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The original Office 365 Licensing packages focused on layering Microsoft’s collaboration tools to their end users. Instead of just an email service, OneDrive added personal storage, SharePoint provided the company intranet, and Teams provided the collaboration workspace for users to come together and share ideas. These services were the core of the Microsoft offering.
Additional products quickly took shape in the coming years. As security began to take industry focus, the Defender platform grew into an industry leading suite of tools to protect the organization. Microsoft Intune offered tenants the ability to centrally manage corporate resources and personal mobile devices. Companies asked for additional ways to protect the user identity and corporate data, so Microsoft responded with Azure AD Premium, and eventually Microsoft Purview. More services meant more licensing. More licensing meant more complexity to the landscape. Microsoft needed a way to blend their service offerings and simplify the delivery model.
What is M365 Enterprise E5
The paramount M365 Licensing Bundle is the M365 Enterprise E5. While it carries the highest price tag at $57 / user / month, it contains the complete service offering of collaboration, security, and windows licensing features available through M365. Every collaboration tool. All the bells and whistles from the Defender platform. Advanced security features built into Azure Active Directory. All of it is at your fingertips. But this is to be expected with the pinnacle of M365 Licensing Bundles. What we want to talk about today are some unknown advantages of the E5 License. Additional promotions and cost saving opportunities that can help your organization justify a jump from a lower licensing bundle to the E5, or branch into additional service offerings within Azure.
The Best Microsoft E5 license features
What came next was the Microsoft 365 (M365) Platform. The bread and butter of the M365 licensing bundles has always been meshing services from Microsoft’s collaboration, security, and Windows platforms. Whether you choose to utilize the M365 Business Suite or the M365 Enterprise Suite, you can expect a multitude of services that will help increase your organization’s productivity and security landscape, while reducing costs and consolidating licensing.
Here are Five (5) hidden benefits of the M365 E5 License:
- Power BI Pro – Power BI is a powerful (no pun intended) business intelligence tool. The application help organization’s make meaningful visualizations of data to provide invaluable metrics and impactful insights. With Power BI Pro, users can create data visualizations and share their dashboards with both coworkers and external collaborators. The tool encourages users to dive into their data and explore for that critical piece of information that will improve their own service offerings. Power BI Pro normally costs $10 / user / month, but the license is included for free within the M365 E5 Bundle.
- Virtualization Rights – Whether you are looking to provide cloud PCs to individuals in your organization through Windows 365, or you are looking for a unified remote experience through Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), you still must validate your ability to licensing the Windows operating system. Compute costs for these virtual systems do not cover the necessary licensing to allow your organization’s users to make use of the Windows operating system in a virtual environment. Having a licensed Windows laptop or desktop is not enough and could require companies to make significant investments into Windows Licensing. The M365 E5 License allows the end user to extend their local Windows license to the Windows 365 / AVD instance, thus satisfying Microsoft’s licensing requirements.
- Teams Phone – To take full advantage of Microsoft’s phone system offering, you need licensing for 3 components. The Phone System, a Conferencing Plan, and a Domestic Calling Plan. The Phone System component allow the user to take advantage of auto attendant and call queue functionality. Conferencing allows users to provide a dial-in number when setting up personal Microsoft Teams-based conference calls. The M365 E5 provides the Phone System and Conferencing License to end users at no additional cost. Organizations previously taking advantage of the Business Voice without Calling Plan license can look to eliminate their license entirely. Calling Plans are the only additional requirement should an organization look to add routable DIDs to their users.
- Microsoft Sentinel Ingestion Credits – Sentinel is Microsoft’s security information and event management (SIEM) solution. Collecting cloud data en masse and analyzing it enables organizations to proactively detect malicious attacks and minimize the adverse effects of a security incident. This solution does come with a price tag that is based on the ingestion of information. The more you feed Sentinel, the higher the cost. The M365 E5 Bundle provides an allotment of consumption credits for every licensed user to help offset the costs of running Sentinel. E5 customers are granted up to 5 MB / user / day of M365 data ingestion. While this may not sound like a lot, this can amount to thousands of dollars in savings a month. For more information, see the below link from Microsoft, which details the data types covered by the benefits.
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/offers/sentinel-microsoft-365-offer/
- Trainable Data Classifiers – Information Protection relies upon both the customer and Microsoft Purview to accurately classify data types. Organizations can manually classify sensitive data types and create automated pattern-based policies to tag sensitive information. Not all data can be easily placed into specific buckets and the data contained within may not adhere to uniform patterns. Trainable Classifiers learn how to identify your newly created data but examining it against past data classifications. The more robust your organization’s data classification abilities are, the less likely you organization will allow sensitive data to become exposed. Trainable Classifiers are only available to companies making use of the M365 E5 Bundle.
Learn about our Managed Microsoft 365 Services
Summing up the value
For many of our customers, the transition away from various third-party services and solutions, along with the associated expenses of deployment, integration, and management, proves to be a significant cost-saving advantage that more than compensates for their M365 E5 license fees right from the start.
Moreover, when factoring in any eDiscovery projects, the value of M365 E5 becomes even more apparent as it essentially pays for itself. It’s a decision that requires no second thought for enterprises seeking comprehensive compliance, data governance, and analytics capabilities.
Nevertheless, the benefits of M365 E5 extend beyond mere cost considerations.
One of the most notable advantages of this license plan lies in its ability to eliminate the reliance on third-party add-ons, empowering enterprises to centralize the management of their tools and services within a unified platform. For instance, Office 365 labeling policies can be utilized to drive actions such as Data Leak Prevention, Mobile Device Management, and Information Protection throughout the entire ecosystem, all easily managed, monitored, and reported in one centralized location.
This level of seamless integration is both exceptionally rare and immensely valuable, with no other license plan effortlessly achieving the same level of cohesion as M365 E5.
How PSM Partners can help
Navigating the vast array of Microsoft license plans to find the perfect fit for your enterprise can be an intimidating task. PSM Partner is here to ease your burden. As a distinguished Microsoft Solution Partner, we are uniquely positioned to guide you through the maze of options and help you make the optimal choice. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
FAQs
What are the benefits of Microsoft E5 licenses? ›
E5 customers receive collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams Phone system and Audio Conferencing and personal and organizational analytics with Microsoft MyAnalytics and Power BI, all while getting unprecedented control over their data with Access Control and protection against advanced threats with Microsoft ...
What are the benefits of M365 E5? ›Microsoft 365 E5 Security enables advanced security, analytics, and voice capabilities that reliably protect users from cyberattacks. This effectively improves the security of your Azure and Microsoft 365 cloud infrastructure.
What is M365 E5 suite features? ›It includes apps like Microsoft Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneDrive. Office 365 is a suite of productivity apps and services including Outlook, Word, Excel, and more. Compare Microsoft 365 and Office 365 >
What are the features of E3 vs E5 license? ›E3 provides the full suite of enterprise functionality with Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) and additional security functionality. E5 is the most advanced package, with all the features of E3, alongside advanced email security functionality, analytics, and phone systems.
What is included in E5? ›As part of E5 Security, you'll get access to Azure AD Premium Plan 2 (AADP2), which contains some effective identity management features: Access reviews: Manage group memberships, access to applications, and review user access privileges.
Is Microsoft 365 E5 worth it? ›Yes! Microsoft 365 E5 is the “Cadillac” of licenses. It provides the most capabilities and features within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. That also means it comes with the highest cost. For a lot of organizations, cost is a top factor in determining which licenses to procure and looking past the cost is a challenge.
What feature is included in M365 E5 but not E3? ›Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 partially include threat protection services. While both have Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics and Defender Antivirus and Device Guard, Microsoft 365 E5 has more products, including Microsoft 365 Defender for Endpoint P2, Office 365, and Identity.
What is the difference between M365 and O365 E5? ›O365 is a cloud-based suite centered around business productivity, which includes apps like Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and more. M365 is a bundle of services that includes Office 365, and several other services.
Does M365 E5 include calling plans? ›There are just a few additional options. Audio Conferencing is included! Once you buy the license, Microsoft will be your audio conferencing provider. Toll-free numbers for dial-in access to your meetings, and the ability to dial out from a meeting to add someone by calling any telephone number in the world.
What does m365 A5 include? ›The license includes: 100 GB LoboMail mailbox (accessible through Outlook on the web or the Outlook desktop/mobile app). Office desktop apps access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Publisher, and Access. The documents you create are stored in OneDrive, so you can access them from anywhere.
Does Office 365 E5 include Powerapps? ›
Enterprise Power Apps Licensing: Per User vs. Per App vs. Pay-as-You-Go. If you're already subscribed to the Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 plan, you can start using Power Apps right away.
Does Office 365 E5 include Intune? ›Microsoft Intune Plan 1
A cloud-based unified endpoint management solution that is included in the following licenses: Microsoft 365 E5. Microsoft 365 E3. Enterprise Mobility + Security E5.
It includes apps like Microsoft Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneDrive. Office 365 is a suite of productivity apps and services including Outlook, Word, Excel, and more.
Does E5 include Windows license? ›An E5 license is a complete suite, covering Office 365 Enterprise, Windows 10/11 Enterprise, and Enterprise Mobility + Security technologies. The main benefits of E5 lie in powerful security and compliance solutions such as the Microsoft Defender suite.
Does Office 365 E5 include defender for endpoint? ›Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
Microsoft 365 E5 lets you use Microsoft Defender for Endpoint capabilities to detect, prevent, investigate, and respond to advanced threats.
Microsoft 365 E5, A5, F5, and G5 and Microsoft 365 E5, A5, F5, and G5 Security customers can get a data grant of up to 5 MB per user per day of Microsoft 365 data ingestion into Microsoft Sentinel.
Does E5 include archiving? ›A Microsoft 365 Enterprise E3, E5, Office 365 E3, E5 or Exchange Online Plan 2 mailbox looks like: It has a 100GB primary mailbox and an unlimited archive thanks to the fact that the features of the Compliance mailbox are baked into these plans as shown above.
Does E5 include defender? ›Any of these licenses gives you access to Microsoft 365 Defender features via the Microsoft 365 Defender portal without additional cost: Microsoft 365 E5 or A5. Microsoft 365 E3 with the Microsoft 365 E5 Security add-on.
What are you tasked with after acquiring a Microsoft 365 E5 subscription? ›After acquiring a Microsoft 365 E5 subscription, you are tasked with applying security features. You are currently configuring a security feature that allows you to protect against unidentified malware, viruses, and malicious URLs.
What are the pros and cons of Office 365? ›- Pro: Office 365 Allows Workers to Access Documents and Email from Anywhere. ...
- Con: Online Applications May Have Limited Features. ...
- Pro: Cloud-hosted Applications Save Your IT Team Time with Troubleshooting and Updates.
Does Office 365 E5 include advanced threat protection? ›
Microsoft Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection is included in the following subscription plans: Microsoft 365 E5. Microsoft 365 A5. Microsoft 365 Business Premium.
Does m365 E5 include Visio? ›Visio in Microsoft 365 brings core Visio capabilities to Microsoft 365 commercial subscribers at no additional cost. Create, edit, and share diagrams—either in Visio for the web or directly in Microsoft Teams—as part of your Microsoft 365 subscription.
How much is the E5 license per month? ›Office 365 Enterprise E5
For $35/user/month, you gain a complete, consolidated phone system along with all functionality available within Office 365.
With Microsoft 365 E5, you gain access to the same range of apps and services as found in the E3 plan. However, this plan includes more comprehensive security, compliance, and analytical tools, in addition to voice and video capabilities.
What is M365 E5 unified? ›The Microsoft 365 E5 plan provides customers with a comprehensive set of productivity and security capabilities as well as most advanced innovations in security, compliance, analytics and collaboration.
How do I migrate from E3 to E5? ›You will need to migrate Office 365 E3 developer sandbox subscriptions to Microsoft 365 E5 with a new tenant, by deleting your current subscription and replace it with Microsoft 365 E5 developer subscription.
Does E5 need a calling plan? ›Even if you do get E5, that does not come with the dial tone. So you still have to get a calling plan in addition to E5. You have to get some type of dial tone. Either you have to use your own dial tone through direct routing, or you have to get dial tone from a calling plan.
What is the free calling plan for Microsoft 365 E5? ›The free Calling Plan that you will be able to get with the new license SKU called Microsoft 365 E5 with Calling Minutes is the 120-minute Domestic Calling Plan. This plan gives each user in your organisation an assignment of 120-minutes of calling to local numbers and mobiles in your assigned country.
Does E5 include Teams audio conferencing? ›Microsoft 365 Audio Conferencing is included with the Office 365 E5 and Microsoft 365 E5 base plans.
Does M365 E5 include P2? ›...
Enterprise Mobility Security E3 vs Microsoft 365 E5.
| What's included? | EMS E3 | Microsoft 365 E5 |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud App Security | No | Yes |
| Azure Information Protection | P1 | P2 |
| MyAnalytics | No | Yes |
What are the different types of M365 subscriptions? ›
There are three main O365 suites: Business, Enterprise, and frontline workers. Within the Business Suite, 3 plans are available: Basic, Standard, and Premium. The Standard plan doesn't include an Office client but has email and Yammer. Premium gives advanced analytics and security.
Is Excel part of M365? ›With Microsoft 365 subscription plans you get the fully installed Office apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, and Access (Publisher and Access are available on PC only).
Does E5 Licence include PowerApps? ›Microsoft 365 or Office 365 E3/E5 Licenses have some limitations such as they cannot use premium connectors and some controls. If you have Office 365 E3/E5 Licenses, no need to take separate license for power apps.
Does E5 license include premium connectors? ›Office 365 – E1, E3, E5, G1, G3, G5 come with standard PowerApps/Power Automate licensing does not including premium connectors. PowerApps – app makers and users need premium licenses(per app or per user) to use premium connectors.
Does Office 365 E5 include Azure AD premium? ›EMS E5 or Microsoft 365 E5 includes Azure AD Premium P2. You can use the same Conditional Access features noted in the following sections to provide multi-factor authentication to users.
Is Power Automate free with Office 365 E5 license? ›They can individually sign up for a Power Automate trial license for 90 days at no cost. You can assign a Power Automate license to them within the Microsoft 365 admin center. The user has been assigned a Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 plans that includes access to Power Automate.
Does Microsoft E5 include EMS? ›The Microsoft 365 Enterprise E3 and E5 solutions offer not only EMS, but Microsoft 365 Apps, unlimited OneDrive storage for subscriptions with 5 or more users, Microsoft Teams, and numerous other tools like Power Automate and Power Apps.
What is the difference between P2 and E5 license? ›Enterprise Mobility + Security E5
It also offers multifactor authentication (MFA) conditional access and advanced security reporting. P2 includes all of that plus offers Identity Protection and Privileged Identity Management (PIM) and advanced capability concerning identity protection. E5 of course is more expensive.
- Word.
- Excel.
- PowerPoint.
- Outlook.
- OneNote.
- SharePoint.
- OneDrive.
- Microsoft Teams.
Office 365 E5 Licenses
User is allowed to use the software on up to 5 devices, on Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android.
Does Office 365 E5 include Windows 10? ›
Windows 10 Enterprise is included with Microsoft 365 E3 & E5 licenses.
Does E5 include Defender for Endpoint Plan 2? ›Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 2 is also available as a standalone license. Additionally, it is a part of Windows 10/11 Enterprise E5 and Windows 10/11 Enterprise A5, apart from Microsoft 365 E5/A5/G5 plans.
What is the difference between Microsoft Defender and Endpoint? ›Key Differences to Note
One key difference between the two is that Office 365 does not include any endpoint security features, whereas Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is specifically designed to help protect your business against endpoint threats.
"What is the difference between m365 E3 and E5?" Microsoft 365 E5 includes all the features in the E3 plan, with additional ones such as Advanced Threat Protection for security against business email compromise and PSTN conferencing to facilitate Skype for Business meetings.
What is the difference between Microsoft E3 and E5 Intune? ›"What is the difference between EMS E3 and E5?" Enterprise Mobility Security E5 is an upgraded version of EMS E3, which includes all products offered by E3 along with some additional features. With E5, you can get the P2 versions of the Azure Active Directory, Azure Information Protection.
What is Microsoft E5 compliance? ›Microsoft offers comprehensive compliance and data governance solutions to help your organization manage risks, protect and govern sensitive data, and respond to regulatory requirements. Safeguard sensitive data across clouds, apps, and endpoints.
What are included in Microsoft 365 Enterprise E5 but not in Microsoft Enterprise E3? ›Office 365 E5 has all the security features that Office 365 has to offer, think of Advanced Threat Protection and Customer Lockbox. Also, Office 365 E5 is the only plan (besides the Microsoft 365 plans) that comes with PSTN capabilities (Skype for Business Cloud PBX), and advanced analytics.
Does E5 include Intune? ›Microsoft Intune Plan 1
A cloud-based unified endpoint management solution that is included in the following licenses: Microsoft 365 E5. Microsoft 365 E3. Enterprise Mobility + Security E5.
the Microsoft E5 License. The main difference between the Microsoft E3 and Microsoft E5 licenses is that the Microsoft E5 license includes more robust security and analytics tools for larger enterprises. If you need these features, then the Microsoft E5 license is the better option for your organization.
Why upgrade from E3 to E5? ›You don't have to increase your IT budget to leverage E5. In fact, an E5 upgrade can help you reduce costs. E5 licensing delivers capabilities that can replace many of the costly solutions in your environment. Through consolidation, you can reduce costs and simplify management, making you more secure.
How much does an E5 license cost? ›
Office 365 Enterprise E5
For $35/user/month, you gain a complete, consolidated phone system along with all functionality available within Office 365.
No. By offering a Business Associate Agreement, Microsoft helps support your HIPAA compliance. However, using Microsoft services does not on its own achieve HIPAA compliance.