Common Questions about Microsoft Office 365 and Office Live Small Business (OLSB)
In this article:
What is Microsoft Office 365 for professionals and small businesses and what does it offer?
As an Office Live Small Business customer, how am I impacted by Microsoft Office 365?
Why is Microsoft replacing the Office Live Small Business service with Office 365?
How can I try the new Office 365 service today?
How can I claim my free promotional offer?
How much will Office 365 cost after the free offer period ends?
Where can I find the latest information on the transition?
How do I transition my Office Live Small Business account to Office 365?
Can my website be automatically transitioned to Office 365?
What if I don’t want to transition to Office 365?
How long can I continue to use Office Live Small Business?
Can I still sign-up for Office Live Small Business?
Where can I find more information about the new Office 365 service?
Does Microsoft have any free options for small businesses?
What happens to my custom domain name?
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What is Microsoft Office 365 for professionals and small businesses and what does it offer?
Office 365 for professionals and small businesses is a set of web-enabled tools that lets you access your e-mail, important documents, contacts, and calendars from virtually anywhere and on almost any device. Designed for organizations with one to 25 employees (with a technical limit of 50 users maximum), the service brings together online versions of the best professional-grade communications and collaboration tools from Microsoft at a price that small businesses can afford.
Office 365 for professionals and small businesses give Office Live Small Business many of the features they valued in OLSB and much more:
- Office 365 is designed to work with the tools you already know, like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft OneNote, and Microsoft PowerPoint
- Create websites with familiar easy-to-use tools
- Access email, calendars, and contacts across PCs, the web, and mobile phones.
- Share documents and collaborate on the web with colleagues
- Connect with people in new ways with instant messaging, audio/video calls, and online meetings
Count on Microsoft, an industry leader in productivity, for reliability and security; Microsoft provides a financially-backed 99.9% uptime guarantee
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As an Office Live Small Business customer, how am I impacted by Microsoft Office 365?
Microsoft Office 365 replaces OLSB as the comprehensive Microsoft productivity service for small businesses. The OLSB service will continue to run as it does today through April 30, 2012. As a valued OLSB customer, you will be offered 6 months free of Office 365 for professionals and small business and Office Professional Plus - a $126 per user value. Please note that the OLSB service will be discontinued on May 1, 2012. All access to the OLSB service, public web sites and OLSB hosted email will end on that date.
For now, OLSB customers can continue to use the service. Around Feb. 1, 2012 we will provide customers with the free promotional offer. If you would like to get a head start, we recommend that you follow the self-transition guide to move your web site, email, contacts, calendar and any documents over to Office 365. Or, you can hire a partner to help facilitate the transition.
Why is Microsoft replacing the Office Live Small Business service with Office 365?
Small businesses have told us that they want a more comprehensive, professional-grade set of small business productivity tools. Microsoft Office 365 does this by bringing together online versions of the best communications and collaboration tools from Microsoft, giving small businesses new capabilities: professional email, simple public-facing website tools and hosting, easier ways to collaborate, an improved mobile experience and financially-backed reliability and security; all at a price affordable for most small businesses.
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How can I try the new Office 365 service today?
You can sign up today for a free 30-day trial of Office 365 for professionals and small businesses. You may also choose to wait for the instructions on how to obtain your free promotional offer as a trial is not in addition to the 6 month free promotional offer.
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How can I claim my free promotional offer?
Once the promotional offer is available, you will have until April 30, 2012 to sign into OLSB to access your unique one-time use promotional code for Office 365. Upon sign-up for Office 365, the 6 month promotional offer will begin.
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How much will Office 365 cost after the free offer period ends?
Office 365 for professionals and small businesses (Plan P1) will cost $6 per user per month after the free promotional period. Custom domain fees are not included in subscription price. Office Professional Plus will cost $15 per user per month.
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Where can I find the latest information on the transition?
Visit the Office Live Small Business Community (English-only) for the most recent transition information and help content.
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How do I transition my Office Live Small Business account to Office 365?
Follow the self-transition guide* (English only) to walk you through the steps of manually saving your email, contacts, calendar, documents, and web site and setting them up in Office 365 once the promotional offer is available.
*The self-transition guide will be available in other languages at a later date.
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Can my website be automatically transitioned to Office 365?
You will need to manually re-create your website in Office 365. This will involve copying and pasting your text, pictures, and any other website elements you choose to move.
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What if I don’t want to transition to Office 365?
You do not need to take any action at this time and can continue using the Office Live Small Business service until April 30, 2012. Additionally, Windows Live Essentials includes free programs on the PC for documents, email, photos, videos, IM, and more.
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How long can I continue to use Office Live Small Business?
The Office Live Small Business service will run through April 30, 2012. Around Feb. 1, 2012 we will provide customers with the free promotional offer. If you would like to get a head start, we recommend that you follow the self-transition guide to move your web site, email, contacts, calendar and any documents over to Office 365. Or, you can hire a partner to help facilitate the transition. <o:p></o:p>
We will provide updates through the Office Live Small Business Community (English-only), through direct email messages and through in-product notifications.
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Can I still sign-up for Office Live Small Business?
We are no longer taking new sign-ups for Office Live Small Business. We invite you to sign up for a free 30-day trial of Office 365 for professionals and small businesses, Microsoft’s comprehensive productivity service offer.
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Where can I find more information about the new Office 365 service?
Please see the Office 365 website.
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Does Microsoft have any free options for small businesses?
Windows Live Essentials includes free programs on the PC for email, photos, videos, IM, and more.
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What happens to my custom domain name?
You will continue to own any custom domain name that you have purchased. Domain names can no longer be purchased through Office Live Small Business, but domains previously purchased through Office Live Small Business can continue to be renewed.
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