Office 365 applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint are used on a daily basis. However, we all know that there are different versions of those applications, Word 2016, 2013, 2010 etc., and that some businesses might not see the logic of paying more money for higher priced/newer versions. Recently, Microsoft announced that after October 2020, they are modifying their Office 365 services system requirements related to service connectivity, and they will no longer support 2013 as part of the older versions of Office 365 applications.

Office 2013

“Effective October 13th, 2020, Office 365 will only allow Office client connectivity from subscription clients (Office 365 ProPlus) or Office perpetual clients within mainstream support to connect to Office 365 services”

What does this mean for you?

This means that Microsoft will reject service requests from older versions of Office. So if you’re in need of assistance while using an older version, you will no longer get it from Microsoft.

It also means that older authentication is not patched and therefore less secure, so if you’re logging into your business environment while using Word 2013, you’re potentially creating a security breach for cyber criminals to gain access to company data through the legacy authentication.

What can you do?

We recommended to get rid of the older versions of Office 365 and to ensure individuals using any devices connecting to company data via the Office applications have licenses that include Office 365, for businesses that means ProPlus, i.e. Business Premium, or E3/E5 Office 365 licences. ​As these business subscriptions include the always up to date Office applications.

As part of 365 Solution Group’s security audit, we check for legacy authentication and identify who in your organisation is using legacy authentication, as well as optionally blocking those users from accessing company data with the old apps.

As a Microsoft Small & Mid-market Silver Partner, 365 Solutions Group can assist you during the update or installation process. Beyond being experts in Office 365 licensing, we can ensure corporate security, automate processes and  develop reporting.