Subscription-based solutions are quite popular these days, and Microsoft Office 365 is perhaps one of the most important ones on the market. If your business doesn’t use some aspect of it, which would surprise us, you are probably aware of the services. However, the services provided by Office 365 are contingent upon successfully renewing the subscription, making it critical that the user understands how this process works. Any user that fails to renew the subscription loses access to it, which could hit your business and employees in a bad way, so we want to make sure you understand what happens when your subscription expires so as to avoid software access issues.
First, it’s important to understand Microsoft’s situation. Retaining a customer costs much less than actively seeking new ones, meaning that they aren’t going to want to lose their existing customers. Microsoft has implemented a three-step process that is designed to help their customers have as much time as possible to decide whether or not they are serious about letting their subscription go. You probably do not want to let the subscription lapse, but here are the three steps.
Steps Within the Office 365 Subscription Lapse
Step 1: Expired
Following the expiration of your subscription, you have thirty days where Office 365 is still available for use. Any installed applications can still be launched, and you can still access additional solutions as well. Microsoft won’t remove any of your data from its servers. Admins can still add services or applications during this time, as well as back up any data. A global administrator can renew the subscription at any time during these thirty days. If you are not the administrator, make sure to inform whoever is.
Step 2: Disabled
After the first month has passed, your subscription status changes to Disabled, which remains in place up until the 120th day. This means that only administrators will have access to the admin portal and to back up any data that Microsoft has stored on their servers. Regarding the rest of your users, they might not have access to as many services and solutions. With access to their Office 365 accounts blocked, your users will find themselves between a rock and a hard place, unable to get their work done, access their email, or access OneDrive for Business. Locally installed applications will only offer limited functionality, and you won’t be able to edit or save your files. You will not want it to reach this point if your entire office uses 365 applications on a daily basis.
Step 3: Deprovisioned
After 121 days, administrators lose access to any data that remains on the servers. No backups can be taken, and any applications or services rendered will be inaccessible. Your backup should already be a priority, if it isn’t, consider reaching out to us about setting up a data backup plan. At this point, Microsoft will start to remove your data from its servers, which you can have sped up through a process called deprovisioning. If your business wants to continue utilizing Office 365, new subscriptions need to be started.
Let Us Help Manage Your Office 365 Subscriptions
We are here to help you in dealing with your Office 365 subscription. To keep lapses in your subscription from preventing your productivity, Symmetric IT Group can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (813) 749-0895 and check out our enterprise solutions page to see how we can help you manage your software services and applications. .
