Microsoft to add three more apps to its Office 365 Business Premium cloud service
Microsoft is adding three new apps to Office 365 Business Premium, the highest end version of its version of Office 365 targeted at small and mid-size businesses (SMBs).
The three new apps coming to Office 365 Business Premium are Microsoft Connections, a simple email marketing service; Microsoft Listings, a way to publish business information; and Microsoft Invoicing, an invoice-creation service. Microsoft also is adding MileIQ, its existing mileage-tracking app based on its 2015 acquisition of Mobile Data Labs, to Office 365 Business Premium.
Connections, Listings, and Invoicing are rolling out in preview over "the next few weeks" to Office 365 Business Premium subscribers in the US, UK, and Canada, starting with those in the First Release program, officials said this week. MileIQ Premium is available to all Business Premium subscribers in the US, UK, and Canada effective July 10.
Microsoft is not charging any additional fees for these apps; they are included for no additional cost as part of users' existing Office 365 Business Premium subscription.
Late last year, Microsoft tipped its hand on its plans for some of these new Office 365 Business Premium apps when it published a sign-up page for business apps for Office. That page mentioned MileIQ, Bookings, Invoice, Spend (an expense-tracking app), Point (a way of sharing word-of-mouth recommendations), and Presence apps.
Office 365 Business Premium is Microsoft's most comprehensive Office 365 subscription plan for small businesses. It costs $15 per user per month if paid monthly, or $12.50 per user per month if paid annually. It includes the full set of locally-installable Office applications for up to five PCs and/or Macs per user, as well as Exchange Online, Skype for Business Online, SharePoint Online, Yammer enterprise social-networking, and 1 TB of OneDrive for Business cloud storage.