The package includes Exchange for email, OneDrive and Skype for Business. Essentials focuses mainly on web applications and cloud-based services. If you sign up for Essentials, you won't get any of the desktop Office applications – PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Access, Outlook or OneNote – but you will have access to web versions of all these programs except OneNote and Access. This package is the least expensive and includes mostly web-based features. So, for example, Microsoft 365 Business (the most expensive option) has all the features of Office 365 Premium plus some other services. Microsoft builds up features as the packages increase in price. These four packages are ordered from least features to most and, not coincidentally, least expensive to most. There are four main packages to consider: Microsoft Business Packages Small Business PackagesĪll of Microsoft's business packages are available for up to 300 users, making them ideal for small businesses. There are a few comparative charts on its website, but differentiating between the multitude of services in different packages – all with seemingly the same name – can be a big task in and of itself. Today, Microsoft makes it a bit difficult to understand the exact difference between the packages it offers. The number of options for companies can be downright dizzying. And Microsoft keeps improving and expanding its business functions to add security features, mobile device management, contacts management and many more helpful characteristics. That productivity suite, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint, is now ubiquitous. Microsoft Office was released in 1989, quickly overtaking WordPerfect and Lotus.

Microsoft programs have been essential tools for small business owners since the dawn of Microsoft Works in 1986.

How to use microsoft office packages