Office 2016 was just released, so what does Office 2016 and Office 365 matter? By comparing Office 365 with the traditional office suite, we can better understand the nature of SaaS, the business model of SaaS, and the benefits that SaaS brings to the end user.
- Office 365 is a SaaS product that can be considered a SaaS version of a traditional office suite. Microsoft has converted from a traditional sales office suite license to a sales Office 365 service. Office 365 is a SaaS product that saas--software as a service. Therefore, the core of Office 365 is services.
- Traditional Office suite license is a one-time buyout, and if a customer buys Office version 2013, it means that the customer has a permanent license to the Office 2013 version, even though Microsoft terminates the technical support for Office 2013 in the future (like Windows XP), then the customer has purchased Office 2013 as a legitimate version. Assuming that we spent 2000 yuan to buy a genuine window XP, today, this Windows XP for us, basically there is no value.
- Office 2016 has been released, what about customers who originally purchased office 2013? Typically, Microsoft will launch an upgrade, specifically for customers who have already purchased an older version. The price is also much cheaper than buying a non-upgraded version. Although we do not yet know what upgrade strategy Microsoft will take for users who have already purchased the office owner. Of course, we want to upgrade like a free Windows 101 sample, but honestly, that's tough! Except for the mobile version (for android,for ios,for Windows Phone).
- However, for users who have already purchased an Office 365 subscription, you can upgrade to Office 2016 for free at the first time! Includes Windows version and Mac OSX version! It's not fair, why is it so? The answer is: Microsoft is now pushing Office 365, not the traditional office suite.
- So why do Office 365 users have such VIP treatment? The reason: Office 365 is a service and a pay-as-you-grow service. On-demand charges include: required features, time required, storage capacity required. Users can order different versions of Office 365 on a monthly basis, depending on their needs. Yes, by the month. For example, if a user orders Office 365 Business Premium, he will be charged $80 per month (public list retail price). Office 365 Business Premium includes all of the Office components (Word,excel,powerpoint,outlook,onenote,access ... ), and can be installed on 5 devices, yes, five devices. Five laptops or desktops, both Windows and Mac systems. Mobile devices are not included (mobile versions are free).
- Since it's a monthly fee, when users no longer pay, they can't continue to use Office 365, and the Office components already installed on the client become inactive. Is it a bit like installment payment? In fact, it can only be said that the form looks like installments. The correct way to say it should be: users rent software and services as needed. Since the user has paid for the protection fee (rental), it is not surprising that the free upgrade to the latest version of the Office suite is available within the protection period (lease). Similarly, when the user no longer renting the software, the user in addition to their own data, nothing else left, will not appear above the user holding a 2000 yuan bought the original Windows XP CD-ROM with emotion. Is this a very similar scenario to renting a car? From the customer's point of view, as long as the pay-per-day, there will certainly be a normal car to use. That is, there is no need to consider car repair maintenance, nor need to pay attention to how to dispose of obsolete vehicles.
- Does Office 365 simply change the delivery model of the software (from selling license to selling service)? No, since it is a service, there must be some element of service related to it. The biggest highlight of Office 365 is the online service! Online services include: Mail, Web, team collaboration, video conferencing. Technically speaking: Exchange Online,sharepoint online,onedrive for Business,skype for Business (formerly named: Lync). Users use these services not only to build servers, but also to perform routine maintenance. It's all done by Microsoft (and the Internet of the century). For customers, as long as the monthly payment, mailbox, team collaboration site, enterprise network disk, video conferencing can be used normally. If you encounter problems during use, you can also contact Microsoft (and Century Interconnect) technical support to help solve the problem. This is really a "disruptive" experience, both in terms of price, functionality, and service, compared to traditional software sales and software procurement models.
- Well, here's a summary: Office 365 is a SaaS service offered by Microsoft, a traditional office suite + online service that users pay for on demand, as they want.
- Here are the detailed versions and feature descriptions available: Office 365 price plan
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