What’s Included in Office 365 Business Premium Apps?
Quick Answer
Office 365 Business Premium (now Microsoft 365 Business Premium) includes core apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint and Exchange Online, plus extras such as Loop, Planner, Forms, Bookings, and Clipchamp. Each user gets installs across devices, 1 TB of cloud storage, and built-in security tools like Intune and Microsoft Defender. Together, these apps deliver productivity, collaboration, and protection for small and midsize businesses in one seamless package.
Want to learn more? Read on!
If you run a small or midsize business, you likely hear two product names used interchangeably: Office 365 and Microsoft 365. The current plan that most teams mean when they say “Office 365 Business Premium” is the Microsoft 365 Business Premium package. It combines familiar Office desktop apps with business email, file storage, collaboration services and security capabilities that protect devices and data. This guide focuses on the productivity apps you get with Business Premium and how each one can help your users work faster and more securely.
A Quick Orientation: What Business Premium Covers
Microsoft 365 Business Premium includes the desktop, web and mobile versions of the core Office apps, along with professional email through Exchange Online, calendaring, Teams for chat and meetings and OneDrive cloud storage. The plan supports organizations with up to 300 licensed users. Each user can install Microsoft 365 apps on up to five PCs or Macs, five tablets and five smartphones, keeping work available across all their devices.
The Core Microsoft 365 Apps You Get
Microsoft 365 Business Premium gives you more than just access to familiar Office tools. It delivers a complete suite of connected applications that work across desktop, web and mobile. These apps form the foundation of everyday productivity, whether your team is creating documents, analyzing data, presenting ideas, managing email or meeting online.
- Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote as desktop, web and mobile apps. Your team works online or offline and stays in sync across devices.
- Teams for chat, calls, meetings and webinars. It connects the work you do in Office apps with conversations and scheduling.
- OneDrive with 1 TB of cloud storage per user for work files that sync to every device.
- SharePoint to create team sites, manage shared documents and build internal resources with permissions.
- Exchange Online for custom business email and calendars using your domain.
Business Premium also includes additional apps that many organizations adopt over time, such as Bookings, Planner, Forms, Loop and Clipchamp. These expand how teams schedule, coordinate projects, capture data, co-create content and edit video without separate point tools.
Word, Excel and PowerPoint: The Everyday Workhorses
Microsoft 365 Business Premium gives your team flexibility to work in the format that best fits the moment:
- The desktop versions deliver the most complete set of features for advanced users.
- The web apps support quick edits and real-time coauthoring directly in a browser.
- The mobile apps keep projects moving when you are away from your desk, with changes synced instantly.
- All three form factors connect to the same document in OneDrive or SharePoint, which reduces duplicates and preserves version history.
Beyond the format, each app contributes distinct value:
- Word streamlines content creation and review with modern commenting and tracked changes.
- Excel powers analysis with tables, pivot tables and charts that you can share in Teams or a SharePoint library.
- PowerPoint supports polished presentations with design suggestions and seamless sharing in Teams meetings.
These apps connect to cloud services by default, so users always open the latest version from OneDrive or SharePoint instead of sending file attachments back and forth. Administrators can apply data protection and sharing controls centrally, giving their organizations more consistency around security oversight.
Outlook And Exchange Online: Professional Email That Scales
With Business Premium you host mailboxes in Exchange Online and use Outlook on desktop, web and mobile. Your domain appears in every message, invites flow from calendars and shared mailboxes support team workflows. Most Business plans include a 50 GB primary mailbox for each user. Admins can add archiving or higher mailbox tiers if needed for specific roles.
- Outlook connects messages, calendars and contacts across devices. You can schedule Teams meetings from within the app without switching context.
- Exchange Online adds retention, transport rules and shared mailbox options that help meet your communication and compliance needs.
Teams: Meetings, Chat and Collaboration in One Place
Teams brings your communication together. Users chat in channels, schedule meetings from Outlook and coedit files during a call. Recordings, transcriptions and shared documents live where the conversation happens. That reduces the time your employees spend hunting for links or recent versions. Teams in Business Premium also supports webinars and external meetings, which help sales and service teams run professional sessions from the same hub they use every day.
Here are some examples of the functionality you’ll enjoy:
- Meetings and calls support screen sharing and live reactions. Participants can also access shared files directly within the session.
- Channels keep your projects organized and map to SharePoint libraries behind the scenes for tighter file governance.
- Apps like Planner and Forms can pin as tabs inside the channel, so teams manage tasks and capture feedback right alongside their conversations and files.
Together, these features make Teams the central hub for daily collaboration, while OneDrive and SharePoint provide the secure storage foundation that keeps all shared content organized.
OneDrive and SharePoint: File Storage and Content Hubs
Every user receives 1 TB of OneDrive storage for their work files. Teams and departments can share content on SharePoint sites with permission controls. They can also use check-in and check-out options and add metadata to improve search. Both services keep version history and integrate with Office desktop apps, so users save without thinking and pick up on another device later.
These two services cover different but complementary needs:
- OneDrive is ideal for personal work files and ad hoc sharing with individuals.
- SharePoint organizes shared content for groups and provides structured sites for policies, project documentation and knowledge bases.
Together they create a strong foundation for collaboration, which makes it easier to build new ways of working with apps like Loop.
Loop: Co-Create and Reuse Live Components
Loop introduces portable components that stay in sync wherever you paste them. Loop components, such as a status tracker or tables, stay live inside a Teams chat, so any change you make updates for everyone who views it. This feature reduces copy-and-paste cycles and keeps decisions current across channels. Business Premium includes Loop, which lets your team experiment with new ways to co-create content without adding another tool.
Planner: Simple Task Management That Fits Your Day
Planner gives every team a visual board for tasks. You can assign owners, set due dates and group work by buckets. Since Planner lives inside Teams, each project board can appear as a tab in your channel, so tasks stay visible alongside chats and files. That keeps work visible and reduces the friction of status updates.
Forms: Capture Data and Feedback in Minutes
You can also create forms and quizzes that collect responses in a structured way. You can share a link with a small workgroup or publish a survey for a department. Results appear in charts and can be exported to Excel for deeper analysis. Teams can pin a form to a channel and discuss results as they arrive.
Bookings: Easy Appointment Scheduling for Customer-Facing Teams
Bookings simplify how customers schedule time with your staff. Create a booking page with available time slots, assign services and let the app handle confirmations and reminders. The app integrates with Outlook calendars and Teams meetings, so your people avoid double booking while your customers enjoy a clear, self-service experience.
Clipchamp: Built-In Video Editing for Training and Marketing
Many teams need quick, professional video without specialist software. Clipchamp fills that gap with templates, timeline editing and exports tailored for sharing. Because it is part of Microsoft 365, you can keep content in OneDrive or SharePoint and share directly from Teams. Business Premium surfaces Clipchamp among the additional apps so users can produce how-to clips, short updates and event recaps with a light learning curve.
Access And Publisher On PC
Access and Publisher are available for Windows PCs through select Business subscriptions for business workflows that still rely on desktop database apps and lightweight publishing. These tools help with line-of-business databases and simple marketing materials in organizations that prefer to keep those tasks in familiar Office tools. Check your app catalog in the Microsoft 365 admin center to confirm whether Access and Publisher are available in your organization’s subscription.
Security And Management That Quietly Support the Apps
Although this article spotlights apps, one of the biggest reasons teams choose Business Premium is the set of security and management capabilities that work behind the scenes. For example:
- Microsoft Intune for device and application management
- Microsoft Defender for Business for endpoint protection
- Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 for phishing and malware protection in email and collaboration
- Microsoft Entra ID Plan 1 for identity and access management
These services apply consistent cybersecurity policies to the Office apps and reduce risk without adding additional complexity for your end-users.
What About Copilot and AI Features in the Apps?
Microsoft offers Copilot as an add-on to Business plans. When your organization licenses Copilot, you can use AI features across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and many other apps. If you have not added Copilot, you still receive the complete set of Business Premium apps described in this article. Review your needs for data governance and user training before introducing AI at scale and then plan your adoption in phases.
How Licensing Limits Affect the App Experience
A few practical limits matter for admins and power users:
- Mailbox sizes in Exchange Online Plan 1 give each user a 50 GB primary mailbox. Admins can enable archiving or assign higher Exchange plans to users who require additional capacity.
- OneDrive storage in Business Premium provides 1 TB per user, which is usually more than enough for active documents. Admins can apply retention and external sharing policies to meet compliance needs.
- Device installs allow each licensed user to put Microsoft 365 apps on multiple devices, supporting a typical mix of a desktop, a laptop, a tablet and a phone.
These limits give you control over how Microsoft 365 apps are deployed. By aligning storage and licensing with your business needs, you can keep these resources available without creating unnecessary overhead.
Putting The Apps to Work, One Scenario at A Time
Every business adopts the suite differently.
Sales and Account Teams
- Create proposals in Word and presentations in PowerPoint, then share from OneDrive with view permissions for customers.
- Track tasks in Planner and pin the plan in a Teams channel for real-time visibility.
- Schedule customer consultations through Bookings and hold meetings in Teams with meeting notes saved to the right SharePoint site.
Operations and Project Teams
- Standardize forms to capture data from site visits, then export to Excel for analysis.
- Keep documents in a SharePoint site with required metadata and version history.
- Use Loop components in chats to track statuses without juggling a separate tracker file.
Training and Communications
- Record short how-to clips in Clipchamp and post them to a Teams channel.
- Build an internal site in SharePoint for policies and FAQs, then link it inside Teams for easy access.
Tips For Administrators Rolling Out These Apps
We recommend a few planning moves help you get the best value from Business Premium from day one:
- Default to cloud storage. Set OneDrive and SharePoint as the default save locations in your deployment, so files stay protected and portable across devices.
- Map Teams to your org structure. Create Teams aligned to departments or major projects. Pin the most relevant apps, such as Planner or Forms, so work happens in fewer places.
- Balance mailbox needs. Most users thrive with the standard mailbox size. Heavy mail users may need archiving or a larger tier. Assign those add-ons selectively.
- Leverage the security that ships with the plan. Turn on Defender for Office 365 policies and endpoint protection in Defender for Business. Start with the recommended baselines in Intune before you add custom rules.
The Bottom Line
Microsoft 365 Business Premium gives you the familiar Office apps and a broad set of supporting services that keep work secure and connected. Your users create and analyze in Word and Excel. They can make presentations in PowerPoint and schedule appointments in Outlook. They’ll meet and chat in Teams with files saved to OneDrive and SharePoint.
Additional apps like Loop, Planner, Forms, Bookings and Clipchamp extend how teams plan, collect information and distribute content. When you add the plan’s built-in security and management, you get an app experience that feels seamless for users and manageable for IT.
Partner with Red River to Get the Most from Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Microsoft 365 Business Premium delivers a powerful mix of apps, collaboration tools and security services. But making the most of it takes planning. You need the right deployment strategy and ongoing management to keep everything running smoothly.
Red River helps organizations unlock the full value of their Microsoft 365 investment. From setup and migration to security configuration and ongoing support, our team ensures your employees can work productively while your data stays protected.
Contact Red River today to learn how we can help you optimize Microsoft 365 Business Premium.
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