Overview
Some organisations want the full desktop Office experience without paying for collaboration tools they no longer use. Their calls may happen in Zoom, their chat may happen in Slack, but most daily work still happens in Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and shared files.
This pairing fits that setup well. The base plan keeps the familiar productivity layer in place, while Copilot adds AI support inside the same environment. Users can draft faster, improve text, summarise material, and handle routine work without opening a separate assistant.
Best For
- Businesses that want Office apps across devices but already use another platform for meetings or chat.
- Teams that spend most of the day in email, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and shared files.
- Companies introducing AI into an established Microsoft-based workflow.
- Organisations that want a no-Teams plan with added Copilot value for business use in Canada.
Included Tools
The Business Standard (No Teams) side includes desktop, web, and mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, plus business email, 1 TB of OneDrive storage per user, and extra apps such as Loop, Clipchamp, Bookings, Planner, and Forms.
The Copilot Business side adds in-context AI assistance for everyday work. It helps users write, summarise, organise ideas, and improve output inside familiar Microsoft 365 tasks rather than pushing them into a separate workflow.
Because Copilot Business is a separate add-on for a qualifying plan, this combination makes the most sense for organisations already working inside Microsoft 365 and looking for a more capable day-to-day setup.
Key Benefits
- Keeps full Office productivity without including Teams in the base plan.
- Adds AI help for drafting, rewriting, summarising, and routine information work.
- Supports businesses that want to keep their current meetings and messaging stack.
- Reduces context switching by keeping work and AI support in the same environment.
- Creates a cleaner path to AI adoption for document-heavy and email-heavy roles.
Why Choose This Plan
This plan makes sense when the business has already chosen another collaboration platform, but still wants Microsoft for its main productivity tools. It is especially useful for teams that write often, work deeply in Excel, manage customer communication in Outlook, and need quicker turnaround on everyday content.
What to Know Before You Buy
Business Standard (No Teams) does not include Microsoft Teams. Copilot Business works best where users are already active in Microsoft 365 apps, email, and files, because its role is to strengthen the work already happening there rather than replace it.