Everyone who uses a PC would recognise Microsoft’s Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps. They’re staple applications, used across schools, businesses, and households. This suite of products used to be known as Office 365, but Microsoft launched the brand Microsoft 365 in 2017. It was generally thought that the Office 365 stack had outgrown the name, as the platform vastly expanded over time. In 2020, Microsoft expanded this name transition, and plans designed for consumers and small business use changed from Office 365 to Microsoft 365.
History of Office 365
Microsoft Office had been around for a while. Originally introduced in 1988, Office was a bundle that included the core apps – Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Later, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access were added to the team.
In 2008, Microsoft launched their Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), which was a subscription service containing Exchange, SharePoint, and Skype (then known as Lync). Then, in 2011, Microsoft launched Office 365 which essentially merged Office and BPOS together. This catapulted Microsoft into the SaaS world and offered solutions to businesses of all sizes.
Microsoft 365 or Office 365?
So, nowadays, what’s the difference?
As I said, in 2020 Office 365 plans for consumers and small businesses became known as Microsoft 365. Since then, Microsoft 365 has continued to expand. Beginning as a group of productivity apps, it’s now a comprehensive set of cloud productivity solutions.
However, Office 365 is still around. Microsoft products are used across the globe, and huge enterprises with large, multi-year plans can’t be changed easily – or quickly. There are still many enterprise customers with Office 365 plans, as well as government, front-line and education customers with industry specific Office 365 plans.
What's included in Microsoft 365?
Microsoft 365 includes the standard apps that we all know and love. Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, OneDrive, Teams, and SharePoint, are all pretty much known by everyone with access to a computer. They're used for creation, collaboration, and communication amongst schools, businesses, and personal lives.
Overtime, Microsoft has added other apps to the Microsoft 365 stack. Planner, To Do, Loop, Viva, and Stream all add further benefits to users, helping to improve productivity.
These are all included in Microsoft 365 licenses. Find out how to maximise your use of Microsoft 365.
Now, 2024, Microsoft 365 consists of over 20 applications. There’s no doubt that this list will continue to grow, and the Microsoft 365 brand will adapt over time. It’s hard to keep up with all of the change, but for now, it’s Microsoft 365 rather than Office 365 for most users.
