Unless customers subscribe to a commercial version, Microsoft will destroy data from the free tier of its Teams productivity programme for small enterprises.
The business just introduced a new Teams edition that includes an AI-powered Premium iteration.
Along with the new Premium edition, Microsoft is introducing an upgraded “Teams (free)” service and will phase down the “Teams Free” offering on April 12, 2023.
However, customers who continue to use the free service will be unable to carry over any existing conversations, files, teams, or meetings from the legacy subscription.
Customers that wished to save this information should switch to Teams Essentials, which costs R71.10 per user per month in South Africa, minus VAT.
Because this needs an annual commitment, the real amount is R1,280, minus VAT.
The lowest paid-for Teams plan extends maximum meeting periods from one hour to 30 hours, raises the participant limit from 100 to 300, and provides twice as much cloud storage per user.
Users may alternatively choose for the Microsoft 365 Business Basic membership, which costs R128 per month (without VAT) and includes all of the Teams Essentials capabilities as well as the following:
- Meeting recordings with transcripts
- Web and mobile versions of Microsoft 365 apps — such as Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote
- Customer appointment management capability
- 1 TB of cloud storage per user
The table below summarises the differences between the new Teams (free) product, Teams Essentials, and Microsoft 365 Basic.