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MS-900 Practice Question: A company currently uses Microsoft 365 Business…
A company currently uses Microsoft 365 Business Basic licenses for 80 users. They want to add the desktop versions of Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) without any additional security or compliance features. Which upgrade is the most cost-effective?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often choose Business Premium or E3 because they assume 'more features' means 'better value,' but the question explicitly states no additional security or compliance features are needed, making the lower-tier Business Standard the correct cost-effective choice.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Upgrade to Microsoft 365 Business Standard
Microsoft 365 Business Standard is the most cost-effective upgrade from Business Basic because it includes the desktop versions of Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) without adding the advanced security and compliance features found in Business Premium or Enterprise plans. Business Standard provides the same core productivity tools at a lower per-user price point, making it the ideal choice when only desktop Office is needed.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Upgrade to Microsoft 365 Business Standard
Why this is correct
Business Standard provides the full suite of desktop Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) along with Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive, at a lower per-user monthly cost than Premium or E3. It directly meets the requirement for installed Office apps while preserving the cloud-based collaboration and management capabilities already present in Business Basic. It also includes the same core productivity and communication services without the additional security and device-management overhead that would be unnecessary for this scenario.
- ✗
Upgrade to Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Why it's wrong here
Business Premium includes everything in Standard plus Microsoft 365 Defender, Intune device management, and Azure Information Protection. While it does deliver desktop apps, its value proposition centers on advanced threat protection, conditional access, and endpoint management—capabilities not requested here. For an organization that simply needs full Office apps and already has adequate security, Premium adds significant cost per user and administrative complexity that is not justified.
- ✗
Upgrade to Microsoft 365 E3
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft 365 E3 is an enterprise-grade plan that bundles the desktop Office apps with advanced compliance, eDiscovery, and security features, but it is designed for organizations with complex regulatory or governance needs. Its per-user licensing price is substantially higher than Business Standard, and it typically requires a volume licensing or EA agreement rather than a simple upgrade. Choosing E3 would over-provision the environment, forcing the company to pay for enterprise capabilities that are irrelevant to the stated need.
- ✗
Purchase Office 2019 Professional Plus standalone
Why it's wrong here
Purchasing Office 2019 Pro Plus as a perpetual license does give you the desktop apps, but it lacks the cloud-connected services (Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint) and the continuous feature updates that subscription plans like Business Standard provide. Over time, the upfront cost of perpetual licenses plus eventual upgrade purchases generally exceeds the recurring cost of a Microsoft 365 subscription. Additionally, it would not unify licensing with the existing Business Basic deployment, leaving the company to manage a hybrid environment without the integrated management and collaboration benefits.
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Benefits of Microsoft Cloud
Key term
Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based cloud service from Microsoft that combines productivity tools like Office apps with security, device management, and online storage.
Key term
User
A user is any person, system, or device that interacts with an IT service, resource, or identity system, typically authenticated through credentials and authorized to perform specific actions.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This MS-900 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the MS-900 exam.