With remote work as the new common work format, all communication platforms and cloud services for businesses are experiencing the highest demand we have seen in the last decade. Of course, many companies and professionals have been able to take advantage of the free versions of these tools.
There are several free options on the market, which, although limited, allow you to carry out crucial business activities such as video calling, messaging, and document sharing. Among these platforms with free services, we find Microsoft Teams, a real marvel that is positioned as the main choice for companies and digital nomads, but maybe not for long…
With the launch of Microsoft Teams Premium, Microsoft is shaking up the free work offering — and not everyone will be happy. On April 12, 2023, the company will retire the existing Teams Free version for small businesses in favor of the similarly titled Teams (Free), and legacy data will not be carried over. To keep chats, meetings, channels, and other important information, your company will need to pay for at least the Teams Essentials plan ($4 per user per month).
The wonders of Microsoft Teams have a price
According to Windows Central, the new Teams (Free) tier will require the creation of a new account. The data in the old app, which has been rebranded as Teams Free (Classic), will be deleted. Anything you haven’t saved by then, including shared files you haven’t downloaded, will be gone.
Of course, this will not affect personal use, but it may cause problems for small businesses that previously relied on free Teams to coordinate. They’ll have to start paying or lose access to previous discussions, not to mention the hassle of recreating their channel setups.
How will this affect small and larger businesses?
Small businesses will be unable to transfer chats and data from the classic free Teams to the newer one, forcing them to either pay for it or back up their data manually. Because of the changing economic situation, many businesses and institutions may be reviewing and reducing paid services. It may make sense for businesses that rely heavily on Teams to begin paying for it.
Others may see this as an opportunity to switch to free alternatives from competing services or rely more heavily on features built into other packages they already pay for, such as Slack, Zoom with Team Chat and Mail & Calendar, or Google’s ever-expanding Workspace platform.
Let’s remember that the new changes in Microsoft will not affect personal use, but this situation may cause problems for small businesses that previously relied on free Teams to coordinate. But customers will not necessarily switch to alternatives, especially if they are heavily invested in Microsoft’s ecosystem. It may, however, cause businesses to reconsider the tools they use every day and the money they spend on them.
Conclusion
Microsoft is gradually phasing out all free Teams to business users. They have decided that it’s the right time to move to paid tiers. It’s easy to understand why. Microsoft Teams Business is becoming more and more popular, and it’s becoming essential that Microsoft keeps on top of things.
The future of business is no longer in physical files or portable storage. Companies now exist purely in the cloud. And, of course, the option on the market that has best adapted to the needs of different businesses is Microsoft 365, along with all its products such as Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint
This new Microsoft announcement may represent a problem for small businesses, which means adjusting their budget for such tools. Nevertheless, not everything is so unfortunate, as Teams will not only allow you to upgrade to its Pro version only for $4 per user, but it also has enabled a tool to migrate all your data quickly and securely to the new paid version.
Take precautions, and if you need help migrating your data to the paid version of Microsoft, contact us! We will be your guide.
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