We primarily use this as a business solution for service desk, mails and the automation process. This year, we did a migration process from Exchange to Exchange Online, and that included everything that goes with that.
A better approach for them to use Exchange Online was to have the host serve us in a cloud service. Functionality wise, I can't really say it's improved from Exchange Online, I think it's not so much change on-premise. It's about the same. Other than that, it's the extra features that make a difference, really.
I think with Exchange, it's a lot of integration functionality with the Skype for business. It's quite accepted if you like an almost-defective standard. Especially in the region that we email them, definitely in the Asia-Pacific region or at least Oceania region. It's really easy to use. The the room and shared mailbox functionality that people use, it just all really works well together.
The features that are most valuable are: unlimited archiving, the hold and redemption policy functionality.
One to three years.
There were no issues of stability at all. I have not experienced issues of connectivity or backend issues at all.
This is a highly scalable solution. We implemented it for 160 users. All the space you need is there. You could quickly grow it. All the functionality is there. You've got the power shelf or bulk work that you need to do. There are no issues.
Tech support has been great, when necessary. There is a quick response time. The specific issues we were dealing with were to verify an end-case. We did have to go through three or four different people, who gave us different answers. But, we finally got a response from a tech specialist who plainly told us that we could not do what we wanted to do. We found the tech support highly intelligent and knowledgeable.
Initial setup was straightforward.
We worked out the investment was a worthwhile investment that saved itself in about eight months. The investment in the project to get it across would pay for itself by reducing the on-premise Exchange costs. There is a definite return on investment by using this solution.
Regarding the pricing and licensing of the solution, it's great. I think it's just awesome. There's no argument about how much value you get on the per user, for user expenditure. It's really great, I don't have any issues with it. I think it's excellent.
Make sure you've got a set user base from all areas of the business because everyone in different departments uses the mail functionality differently. Just make sure you have a really good audit process of what your current environment really is doing before you do your migration.