I'm helping my friend's small business set up Office 365 for six employees. They have four Dell Micro PCs that need the full Office 365 apps, while the other two employees just need email. I'm looking for a solution that allows those with PCs to log in with their email for a single sign-on experience. Currently, I found that to allow a user to sign in with their Office 365 account, I had to assign an entry P2 license. Is this the most cost-effective option out there? I'm sure there's a license available that combines Office 365 and Active Directory, but I'm still learning about the licensing options.
3 Answers
As mentioned earlier, Microsoft 365 Business Premium really is the best and most cost-effective choice here. It allows you to join devices to Azure AD and manage them with Intune, which is optional but highly recommended for leveraging MDM and security features. Keep in mind though, that this isn't the traditional single sign-on experience you're thinking of. Real SSO involves protocols like SAML where you can use one identity provider for various unrelated platforms. Just remember that while organizations usually align usernames and email addresses for user-friendliness, they are separate attributes.
You should go for the Business Premium license. It covers everything you need like antivirus and is around $30 a month. Additionally, when paid yearly, it actually comes down to about $22 a month, which isn't too bad at all!
Looks like it’s actually $22 a month when paid yearly so that’s not too bad!
$30 a month per user still feels a bit steep for them. Is there a cheaper option?