Many moons back we wrote a long article (that Tolstoy would have been impressed with) regarding which version of Office 2013 to buy. Well Obi-Wan, it’s all gone full circle and ahead of the upcoming full 2016 release we now need to inform you of what version of Excel 2016 to buy and why – and this time, there seems to be more clarity from the outset.

With the release of Excel 2016, Microsoft has provided two key improvements to their Office plans that make it easier to get the advanced “Power”-analytic features:

• Office 2016 Professional feature updates: Office 2016 Professional includes all of Excel’s business analytics capabilities, making it easier to take advantage of the complete suite as part of a one-time purchase of the Office desktop applications. If you purchase the Office 365 ProPlus subscription, which comes with Excel 2016, you will continue to receive ongoing updates and new features as they arise in the future; and
• Small business users: Office 365 small business users who are using one of the Office 365 Business Plans for most of their organisation can now purchase Office 365 ProPlus for users who need the premium features, leaving other users “as is”.

Microsoft has even created helpful diagrams to provide a holistic view of business analytics features offered in Excel 2016: