Microsoft 365 Business Reviews

As the solution is cloud-based, we employ the latest version. 

The solution is really important. It can work anywhere. One only need have an internet connection, so it's pretty safe.

The diagnostics is an issue that needs to be addressed, as it cannot be seen when needed. 

Furthermore, there is insufficient on-line information in respect of what is transpiring in real time concerning conferencing. 

I have been using Microsoft 365 Business for three years.

The solution performs with stability.

The technical support is fine.

As we were already using Microsoft, use of these sheets was the next logical step. 

The initial setup was straightforward, although I do not recall how long it took. 

I was not involved in the implementation of the solution. 

The licensing is monthly. 

Its price is fine. 

I am not a manager of the solution. We solely make use of it. 

The solution is easy to use. 

Everyone in our organization is making use of it. This accounts for 3,000 or 4,000 users. 

I would recommend the solution to others. 

We primarily use the solutions for the email services on offer. We are able to share the software and Excel spreadsheets quite often. 

The solution's most valuable aspect is the ability to share and use spreadsheets.

The initial setup is very straightforward. It's pretty easy and not overly complex.

The solution isn't stable. It's an important aspect of the product that needs to be looked at and worked on.

I do not agree with how the licensing is set up. If you have a staff member leave your organization, for example, you still have to keep paying for the email address. I have staff members that have left a year ago and I'm still paying for their license. 

We've been using the solution for a couple of years at this point. It has been a while. I've had a good amount of experience and time with it.

We are not happy with the scalability. It seems difficult to scale down. If a person leaves, you still need to deal with their email and you are forced to keep paying for it. 

We have 18 individuals using the solution currently.

We likely will continue to use the solution, as it is such a struggle to actually change products and move to something different.

I've never used technical support. I can't speak to how knowledgeable or responsive they are. I have no experience with them whatsoever.

The installation of the product is not overly complex or difficult. It's very easy and quite straightforward. A company shouldn't have any issues with the process.

I didn't handle the installation personally. There was somebody else in charge of the installation process. they may have used an outside consultant or integrator, however, I don't have that information as I was not a part of the process.

The licensing needs to be changed. We shouldn't have to pay for emails if we have employees that have left the company.

I'd rate the solution at a five out of ten. We haven't been happy with it due to the fact that we need to keep paying for all of these emails of past employees.

I would not recommend the product to other companies.

I use this solution for sharing data, and data backup.

The data backup is very good. I can use it to access my data from wherever I want, which is a very good feature.

It's easy to share.

It should be more secure.

I have been using Microsoft 365 Business for a couple of years.

We are using the latest version.

It's a stable solution.

It's a scalable product. We have 300 users in our organization and we plan to continue using it.

We have not contacted technical support. We have not had any issues.

The initials setup was straightforward. It's easy to install.

I have no issues with the pricing and licensing is on a yearly basis.

I have no problem recommending this solution.

I would rate Microsoft 365 Business an eight out of ten.

We use this solution for document storage, email, all connected platforms, instead of the Power Platform, we use that pretty heavily. We use Microsoft Project in combination with it, for communication.

Microsoft 365 business has helped us organize.

I'm a project manager. It helped us organize with all of our teamwork. We can go into Teams, we can set up a team that gives us the backend SharePoint, and it gives us a centralized place to communicate and go back and forth so that everybody can stay up to date. 

It's easy to email the group, as well, since you have the team created.

All the development that they've done in Teams recently has been great. The enhanced collaboration, the ability to set up different spaces within Teams for a project, project creation, and the SharePoint behind it. All of that has been really great.

Communication regarding updates is an area that can be improved. They've rolled out a lot of updates right now, but we don't know that they're coming. A feature will look different or behave just a little bit differently from day to day, and while most of the updates are great, having some sort of advanced notice that that update was coming and what they changed would be helpful.

We would like some documentation regarding the updates.

I would like to see a connection between their planner board, and a project for the web would be better.

I have been using this solution for five and a half years.

I am using the latest version.

Had you asked me two months ago, I would have said just fine, but I know Microsoft has had some issues recently.

I would say that it's fairly stable, but I think that all the increased traffic from COVID and people working from home has resulted in it being less stable.

Scalability is very good. It's an easily scalable solution.

We have approximately 200 users on every level of our organization and it's been extensively used.

We have plans to increase, possibly through the integration of the Microsoft Power Platform.

I have not had to connect with Microsoft support. I've been able to solve everything myself or internally.

Previously, we have not used another solution. It's pretty much been Microsoft the whole way.

The initial setup was fairly straightforward.

I didn't help set it up. I don't know what the timeline was for setting it up.

I suspect they probably used a consultant to help get everything set up, but I don't know that for sure.

We have seen a return of investment with using Microsoft 365 Business.

I am not aware of what we pay at this time.

I would recommend that they review the licensing and the abilities. It's not difficult to add to things after that, but you may get some additional features if you decide to upgrade your licensing.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten, because it does absolutely everything that I need it to, and it has the ability to do more, but it's not necessarily the most straightforward.

We are using it for file sharing, office applications, email, and SharePoint.

We use Microsoft solutions for everything that we do. A part of our software development is done in .NET using Visual Studio and development tools. We use Azure Cloud Platform, and we are also providing services to our client's clients. It would be hard to imagine using something else because we are so used to using Microsoft tools. It is something that you count on having.

Everything gets integrated. Different services that they provide are well integrated into the entire system, which is the biggest strength of Microsoft products. Everything works together. If I create a Microsoft Teams theme, I get a SharePoint site and planner. Everything, including permissions, is scoped, which is really nice.

Microsoft Teams, which is a video conferencing, chat, and collaboration tool, has some issues with video codecs. It has really bad performance, especially on the Mac OS, and requires a lot of improvements. I'm using MacBook Pro, and the performance of Microsoft Teams is disastrous. It is really unusable. Given our subscription, we get Microsoft Teams for free, but we are often opting to use Zoom or some other tool because the entire computer becomes almost unusable. New age applications should be written in a way that ensures similar performance across different operating systems. I'm not sure how it works on Windows. I assume it works better, but Microsoft needs to ensure that the performance is really good. It should provide the same kind of user experience across different platforms. They can use more efficient development tools when it comes to applications. They seem to be using a technology that uses a lot of resources on our personal computers. I know that Microsoft is pushing a lot of applications to be built in the Office 365 ecosystem, but Microsoft Teams should be a focus because it is a collaboration tool. Its performance and usability need to be better, especially in the times of COVID-19. As a part of management, I use the collaboration tools and video conferencing tools for approximately five or six hours a day. Such issues have a big business impact because the management makes decisions about the tools that are going to be used within the company.

SharePoint could somehow be improved or changed to match the features of Confluence from Atlassian. There is an opportunity to do some improvements there. 

We have been using this solution for six or seven years.

It is stable if we exclude the issues with Microsoft Teams. I am the technical director of a company that has 130 employees. I don't remember experiencing any kind of issues. There was an outage for a very short period of time about three months ago, but it was nothing bad. Its stability is great.

It is scalable. Everything that we use is based on a cloud source. It is pretty scalable, especially for our needs.

It is used by the entire company. It is an official tool for document management and business apps. We have 130 employees. Its usage will increase. We have the intention to grow as a company, so we will increase its usage accordingly.

We didn't have too much of a need for technical support or any kind of support, but when we needed it, it was okay. I don't remember which support plan we are subscribed to, but it works okay. 

It is pretty much straightforward. It cannot be configured for the first time by someone who is not trained to configure it. You need help from basically your cloud service provider (CSP). Your CSP will provide resources to do the initial configurations. Such tools are not easy to configure for the first time, but everything else is pretty much intuitive. If you have an IT background, it should be intuitive and easy.

Its price is what you would expect today from a software-as-a-service offering. It is somewhere around $10 per user per month.

I would advise making sure that someone experienced with Microsoft Office 365 platform and ecosystem is leading your organization. Otherwise, find a great partner to help you and guide you through the implementation process.

I would rate Microsoft 365 Business a seven out of ten. A couple of things can be better.

Students use it mostly for sending emails, storing their documents, and collaborating.

Office products such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are strong points of this solution.

Microsoft Teams can be improved. It is a bit taxing on resources and is resource-heavy on the devices. When you install it on a PC, it uses a lot of memory.

They should look for a better price model for educational institutions, and it should be free. We are also using Google Suite, which is free for educational institutions. They charge business people, not nonprofit institutions.

I have been using this solution for some time.

It is stable.

It is scalable. We have around 2,000 users, and we want to increase the usage.

We get support from Microsoft through their local dealers. Their support is fine.

We are also using Google Suite. Microsoft 365 has a price attached, whereas Google Suite is free for educational institutions. Microsoft 365 has got popular applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, whereas Google Suite has got similar products that do the same thing, but they are not very popular.

It was straightforward.

I installed it myself.

They are always a bit pricey. They should reduce their prices or make it free because we already have other solutions, like Google Suite, which are cheaper or free.

If you can afford it, then go for it. It is a good product.

I would rate Microsoft 365 Business a six out of ten.

I am not a technical person, I am from the sales side and more on the commercial side of things. Our company is in Mozambique and we are the main Dell EMC repair center and service provider.  

My main use case for Office 365 is really to type documents with Word, to prepare presentations with the PowerPoint, and also to do spreadsheets with Excel. The product in the suite that I use the most is Word. PowerPoint and Excel to a somewhat lesser extent. But I do use all three frequently.  

We also resell the product so we do deployments for our customers as well.  

With Office, the interface is now more user-friendly than the previous versions of Microsoft Office. The functionality and ability to work offline are also great. There are more helpful tools in the interfacer now. For example, if you are working with Excel and you are typing a formula, Office 365 gives you tips as you work if you do something wrong. It will identify what is wrong and then you can apply the corrections. Things like that make the product more intuitive and helpful. The previous version did not have that kind of help to this extent. So, the most valuable features are the ability to work offline, the ability to have tips when writing formulas, and the improved more user-friendly interface.  

I believe one thing I enjoy more about the experience of using the product is that it now the basic features that I use most frequently are easier to find, access, and manage. This helps to make my work easier and speed up productivity.  

Microsoft could still work on the bandwidth used with Office 365. It does not seem to behave the same depending on the networks that I am working on. Sometimes I can tell the program uses more or less bandwidth and actually measure the difference. I believe that this can be enhanced to be independent of the network that I am working on. The bandwidth consumption should always be about the same.  

Some features of specific products could be more user-friendly. For instance, in Excel, some functionalities like the Pivot tables are not always so easy to use. Right now if you want to create a new formula, you need to have some knowledge about programming in Visual Basic. It does not seem to me that this should be a requirement. So you can type a command and then set up a new formula that is not listed on standard functions supplied with Excel. For users who do not understand the basics of programming and VBA, that really becomes an impossible mission. They may know that they can create a formula and what they might want it to do but they do not know how to do it. So if they do not find the formula in what is provided, then they really have to forget using Excel for that type of solution. If they knew how to do the programming they can do virtually anything through Excel, but they need to have the ability to do the programming and develop the formula. It does not really have to be that way. Microsoft could expand those capabilities.  

One final issue we have has to do with the backups. Microsoft does not assure the backups of the information that you store at their data centers. So besides deploying Office 365 as a solution, you also need a backup solution specifically for Office 365 on the cloud. We definitely recommend Office 365, but unfortunately in our country — specifically for the public companies — it is not easy to sell because we have some strict policies and regulations regarding data. Public companies cannot store information outside of the country. So, since Microsoft Office 365 is a Cloud product some public companies can not go for that option. They still have to work with previous versions of the product. Private sector companies do not have this type of restriction. We can only recommend the product when interested customers can do it within the proper guidelines.  

I have been using Office 365 for about one year now.  

Office 365 is a stable product. Besides the issues with the bandwidth use where sometimes the product uses more bandwidth depending on the network, it performs well and it is very stable and very reliable.  

We have done sales and installations for SMBs (Small and Medium-sized Businesses) as well as for enterprise companies. The issues with scalability would be budget and Internet bandwidth. If the money is there it is not an issue.  

My technicians deal with Microsoft support if they have to. Mostly they will take care of issues themselves. They have a dedicated contact and a direct portal for support purposes. So that is great. If a technician needs to open a ticket for a customer, the technician can open himself and go straight to the support portal to log the tickets and carry on from there. In terms of response time, I am not exactly sure because I am not directly involved.  

Previously, I was using Microsoft on a version from 2016. So it really is not a complete switch of products as it is still the Microsoft solution. It is just a newer version.  

I do not think the installation was easy but that is because we have around a hundred users. I did not manage the installation, but I heard from the technical guys that it is generally easier than the previous versions. We signed an enterprise agreement with Microsoft. With that, we got the keys and we got the centralized management panel from where we deploy the Office on all the endpoints. So this made it easier. For the previous versions, the technical guy had to go to each user machine to make the installation through a compact disc. But with volume licensing installation is centralized and the IT manager deployed remotely to the endpoints.  

We handle the setup and the deployment in house. We have a separate team with more-or-less 30 technicians. Some of them are specifically certified on Microsoft products through the partnership that we have with Microsoft. So, depending on the infrastructure that our customer has, we can send out as many as three technicians if it is to be deployed for say 200 users. When we need to do a mailbox migration, most of them have to be migrated at the same time. In that case, we allocate two to three technicians to do it as quickly as possible. If we are talking about enterprise companies with 1000 users — depending on what the customer requires in terms of delivery time — we might allocate as many as 20 guys. It is more likely we will allocate 10 guys. It basically depends on the customer's requirements.  

The pricing for the product is a bit of a tricky question. In terms of the total cost of ownership, I can say that it is expensive. It is a fair price, but in our country or another country with economies similar to  Mozambique, the pricing structure may be a little high and prohibitive. The first issue is the volatility of the exchange rate because our currency, the Metical, is very volatile related to the dollar. The problem here is the customer has an agreement and when he realized that he wants to add some other applications or services or something else, he has the expectation of price based on what he signed on the first agreement. But when he sees the new price, it could become a lot higher than expected because of the exchange rate. It would be nice if somehow Microsoft had some flexibility with the initial agreement so that pricing would not fluctuate dramatically because of the exchange rate.  

Another thing that factors into the pricing is that the Internet connection and Internet bandwidth is still very expensive here in Mozambique. So it is not always an easy decision to make the migration to Office 365 due to these two variables.  

I recommend the Microsoft Office 365 product to clients. We are able to do proofs-of-concept with clients who are interested and carry forward from there.  

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate Microsoft Office 365 as eight-and-a-half.  

We are using Microsoft 365 for Outlook. SharePoint is on the backend of Teams and we store all our documents with that. But on the frontend, we are using Teams by itself rather than hooking onto SharePoint directly. We have about 12,000 users in the organization working with 365. 

Business 365 is very scalable and easy to use. I need to explore the features more, but I'm more or less happy with the features we are using right now.

I've been using Microsoft for almost more than a year now.

I haven't contacted Microsoft support directly. The backend team responsible for server management may have contacted them, but  I'm not aware of that.

The price can always be improved. It's an organization-wide license, so I don't really handle that end of things.