Microsoft 365 Business Reviews

As a business intelligence specialist and business owner, I primarily use the standard apps in this solution. I enjoy the fact that there's a smorgasbord of additional apps that make for great productivity within the business - especially when you realize what all the apps can do for your business.

MS365 Business has offered me a robust infrastructure with the out of the box standard offering but also provided amazing apps and features to encourage growth in other areas of my business.

I like that the standard solution is easy and intuitive. It's worth taking the time to go and poke around all the other apps, though. 

There are rules of engagement that are important to know and it can be overwhelming at first if you're never been a Sysadmin. The Apps within the solution provide different business functions so you don't have to hire anyone - you can actually do most of it yourself. It's a huge cost saving for a small business and with the subscription, it's actually much cheaper than buying the products outright, as you would have had to do in the past. You can get everything you need for a reasonable price e.g. if you wanted, say, five features/ functionality you'd pay between $100 and $1000 for each, potentially spending close to $5000 once off but then next year arrives and you need to buy the next version and again you're spending precious funds. Instead, with subscription plans, you get between ~20 features/ functions. My plan, plus the add-on Apps costs my business $12.50x2 + $30 +$9.99  per month = $780 annually - the key is TODAY'S cash stays in my pocket.

You have to buy licenses for everything, but the pricing structure is very competitive. From a small business perspective, there's lots of advantages to going with 365, because not only are you getting the standard tool set to actually just run a standard business, but you're getting add-on Apps/features that open up opportunities that you might not have thought of and... the realization that you don't have to pay another entity because you can do it yourself e.g. sway and bookings

I think where Microsoft could help with the product is to perhaps have an agent/ comprehensive start up video, that can assist with the initial setup since you're now dealing with several admin panels. You can learn it yourself but there are certain tips and tricks that could much more easily be communicated in a conversation. For example, know that if you go into an admin portal, you're going to need five things; and you need those five things before you go into the portal and they each may need their own setup/initiation.

I submitted a good few support tickets early on because some of it was a bit overwhelming. When you're a small business and you suddenly realize that there are various admin portals which all do different things and you set something up in this portal and then you have to go set something up in another portal and connect the dots. If you don't know to do that and you haven't yet read ALL the documentation, it can be very overwhelming and you can feel a little lost. But once you get your head around it all, it's quite brilliant - the architecture and how they set everything up in the background.

I've been using the MS365 Business standard plan for two months. 

The stability of this solution is superb. No issues. Just know that when you make updates or edits in the admin panels, the change(s) may not take effect instantaneously, in some cases.

I haven't tested scalability as we are a new business, just starting out. There is only one other person working with me and I purchased two licenses even though the other person in the company doesn't yet use the product. You have to have one license per user even though each user gets to load it/ use the license on several other devices. It might be a waste but I wanted to do the right thing. It would be helpful if they provided an option for two licenses so you could legitimately have it on a second computer. 

I've bought additional licenses for other apps because my business is going to be delivering a very comprehensive business intelligence/ project management service offering. I expect to expand use and embark on several upgrade routes available to me, when the time is right.

Very responsive, thorough and professional. Just be aware that they have teams with specialities and they don't cross lines e.g. I needed help with Power BI so you have to specify that in your ticket or deal with a generalist who will not be able to help you. I learned to state the product first then state your issue.

I've used Google in business as well, and I like the ability of being able to collaborate that they offer, but Microsoft 365 actually fixed that and you are now able to collaborate in the documents e.g. Word and Excel. So I really didn't see the need to stick with Google. The only thing that Microsoft wasn't able to deliver for me was photo and video organization/editing. Even if you're not a photographic business, you do still take photos and videos for your business. I do still use Google for all my photos and images.

The intial setup was very straightforward and took me less than an hour but all the administrative elements can take longer, depending on what you choose to do. You need to configure it with all it's variables and that can take extra time. The basic setup to just start work, was super quick. If you have a powerful computer it's about the download time and then some setup time. It's the Sysadmin leg of work that was a steep learning curve for me.

Handled it by myself with great support from a very responsive MS365 Tech team.

incredible. Very lower startup cost.

For the standard plan, the cost is USD $12.50 per month, committed annually. There are often discounts offered versus month to month.

I wanted to stick with the best and only evaluated all the different price plan options. For my size and stage of business the standard option offered everything I needed, plus some.

I would rate this solution a 10 out of 10. 

We use Microsoft 365 Business because it can integrate. If I work in Microsoft PowerPoint, Word, or Excel, my team can also open the same files without any issues.

I would recommend Microsoft 365 Business to new users because it has user-friendly features for beginners.

The solution’s cost could be improved.

I have been using Microsoft 365 Business for more than five years.

The solution's stability and performance are better when it runs on a MacBook than on a Windows laptop.

Microsoft 365 Business is not a scalable solution. If you want to increase your storage, there is an additional cost, which is expensive.

More than 10,000 users are using Microsoft 365 Business in our organization globally.

Installing Microsoft 365 Business on the server is moderately complex, but installing it on your personal laptop or PC is easy.

We use the cloud version of Microsoft 365 Business.

Overall, I rate Microsoft 365 Business an eight out of ten.

We use Microsoft 365 Business to carry out work operations with the help of Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, and all the other features.

The product is flexible and easy to use.

Microsoft 365 Business’s stability needs improvement. There are a lot of system downtimes. It could work better.

We have been using Microsoft 365 Business for three to four years.

I rate the product’s stability a nine out of ten.

We have more than 400 Microsoft 365 Business users. We use it extensively. I rate its scalability a ten out of ten.

The initial setup is easy. It takes two months to complete the process. We encounter some challenges regarding data backup and migration from existing and new systems. Thus, we use some third-party tools for the same.

We implement the product in-house.

The product generates a return on investment in high availability, expandability, and flexibility. We can do the work in less time.

The product’s price could be improved. There are additional costs involved apart from standard licenses.

We have evaluated Linux-based products before. But eventually, we went with Microsoft 365 Business.

It is a good platform. I rate Microsoft 365 Business a ten 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.  

I use Microsoft 365 Business for everything in my office, including OneDrive and PPT.

The most valuable feature of Microsoft 365 Business is that I don't lose anything since everything is on the drive, and I can access it from anywhere.

At least a basic collaboration tool or project management tool should be included in the solution for the price we pay.

I have been using Microsoft 365 Business for nine years.

Microsoft 365 Business is a pretty stable solution, and I have never had any issues with its stability.

The solution's scalability is pretty fine. Around ten users are using the solution in our organization.

The solution's technical support team was pretty responsive.

I previously used Gmail.

The solution’s initial setup is fine.

To deploy the solution, you have to create an email address. I installed the solution by myself.

We pay a monthly licensing fee for Microsoft 365 Business. The solution's pricing could be made better.

Microsoft 365 Business is a cloud-based solution. I would recommend Microsoft 365 Business to other users.

Overall, I rate Microsoft 365 Business an eight out of ten.

Microsoft Teams, without a shadow of doubt, is the best platform ever. 

It is also very stable with a lot of options.

They should simplify breakout rooms a bit. Breakout rooms are probably the most important factor. They have done some work on breakout rooms, but they probably have to do a bit more to make them simpler.

I have been using this solution for the last eight years.

It is very stable.

It is scalable. Currently, we have over 1,200 users. We are also rolling it out to students, and our number of users will roughly be from 3,500 to 4,000. These users will be across the globe at the following locations: Geneva, Paris, London, Dhaka in Bangladesh, Hyderabad in India, Maputo in Mozambique, Mombasa in Kenya, and few locations in Canada and the US.

Their technical support is extremely good. They walk you through, and if needed, they are happy to talk to you for a couple of hours. It doesn't matter whether it is the middle of the night or early morning.

For students, we have been using Google Suite, but they are no match with Microsoft. So, we are moving out. A limitation of Google is that it is not present at every location. They were able to deploy it for India and Kenya, but for Mozambique, after trying for six months, they refused. They asked for a lot of information, and we gave them all the information. They kept us waiting for six months, and then they came back and said, "No, sorry, we can't provide." That was very disheartening.

In terms of support, Google is no match with Microsoft. Google probably doesn't provide support.

Its installation is so simple. You just have to turn the service on from the global account, and then a user can just log in to his or her account and download and install it. A user doesn't need support. There is, of course, a bit of difference from user to user, but generally, it is fairly simple. You could just click Next and do it yourself. It takes less than five minutes.

I have done it myself, and I have also seen non-IT users doing it themselves.

Our licensing is annual. We have a Volume Licensing deal with them.

We straight away went to Microsoft.

I would recommend this solution without a shadow of doubt. I would rate Microsoft 365 Business a ten out of ten.

We are using the complete suite of the solution, including email, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams. It is the main communication channel for our business.

It's an exceptional product. It has more security. The product is very fast and convenient to use. Anyone can work from anywhere. There is no dependency on any of the local resources. It is a completely SaaS-based solution, so it is easy to use and manage.

The tool is slow sometimes. The performance could be improved.

I have been using the solution for three years. I am using the latest version of the solution.

I rate the tool's stability a nine or ten out of ten.

The tool is scalable. We have ten users. We might add five more users by next year.

I do not like the support provided by the product. The response is very slow.

I have used G Suite and some third-party-hosted applications.

The setup is easy. We need to have a basic skill set to configure the solution. Everyone who has a basic understanding of technology can configure it. We must get a consultant from Microsoft to secure the environment.

The ROI is good in terms of security and scalability.

We pay a yearly license fee. The solution is very cheap. We pay AED 3,000 to AED 4,000 for licensing.

I work for a technological company. We specialize in cybersecurity. We are all engineers. I always recommend the tool to others. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

I have been using Microsoft 365 Business for document functions, and finance-related tasks, and Excel for calculations and accounting purposes. Additionally, PowerPoint comes into play for creating presentations.

It has helped us to work collaboratively. We can now connect a user to work with us and share functions like a team. For example, users can share data, conduct meetings online or communicate with the other company. The environment is really beneficial. 

The software can be used on any device or any form which is a really big benefit. Changing to Microsoft 365 Business was really important. The products work really well on stand-alone systems. We share our issues with the Microsoft team and they really help us. The team and work culture have the required experience to cater to all our needs. 

They can improve their training materials. Sometimes, seniors are busy, so Microsoft should build training materials in local languages and add more features based on them so that there is a better understanding of functions and features. 

I have been using Microsoft 365 Business for three years.

I would rate the solution’s stability a nine out of ten. 

I would rate the scalability of the solution a nine out of ten. 

The customer support is good. 

We have always used Microsoft 365 Business and never opted for any other solution.

The initial setup is straightforward. Normally, we as a team deploy the solution on the customer’s system. The deployment depends on the speed of the Internet connectivity.

Just one person is required for the deployment. Two people are required for the maintenance. The deployment involves downloading the package from the cloud, installing it on the system, and is followed by the completion of setup. I would rate the setup a nine out of ten. 

I think it is a good solution, however, it requires an understanding of function materials. We use Microsoft almost every day with almost 130 users and in case we have more employees, we are looking to increase the usage. I would rate this product an eight out of ten overall.