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In an effort to eliminate MS Access from the current software landscape, the IT department where I work continues to espouse the fact that Microsoft has announced the End of Life for Access, not just a particular version but rather eliminating Access altogether. Is there any truth to this?
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None whatsoever. This rumor has been going around for decades and has never been true. In fact, the Access development team has announced a new dedication to improving the desktop (see my blog). Ask your IT department to provide any statement from Microsoft to support their contention. Feel free to show them this response.
All I can think is that some machines are not automatically switching to the new plans - I have had to uninstall/reinstall a few of them, including mine. Even then mine says Business when it should say Business Premium. I might have to raise a support call!
How come Access 2016 is not part of the Office 365 Business Plans? The standalone version apparently will not work with those plans. Perhaps Microsoft don't want us to use it?
Microsoft is not above making head scratching decisions. Clearly, not including it in the Business plans is one of those. How Office is marketed is above the level of the Access team. On the other hand, Access drives a large percentage of Office sales. So killing Access is far from MS's plans. Using Access to drive higher cost plans is the more likely thinking.
As pointed out to me by Albert Kallal not too long ago, previous offerings of Small Business have never included Access. Don't ask me why, you'd think this would be the definition of their target market!!!
...
Small Business - 2003 (no Access)
Small Business - 2007 (no Access)
...
But I totally agree this is moronic!
I also do not understand why it is so very hard to know which is the right plan based on one's needs! Why can they have a simple interactive form in which you select the applications, services, ... you need and it lists which plans meet or exceed those needs. They have made a complete mess of Office365 from this standpoint.
I would contact MS to get everything sorted out so you could move forward.
Thanks, Gina.
Microsoft are now saying that Access 2016 standalone does work with Office 365, so they must have fixed that. We'll see!
Re. other plans, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to switch from Business Premium to Pro Plus, and E3 is way too pricey. Still mystified as to why Microsoft have left Access out of the Business plans.
Access 2016 has always worked with Office 365, you just need one of the Enterprise plans. I've had E3 since late summer 2015 right when Office 2016 started rolling out and Access 2016 came with it.