Choosing the right software stack for your small or midsize business can feel overwhelming, especially when balancing functionality, ease of use, cost, and security.
When considering offerings for productivity and collaboration, you may find yourself asking the following questions:
- Will this integrate with our existing software?
- How steep is the learning curve?
- Can we scale as we grow, and stay secure while doing it?
Instead of piecing together solutions from multiple vendors, what if one platform could check all the boxes?
Enter Microsoft 365 Business Premium — a comprehensive, cloud-based solution built for businesses with up to 300 employees. It combines familiar Microsoft 365 apps, Teams, and security features into one seamless package. In this article, we’ll explore why Business Premium should be a top contender in your search and how your trusted partner at Loffler can help you make the most of it.
What is Microsoft 365 Business Premium Licensing?
Microsoft 365 Business Premium is subscription-based software (SaaS) that cohesively ties together a large amount of functionality within a Microsoft tenant-based environment. Business Premium is the highest tier Business SKU that is offered and sits above both Microsoft 365 Business Basic and Microsoft 365 Business Standard.
This subscription stands out from the Business Standard SKU by offering advanced features, including:
- eDiscovery and Audits
- Information Protection (Azure Information Protection Plan 1)
- Data Loss Prevention
- Email and Collaboration Security
- Device Management
- Identity and Access Management and Security
- Shared Computer Activation and Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD)
- Endpoint Security (Microsoft Defender for Business)
This added functionality makes a big difference, especially considering Microsoft’s strong reputation as a top-rated security vendor in areas like Endpoint Management, and Access Management, as recognized in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant reports. Plus, Microsoft Defender AV consistently ranks among the best, earning high marks from independent testing organizations like AV-Test, AV-Comparatives, SE Labs, and more.
A full, up-to-date comprehensive comparison of Microsoft 365 User Subscription Suites for small and medium-sized businesses — including SKUs with or without Microsoft Teams — is available at this link.
Productivity and Collaboration: Tools That Work the Way Your Team Works
Microsoft 365 Business Premium licensing includes the full suite of Microsoft 365 (Office) applications — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more — across desktop, web, and mobile. But what makes this truly effective is how the Microsoft 365 tools are designed to work together, enabling seamless collaboration and communication. Here are a few standout features included within this license:
- Exchange Online (Plan 1) delivers a professional-grade email experience with 50 GB mailboxes, shared calendars, and advanced spam filtering.
- OneDrive for Business (Plan 1) provides each user with 1 TB of secure cloud storage with version history, file recovery, and real-time document collaboration.
- SharePoint (Plan 1) enables teams to build out intranet sites and share out communications, manage content, and collaborate on documents in a centralized workspace.
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium licensing has the benefit of including Microsoft Teams (SKUs available with or without Teams included), while this has recently been moved to a separate SKU within other Microsoft licensing. Microsoft Teams serves as a central hub for meetings, chat, file sharing, and project coordination — ideal for hybrid and remote work environments. Teams also supports hosting webinars and live events, helping your business to engage clients and prospects professionally.
- Microsoft Bookings allows for simplifying external collaboration by allowing customers to book time directly through a branded web page.
Together, these Microsoft 365 solutions help to create a cohesive productivity- and collaboration-focused environment that empowers employees by putting all the necessary functionality in reach and provides technical controls to secure the environment’s usage. Having a large amount of functionality and flexibility within a single license makes a dramatic difference in reducing complexity and providing value.
Administrators can also leverage an Adoption Score, available directly in the primary admin center, to gain insight into people’s experiences with these tools and how well they are adopting and engaging with the functionality. It also provides analytics on how the actual solutions are performing. By integrating email, file storage, collaboration, and scheduling, Microsoft 365 Business Premium ensures that your team has everything they need to stay productive and connected, no matter where they are.
Layered Security for Your Modern Workplace
We know that security is top of mind for SMBs — and guess what? Microsoft 365 Business Premium has you covered there.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium addresses security with a layered, integrated approach that protects users, devices, and data. Identity and access controls are designed to enable the creation and management of accounts, ensure their security, and provide administrators with the right level of control — while also offering self-service options for users.
Outside of identities, this subscription also brings in Microsoft Intune Plan 1, which offers extensive technical controls for centrally managing and configuring mobile and desktop devices, along with analytics and reporting to ensure your environment is properly set up. Security functionality is also wrapped in — whether that be antivirus, ransomware protection, phishing and malware defense, or policies related to the security of the actual data within your tenant — it is all covered.
- Through the included Microsoft Entra ID Plan 1 features (formerly Microsoft Azure AD), you can add a critical piece of protection by enabling and customizing the implementation of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to add an extra layer of verification during sign-in. Conditional Access is also available to ensure that only trusted users and devices can access sensitive data. This is customizable and can be based on location, device health, or user behavior.
- Microsoft Intune Plan 1 is a key piece of functionality included within Microsoft 365 Business Premium licensing. Intune provides centralized management of devices and apps, allowing IT admins to enforce security policies, deploy software, remotely wipe lost or stolen devices, and access reporting and analytics to monitor deployment status.
- Microsoft Defender provides ransomware and AV protection across Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Linux within its business-focused functionality.
- Additionally, Microsoft 365’s integration with Microsoft Defender helps protect against phishing and malware across Microsoft Outlook, OneDrive, and SharePoint Online by scanning links at the time of click using Safe Links and analyzing attachments in real-time with Safe Attachments in a secure Microsoft sandbox.
- Microsoft Purview DLP and Information Protection help your business classify, label, and protect sensitive data automatically across emails, documents, and cloud services. Data Loss Prevention (DLP) functionality helps prevent the accidental sharing of sensitive information.
This functionality within Microsoft 365 Business Premium licensing provides a comprehensive security framework that protects your business from modern threats. Along with the previously mentioned Adoption Score, also included is a Secure Score, which offers a security analytics dashboard that evaluates your organization’s security posture and provides actionable recommendations. By combining advanced threat protection, device management, conditional access, and data protection, this suite ensures that your users, devices, and data are secure, enabling your business to operate confidently in a digital world.
Let's Make It Happen — Explore Microsoft 365 with Loffler
As a trusted Microsoft Solutions Partner, our team of experts is ready to guide you through Microsoft 365 Business Premium tailored to your business needs.
Discover how we can help you modernize your workplace, strengthen security, and empower your team with the right tools.
Visit our Solutions Partner page or contact us for more information!
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