New Microsoft 365 plan for firstline workers

Firstline workers can be found in all business verticals and represent a huge portion of potential technology users. These workers typically spend their days interacting with customers or working on factory floors, but technology has become more and more necessary to support them, which opens a major opportunity for digital transformation through this workforce.

To help support these firstline workers more, Microsoft have introduced a new entry-level plan called Microsoft 365 F1. This provides greater flexibility when tailoring licensing options to fit the needs of our customers. It is important to understand some of the restrictions with the new Microsoft 365 F1 plan and these include read-only access to office documents either through Office web or Mobile apps and consumption-only access on Stream.

Of course, this being Microsoft there would have to be some confusion about the naming convention used! There was already a Microsoft 365 F1 plan available, lets call it the original Microsoft 365 F1 and this is now renamed to Microsoft 365 F3, with no change in cost, but with added value in terms of functionality.

Office 365 F1 is also getting renamed and is now called Office 365 F3 and will continue to be available as a standalone plan or as part of Microsoft 365 F3.

All plans will now have the complete Teams skillset, as well as enhanced identity and access management features. Also, a few extra Teams functionality that haven’t yet been launched but are coming soon. For example, Walkie Talkie function comes into play for real time communication as the new F1 won’t include mailbox.

As a higher-level plan that contains a combination of the new Microsoft 365 F1 and Office 365 F3, Microsoft 365 F3 is also increasing capability for Power Platform and Windows related use-rights, now including rights to use prior versions, to access VDI and the ability to use KMS activation. 

Customers that have already purchased the original Microsoft 365 F1 will be automatically moved to Microsoft 365 F3. The change should already be visible in customers tenants and users don’t need to take any action.

The new Microsoft 365 F1 will be available from 1st April 2020 and it affects commercial, government and non-profit organizations. It does not affect Education offers, which means the existing Office 365 A1 offer will remain unchanged.

To discuss how these changes impact your organisation talk to you regular Micromail account manager or email info@micromail.ie to organise a call.