Global exclusion of Microsoft Teams from M365 suite

On April 1st, 2024, Microsoft announced a notable restructuring of the Microsoft 365 (M365) suites, with a specific focus on how Teams is presented to customers. New M365 clients with effect, —specifically those who have never purchased M365 before—will discover that Teams is no longer part of the M365 packages.   

Instead, an additional subscription is required to access Teams. This move is implemented by Microsoft because of the European Economic Area (EEA) looking at cutting unfair edge Microsoft has over competitors. For some time, there have been concerns about how Teams might have gained an unfair advantage by being bundled with the Office suite, alongside services like Word and Excel. The concerns even grew wider during the corona pandemic where Teams gained popularity as the go to tool for video meetings and Microsoft had added is to Office 365 for free in 2017.  

Current Microsoft customers who have M365 subscriptions can renew their existing licenses without the need to acquire additional Teams licenses.   

Why is Microsoft doing this?  

The choice to offer Teams as a standalone subscription is as a result of Microsoft’s commitment to meet the European Union’s ongoing push for a competitive market. This was a decision taken months ago for the EEA and Switzerland area but has now been implemented globally. Microsoft states that this adjustment aims to harmonize its global subscription model with the global modifications introduced in Europe in 2023.  

Before the global decision-what was Microsoft’s approach  

As of October 2023, Microsoft excluded Teams from their Enterprise suites within the EEA and Switzerland. This change impacted subscriptions including Office 365 E1/E3/E5 and Microsoft 365 E3/E5, which were no longer featured on the collaboration tool. Instead, Teams was announced to be available exclusively as an individual product for purchase.  

How does this affect your organization financially, talk to a Microsoft licensing expert   

The answer is not a cast in stone but one that will require probing into your roadmap and current licensing structure. There are various options and alternatives to explore to arrive at what will best work for your organization. There are price and subscription comparisons to make looking at your finances and projections.   

Microsoft, due to years in the software landscape, has leverage over many organizations who are heavily dependent on using products and services it offers. However, our years of experience consulting independently for various large organizations places as in a unique position enabling your organization to also leverage on what we know to your benefit.     

Talk to our team of cloud and licensing experts now to know and understand what all these Microsoft updates mean to your daily use of software licenses. We are glad to help you. Let’s know your plan and share scenarios or recommendations that will see you spending less than you anticipated.