The solution is used heavily at our customer's end. Our businesses involve consulting in a lot of stuff related to accounting and other various business aspects. They are heavy users of Office 365 applications such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and, of course, Outlook. Outlook is the lifeline of this business. All business communication happens through it.
Principal Architect at Microland Limited
Easy to use and scalable, with lots of new features added regularly
Pros and Cons
- "It is easy to use."
- "If Microsoft could do something about data loss prevention, that would be ideal."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
It is easy to use.
It's mostly stable. There are no issues.
Support can be reached easily.
They are constantly adding new features every week or every month or so. They really think about what the customers need and they work to build that into the product.
The scalability has been good.
What needs improvement?
We had some hiccups where people would inadvertently send things out to external parties. When they realized, they just blame Outlook for being at fault, however, they do not think of themselves as a problem. They do not try to make changes to the behavior that they follow. That's why we are trying to figure out what other solutions are out there - to see which could probably aid end users. We need something to stop them before they send out an email to an external party. If they're prompted to check before sending, we can prevent data from getting leaked out to external parties. I'm not sure if that's a feature that could possibly be added to Outlook.
If Microsoft could do something about data loss prevention, that would be ideal. There needs to be more than just the capability of flagging an end-user.
Of late, the support has been very patchy at Microsoft's end. It's been like this for about one to two years now. From a support perspective, if you want to rank how good the support is, it's probably around seven at this point in time.
There used to be a lot of articles, however, they've dropped off or have gotten removed and therefore there's less available knowledge online. They need to work on building up their documentation again.
The solution could always be a bit more secure.
If there was a way to make the product more intuitive, that would be helpful for the end-users.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using the solution from the start - when Microsoft started with 365. At that time, it was Office 365. Prior to that, it was called Exchange Online. I've been there from the start. It would probably be six to seven years plus of experience that I have with 365.
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft 365 Business
February 2025
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Learn what your peers think about Microsoft 365 Business. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable platform. If any issues come up, Microsoft is able to fix them quite easily. Some issues take time. That depends on the complexity of the product. However, overall, from an enterprise standpoint, we are pretty satisfied with Microsoft.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. Microsoft is based on a cloud platform. Therefore, anytime we have new users or a new company that is onboarded into our organization, we are able to do it pretty easily. It doesn't take a lot of effort and Microsoft is there to help us out if there are deployment issues.
We have hundreds of thousands of users on the solution.
There are hundreds of people who are in our engineering department and some of them are outsourced. There are more than, I would say, 500 people who are involved in M365. The exact numbers I don't have.
How are customer service and support?
Support is okay, however, it could be better. Over the last few years, I have noticed it is not as consistent as it once was. That's an aspect they could improve.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is something I do not deal with. That said, it's a straightforward install for end-users and we have SCCM and Intune that helps in the installation process. Intune is not being used. It's mostly SCCM that is used to deploy applications. Implementation is something that a different group does. I cannot say how good or how bad the experience is. It's my understanding that it just depends.
A couple of years back, before I joined the company as a contractor, they made the switch to Exchange Online. They had a dedicated subscription. There's a public cloud and a private cloud. They have some sort of a private cloud where they have specific servers allocated to this firm. A couple of years back, around three or four years back, the company decided to move out from that into a completely public cloud. Now, the firm is on an entirely public cloud.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product's cost is based on a monthly license per user. We pay a certain amount per month, per year and that's about it. That's all I know from licensing perspective. It is monthly that it is billed.
What other advice do I have?
I'm a consultant.
Basically, you sign up for the service, you get your email account, and then you get access to something like SharePoint, Teams, and other Microsoft services. It's a complete solution within the cloud.
The product is pretty perfect. I'd rate it at a ten out of ten.
I would say other enterprises should use the solution. A lot of enterprises are using Microsoft 365 because of its strengths and the way new features are released. A lot of customers like us are interested in trying out new products and new features as they come.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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IT at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Easy to use, good collaboration, storage, and sharing
Pros and Cons
- "It's painless."
- "Lower license options should come embedded with security."
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution to drive our email services and for collaborations of spreadsheets or word documents.
Also, the OneDrive is used for storage, which allows you to access your files from anywhere.
The bundle we have comes with the office installation to the CCM on the user's work tools. When you are working on your documents, you can easily sync them to the one online. It is much more seamless when it comes to accessing documentation and collaborating with other people on the same projects. It is essentially what we use Office 365 for.
What is most valuable?
It is easy to use.
It's painless.
What needs improvement?
If they want to encourage more usage, the pricing should be looked at. The pricing should be in a way where we can leverage the E5 functionality.
The security section of the solution is also something that is of great concern, especially now that a lot of people are doing work from home. You need the Microsoft Intune solution to help protect your documentation, your documents, and to keep your data confidential.
Lower license options should come embedded with security.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft 365 Business for a few years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In terms of it being scalable, you can practically use it for anything you want to use it for.
We have approximately 480 staff members who are using it.
Everyone has a mailbox account.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have not contacted technical support. It's pretty straightforward. We have a lot of resources online to guide you.
We have not called Microsoft for anything.
How was the initial setup?
It's a cloud-based solution, so there really isn't any installation. You are given admin credentials.
You can download the office tools from the cloud and you can apply your licenses to start working and activate your account.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is quite expensive.
If I wanted to improve it, I would look at the way they price their models, for example, Microsoft is breaking the license models into sections such as E1, E3, and E5.
The E5 license is quite expensive. Most of our users have an E3 license essentially due to cost.
What other advice do I have?
I think that Microsoft Office is the number one solution for organizations. I would recommend this solution to others who are interested in using it.
I would rate Microsoft 365 Business a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft 365 Business
February 2025
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Learn what your peers think about Microsoft 365 Business. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior Advisor at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Has ongoing and fast development and integration with teams
Pros and Cons
- "Microsoft 365 Business is stable and scalable, and the installation is straightforward as well."
- "It's still not fully consistent among all the platforms running on Windows and IOS. It's getting better and better, but there's still a lot of consolidation or integration work to be done."
What is our primary use case?
We use the mail client, and we use PowerPoint 365 and Word 365 to produce documents, offers, and documents for our customers.
How has it helped my organization?
It helped a lot, especially with all of us working from the home office and still practically being as though we were at work in the office. That's what helped most.
What is most valuable?
The ongoing and fast development and integration with teams have been valuable features.
The cost for licensing is reasonable.
Microsoft 365 Business is stable and scalable, and the installation is straightforward as well.
What needs improvement?
Ongoing better integration would be good. It's still not fully consistent among all the platforms running on Windows and IOS. It's getting better and better, but there's still a lot of consolidation or integration work to be done.
More easily accessible training modules would be good to have. They exist, but you have to search for them. Ongoing user support and ongoing learning and education in the product, without being offensive, and making that access easier would be a big advantage over today's product. It should not be an aggressive offering, but it should be easy to find so that we don't have to dig for it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Microsoft 365 Business for about 5 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
With a few exceptions, that are actually lower than they used to be when Microsoft 365 Business was run on-premises, it is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We are a company of over 1,000 people, so we don't have any scalability problems. I have been in a mid-sized company or at the lower end of an enterprise with 10,000 people, and we had no scalability issues at all.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing cost is reasonable.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution at eight on a scale from one to ten.
There are still a lot of companies, especially small ones, that still rely on on-premises or on a small partner that delivers old style Windows Office environments hosted somewhere locally. I would really encourage all of them to move to Microsoft 365, maybe coached or managed by a third-party. I would suggest that they think in this new style and help and support the use of Microsoft 365, an IT commodity, and not think the old way that it has to be installed and maintained the old way.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Cyber security manager at Apparel
User friendly, quick to configure, and stable
Pros and Cons
- "Microsoft 365 Business is user-friendly."
What is our primary use case?
The main use of the solution is for business applications.
What is most valuable?
Microsoft 365 Business is user-friendly.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for approximately two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I find the solution scalable.
How was the initial setup?
One of the most valuable features of the solution is that it can be quickly procured and installed. This is because is SaaS-based and does not require installation. There is only the configuration that is required.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution requires a license which is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise people before purchasing Microsoft 365 Business to evaluate it to make sure it contains and supports applications required by their organization.
I recommend the solution to others.
I rate Microsoft 365 Business an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Managing Director at Switch My Server
Key feature is online and desktop availability when deployed in the cloud; greatly improved efficiency
Pros and Cons
- "It's available online as well as via desktop applications when deployed in the cloud."
- "Some menu options are not as logical as you would think, and it can take time to figure out how to go about it."
What is our primary use case?
We use this product internally for our own systems, and we also recommend it and set it up for our clients too. We're partners with Microsoft and I'm the managing director of our company.
How has it helped my organization?
We have seen an improvement in efficiency; the ability to have multiple people edit documents concurrently using Teams is a great feature that saves us a lot of time.
What is most valuable?
I like that the solution is available online as well as via desktop applications when it's deployed in the cloud.
What needs improvement?
Some of the menu options are not as logical as you would think, and it takes a lot of skill and thought and sometimes a little bit of research, to figure out what it is you're actually wanting to do and how to go about it. I think the solution could be a little better on mobile; viewing some things can be a bit difficult and if you're trying to edit something it can be somewhat challenging.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for a couple of years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability of the solution is good, we haven't had any problems.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is good, we have hundreds of users.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support is good, once you create a ticket the support is there. There's also plenty of documentation online.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward although I'm an IT professional and that helps. If you were a standard user, deployment might be a little more difficult.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
License fees can be paid monthly or annually and there are no extra costs involved. Licensing is reasonable and is on a tiered system so you can select what you want. In that respect, the license is scalable and it works well for some of our smaller clients who don't need all the features.
What other advice do I have?
The Microsoft mail server is a very strong and stable solution, good for business reliability and usability rather than some of the smaller email solutions or trying to host the solution yourself.
I rate this solution nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Surface Data Manager / Product Owner at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Stable, scalable, and feature-rich
Pros and Cons
- "The features such as meetings connected with Microsoft Teams and the integration is fabulous."
- "The dashboard is an area of improvement."
What is our primary use case?
We use Microsoft 365 Business for emails in Outlook.
How has it helped my organization?
Having everything in one platform, that is integrated, helps us to save time. We have better Communication and Collaboration.
What is most valuable?
Managing the complete mailbox, the email thread. The features such as meetings connected with Microsoft Teams and the integration is fabulous.
It works perfectly.
What needs improvement?
The dashboard is an area of improvement. It is needed for the summary of the device. Telling how many emails you have, and what needs to be responded to.
AI-based intelligence should be more intuitive. For example, in Google, you can schedule a meeting and Google will ask you if it should schedule a meeting based on your email. It will tell you the times that are available.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft 365 Business for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft 365 Business is a stable product. We have not experienced any issues with bugs or glitches.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's a scalable product. My organization has 20,000 people who are using it.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have not contacted technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we used G-Suite, Google, and Gmail but we find that Microsoft is better.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is quite easy for me, but it was done through my team.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am not aware of the pricing.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are currently evaluating MDM software for implementation in our company.
We are looking for a new product. We are doing comparisons and analyzing different products.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Microsoft 365 Business an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Director of business development at SIA BELAM Riga
Great apps with good functionality and an easy initial setup
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup is very easy."
- "Teams is, in some respects, lagging behind Skype for Business in some telephone-related features"
What is our primary use case?
We use all aspects of the solution, including SharePoint, Outlook, and Office - whole nine yards.
We're using SharePoint as cloud storage. We are usually using Microsoft Office. We're using Microsoft Project. We are using Microsoft Teams. We're using Skype for business. We're using Excel and Word. We tend to use everything more than average users are using its capabilities.
What is most valuable?
The integration between all of the apps is helpful.
We're using Excel quite a bit, including Visual Basic, including macros, including all kinds of features there, to do reporting and to generate various reports. This is being used, it is good, and its functionality is great.
Microsoft Project is also used quite a bit and we like how easy it is.
However, some things and applications are still not up to speed. For example, I'm talking to you through a Jabra earpiece. If I speak via Skype for Business, and I want to end the conversation, I can press a button on my earpiece and it drops the call. Skype on Teams doesn't work this way.
I find Microsoft Office 365 initial setup is very easy.
The stability is pretty good.
What needs improvement?
Microsoft has different tweaks on various interfaces. If you look, for example, at where the button to update Microsoft Office software is in Word, Excel, and Outlook, they're in three different places. They need to standardize the design in a lot of ways.
Once you update Office, there's a button which takes you to the Microsoft website that is supposed to show what is new in the latest release of Office. It hasn't been updated for at least half a year. Right now, what's listed there is from February.
Teams is, in some respects, lagging behind Skype for Business in some telephone-related features. For example, if I'm talking to you through our Jabra earpiece and if I speak on Skype for Business, and I want to end the conversation, I can press a button on my earpiece and it drops the call. However, Skype on Teams doesn't work this way. This is the telephony side and integration with voice devices could be better.
In Excel, Microsoft is creating better programming functionality, which would allow you to programme without actually programming, which is easier than Visual Basic. They call it Labmda functionality in a beta release, but they have not released it yet. I wish that it would have been available already.
The Office solution has collaborative capabilities, however, it's not as advanced as, for example, Google Docs.
If Word colaborative work on a document works in most cases. However, in Excel, two people can work on the same document, however, it's not truly in real-time.
The product can get expensive. You do need to pay for features and add-ons.
For how long have I used the solution?
I would not be able to pin down exactly when we started using 365 Business as we have been using Microsoft projects for 25 years. However, when it switched to 365 Business, we started using it. That was a couple of years ago.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is fairly stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't really have the best real-time collaborative aspects, however, that's more functionality as opposed to stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have about 100 users on the solution so far. We haven't come across any issues with scalability so far.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have connections to a person who worked at Microsoft, and often, when we have questions, we direct our queries to him instead of Microsoft directly.
How was the initial setup?
We found the initial setup to be quite simple and straightforward. It's not overly complex.
I cannot recall the exact amount of time it took to deploy the solution.
The solution basically maintains itself. It's on the click-to-run version. It does its own updates. I'm trying to be on the biweekly schedule, so that, as soon as they released something new, I'm grabbing it. Sometimes, however, for example, this feature with lambda programming, which was to be released in March, has not come yet.
Beyond that, if any maintenance is needed, we have an IT department that can handle any tasks related to that.
What about the implementation team?
I was able to handle the setup myself. It didn't require us to find an integrator or consultant to help us. It was pretty easy to handle in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution can get quite expensive once you add everything that you need as an organization. You do need to pay for product features and add-ons.
What other advice do I have?
We are using the latest version of the solution.
We are currently migrating to the cloud. Most of it's SharePoint, however, it's still a mix of on-prem and cloud. We have to do a complete migration to the cloud eventually.
While there may be some open-source tools on the market, we find that you do get what you pay for and Microsoft does offer quite a bit. In general, I'm mainly used to Microsoft and have been happy with it. I'd recommend it to others.
I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Project Manager at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Stable, good interface, and good performance, but needs better pricing
Pros and Cons
- "Its interface looks clean, and its performance seems quite fast. It is faster than our previous app."
- "Its price could be better for companies that are not using it massively."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for normal office applications.
What is most valuable?
Its interface looks clean, and its performance seems quite fast. It is faster than our previous app.
What needs improvement?
Its price could be better for companies that are not using it massively.
For how long have I used the solution?
We started to use it around last year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I don't know if it is scalable or not. In terms of users, we are in the transition process to upgrade to this solution. Currently, not all users are using it. If it is given to our whole staff, we would have 30,000 users. We plan to keep using this solution and expand its usage.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have our own technical team, and we contact them for any issues. If they need further help with a specific issue, they contact Microsoft support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have been using only Microsoft products. We were earlier using the other version of Office.
What about the implementation team?
It was done by our technical team. We don't need a team to manage this. We just need to manage the license and contract. We have a small team that does the license and contract management.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have an enterprise license, and we get some price off for that. Its price could be better for companies that are not using it massively.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution. I would rate Microsoft 365 Business a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft 365 Business Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: February 2025
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Buyer's Guide
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