Office 365 customers can more easily switch plans

www.office.com/setup Blogs: Paul Andrew is a technical product manager on the Office 365 team working on identity and commerce.

We’ve been listening to your feedback and today we are announcing the ability for customers to more easily switch between Office 365 business plans.  We know that as your business grows and your business needs change, you need the flexibility to change your Office 365 subscription.

Now you can switch to another plan by going to the licensing page of the Office 365 admin center and clicking on the Switch plans link. Once you select and purchase a new plan, your users will be automatically reassigned to the plans new subscription. You also will receive a credit for the unused portion of the previous subscription.

This is our first in a series of planned updates to make switching plans as straightforward and hassle-free as possible. For this first update, not all plans are eligible for being switched from (more information below) and only valid replacement plans will be shown as options for each subscription. We will expand this capability in the future. This page gives you an overview of the difference service plans available as part of Office 365 for business, including government and education plans.

Which plans can I switch to?

You can switch to a higher plan within your plan family. Previously, switching between plans required customers to manually reassign user licenses and call Office 365 support to cancel the old subscription.  With the new Switch plans wizard, many plan changes can be done without calling support or manually reassigning licenses. The Switch plans link does not appear if there are no available target plans for a subscription to switch to.  Additionally the Can I switch to a different Office 365 plan or subscription? help article outlines the options for switching plans both with the new automated self-service method and the old manual process with assistance from customer support.  Please note that at this time you can only use the Switch plans wizard for subscriptions with 300 or fewer users.

Here are the possible Switch plan options with this update:

Available now
From	To
Small Business P1	Small Business Premium P2
Enterprise K1, Exchange Online (Plan 1), Lync Online (Plan 1), Lync Online (Plan 2), SharePoint Online  (Plan 1)	Enterprise E1, Enterprise E3, Enterprise E4
Enterprise E1, SharePoint Online  (Plan 2), Exchange Online (Plan 2)	Enterprise E3, Enterprise E4
Education A1	Education A2, A3
Education A2	Education A3
Exchange Online Kiosk	Enterprise E1, Enterprise E3, Enterprise E4, Enterprise K1, Exchange Online (Plan 1), Exchange Online (Plan 2)

How to switch plans

Let’s take a look at how you can switch plans. First, you select the licenses page in the Office 365 admin center. This will list your current subscription plans, and any subscriptions that are eligible for change will include the Switch plans link to the right as shown.

Once you choose switch plans you will see a list of the eligible plans that you can switch to.

After you select the new subscription, you enter your payment details to complete the purchase. During a switch plans operation, you will receive a credit for any unused payment from the original subscription.

The Switch plans wizard verifies the payment details and the new subscription order is placed.  We begin automatically adding the new subscription and reassigning all of the user licenses.  These steps can take a little time and it is important to stay on this web page and not refresh the browser during this time.  Once the switching process is complete, the previous subscription is cancelled.

Once this is completed, your Office 365 account will be ready to use with a new subscription and a new start date.

More switching options on the horizon

We are already working on future updates to enable switching between additional plans. Later this year, we will update the Switch plans wizard so you can switch across plan families.

Future plan switching options
From	To
Small Business P1	Midsize Business Enterprise E1 Enterprise E3 Enterprise E4
Small Business Premium P2	Midsize Business Enterprise E3 Enterprise E4
Midsize Business	Enterprise E3 Enterprise E4
SharePoint Online Kiosk	Enterprise E1, Enterprise E3, Enterprise E4, Enterprise K1, SharePoint Online (Plan 1), SharePoint Online (Plan 2)

Resources

This Office 365 help article describes how to switch plans and what specific transitions are eligible : Can I switch to a different Office 365 plan or subscription?

You can discuss any questions about the Switch plans wizard on the Office 365 Community

Frequently asked questions about switching plans

1. I have more than 300 users, how can I switch plans?

2. You can switch plans following the help article: Can I switch to a different Office 365 plan or subscription?

1. Which customers are able to use the Switch plans wizard?

2. Customers who have purchased directly from the Microsoft web site and have fewer than 300 users are able to use the Switch plans wizard if they an eligible subscription.

Customers who purchased a boxed copy of Office 365 Small Business or Small Business Premium (or any form of pre-paid card), purchased through a Microsoft volume license, or purchased through a telecom/ISP reseller are not able to use the Switch plans wizard at this time.  These customers should continue to use the previous manual process, described here: Can I switch to a different Office 365 plan or subscription?

1. Can I switch plans from an Office 365 trial?

2. No. Switch plans does not move from a trial.  You must purchase a subscription before you can use the Switch plans wizard.

1. My Office 365 plan has an add-on subscription, can I switch the plan and the add-on?

2. No. Plans with add-ons cannot be switched.

1. Can I switch some but not all of the users from my Office 365 subscription?

2. No. The whole subscription must be switched at one time. If you have multiple subscriptions, only users assigned with licenses on the subscription you select the Switch plans link will be reassigned.

— Paul Andrew @pndrw

Original Post: https://blogs.office.com/2013/08/01/office-365-customers-can-more-easily-switch-plans/