The July 2026 Price Increase
Microsoft has confirmed that commercial Microsoft 365 pricing will increase globally from 1 July 2026. For Irish businesses paying for Microsoft 365 Business or Enterprise plans, this means a higher recurring cost — one that will be difficult to justify if teams are only using email and basic Word documents.
What Most Teams Are Leaving on the Table
Microsoft 365 is one of the most feature-rich productivity suites ever created. Most organisations use perhaps 20% of its capabilities. The most commonly under-used features in Irish organisations include:
- Microsoft Forms: Create surveys and data collection forms feeding directly into Excel — most teams still pay separately for external survey tools.
- Microsoft Planner and To Do: Built-in task and project management integrating with Teams and Outlook.
- OneNote: A powerful digital notebook for meeting notes and team knowledge management.
- Advanced Word and PowerPoint features: Mail merge, tracked changes, master slides, custom animations.
- Copilot Agent Mode: Multi-step automated tasks across Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint from a single natural language prompt.
March 2026 Updates Worth Knowing About
Video Recap in Copilot Chat turns meeting recordings into narrated highlight reels. Collaborative Notes in Teams lets teams co-create agendas directly in group chats. And Copilot Notebooks can now generate reports in PowerPoint, PDF, infographic or audio format from a single instruction.