equating a E1 plan that does NOT include Office software with \u201conly one machine can access O365 and only via the web\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ve gone back and forth with them on all of this and now I want to share with you.<\/p>\n
The simple fact is O365 does not restrict the number of machines (devices)<\/em> that you can connect from<\/em>.\u00a0 You might be restricted to Web-only access by type<\/em> of your subscription (and this really means that even if you have Outlook on your PC it won\u2019t be able to connect) but O365 won\u2019t make a differentiation on the devices<\/em> you use to connect.\u00a0 As an example, on my E4 account through work I connect with laptop, my home PC, my tablet, my phone and from any number of \u201canonymous\u201d PC web browsers at any number of my client\u2019s offices.\u00a0 That\u2019s way<\/em> more than 5 devices.<\/p>\n The \u201c5 copies of Office\u201d refers to the fact that some of the O365 subscription plans provides a downloadable copy of Office 2013 that you can install on up to 5 PC\u2019s and\/or Macs.\u00a0 This is not a restriction on the number of machines that can connect <\/em>to O365.<\/p>\n Also, there seems to be some confusion about whether or not Office (as in the Office suite) is required to use O365.\u00a0 The short answer is \u201cno\u201d; you can do everything from a browser including editing documents (if your O365 subscription includes WebApp support).\u00a0 Having Office on your PC or Mac greatly enhances the experience and your abilities but having the software is not a hard and fast pre-requisite.\u00a0 And you do not have to have Office 2013; Office 2010 and 2007 also work although the best experience will be gained with 2013.<\/p>\n So, 5 copies of Office Suite if needed \u2026. check.\u00a0 Connection to O365 from as many devices as I want \u2026. check.\u00a0\u00a0 Confusion erased \u2026. check!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"