- Exchange Online
- SharePoint
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- OneDrive
Office 365 Enterprise
Office 365 is one of my most used applications. I love the way that I can leverage the Cloud capabilities of my Office applications to access from anywhere. I have access from my phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, etc., and it is always easy. Outlook is nice when I do not have access to a laptop or phone (rare), and One Drive is my file collaboration solution. Although I like the functionality of One Drive, it can be frustrating if your IT team goes overboard on security. :) The single-sign-on we utilize at work keeps me signed in to all apps, and the applications load quickly and efficiently. Office 365 plus the 64-bit 2016 versions of the Office desktop applications is a great combination that I could not function without. I use Outlook, One Drive, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Yammer, and Skype for Business every day, so without them, I would be "dead in the water.
What do you like best?
I like how collaborative Office 365 allows me to be on my projects. Currently, a co-author and I are working in real-time on a project. I could see her typing and commentary while I was making corrections to the APA at the bottom of the page. We can also work asynchronously on projects, store them, and return to them. The ability to work in a browser ensures that I can review, make slight edits to the document, print, and then save. As a person who is moving from a campus computer to my computer, to my printer at home, to my office printer at work, this is about as fast as having a flash chip with me at all times, but I never forget it. It also integrates well with Citation software, similar to Word 10. We have a lot of files we share, and I like how easy it is to access from any location I'm at, as long as I'm logged into my university account.
What do you dislike?
One of the things I struggle with regarding Office 365 is what is the real difference between Office 365 and Google Docs/Sheets other than the price and privacy. At my university, Office 365 is free as long as you are a student or a researcher. As soon as I leave the school though, I'll lose access to Office 365, most of the work I've saved on the system. And while it's... nice? to have so much technology (meaning Access and the other programs that come in the suite) I never use Access but I "have to" have it. I wish it integrated better with my Google Calendar so I could have an app on my phone but if that feature is available I don't have it.
Recommendations to others considering the product
If you are going to be a full-time single user of Office 365, this might make sense if it automatically updates to the latest Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Publisher. It would make sense to pay a yearly/monthly fee to continuously have Word rather than having to buy the expensive office suite every few years or so. But, if you don't need to update to the latest software, if you aren't someone who needs Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Publisher to be at their most flexible, and if you get around on Google just fine, I don't know if it makes sense to buy it as a single user. However, for large universities or companies that need flexibility, and collaboration for their employees, then Office 365 might be right for you.
What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?
I work on a lot of collaborative research projects and Office 365 lets me share files and reading and work with others. However, I really don't like their "calendar" system integration with Outlook, but I've never liked the Outlook calendar. I always use my Google calendar and I wish there was a way to sync those two, but as far as I know there isn't.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
IT Executive at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees
My most recent deployment went off without issue.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
- Removed support and infrastructure of legacy technologies.
What needs improvement?
Be sure you understand ADFS and, if you decide to go with it, what you get and don't get with it. Your users will want it.
ADFS was sold to overcome the issues with entering passwords in all your clients (Outlook, Skype for Business, OneDrive) but, if your password changes, you do have to manually update passwords in all of these clients.
Also, this does not get you direct access to the 365 portal or SharePoint without modifying links to use Federated Services.
This becomes an issue if you use generic accounts for the shop. It will work if each of your users are required to use their own ID. Also, note there is a cost for the Azure instance of ADFS (servers, compute, network, VPN).
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used it for nine years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
Deployment went very smoothly even in its infancy. My most recent deployment went off without issue.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Others report stability issues and there are often warnings in the console but the service has been flawless for us.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have not encountered any scalability issues. We have probably increased our user base 20% since inception.
How is customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
For general support, it is offshored and you open a ticket in the console. It works pretty well. For how-to's or best practices, you will need to have a good partner.
Technical Support:Generally, the technician has a good idea what you are trying to do. There is often a handoff to a group that can actually DO the work.
Which solutions did we use previously?
How was the initial setup?
Our vendor assisted with setup using the Jump Start program. There are complexities with certificates, hybrid, etc., but overall, it went well.
What about the implementation team?
A vendor team implemented it. I would rate them 10 of 10 at the time. Since then, our resource has moved on but they still have a pretty good skillset.
What was our ROI?
I don't have my spreadsheet handy but the ROI was there. Microsoft also provided significant incentives to make the move.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
If it is an in-person query or reference, I do let them know the deal I got, as well as the approach that got me there.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Because of the significant investment we already had in Microsoft, this made the most sense; thus, I did not evaluate competitors.
What other advice do I have?
You may need ADFS; you may need a hybrid environment. Not everything necessarily goes away. Also, user management continues; it just moves to a new place (hosted/the cloud).
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Office 365
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about Office 365. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.
IT Manager at MAGRABI Agriculture
Scales well and the technical support is good
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is Microsoft Exchange."
- "The security should be improved."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use is for email.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is Microsoft Exchange.
What needs improvement?
The security should be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Office 365 for about four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable and easy to expand to more users. We have 200 people in our company who are using it.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support is very good.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, this is a very good product.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Solution Architect & Cloud Architect & Project Manager at papaya global
If you have a global solution, you can go from one product to the other very easily
Pros and Cons
- "If you have a global solution, you can go from one product to the other very easily. And then you can share data between all the different tools of Office which is good because participation and sharing is very good. That's the most important aspect of Office 365."
- "A need that a company like ours has is that we want to be able to have data flow into one tool, for example, for all the management of tasks through the company and workflow of who is doing what and so on. There are no real solutions for this at the moment in Office 365. It would be nice if they could implement this in the next release, so we can have one solution from one company giving us the whole data and flow of data into the company."
What is most valuable?
If you have a global solution, you can go from one product to the other very easily. And then you can share data between all the different Office tools which is good because participation and sharing is very good. That's the most important aspect of Office 365.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Office 365 for four years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We don't have any problems with scalability. We have around 150 users.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have an internal IT support team. So we send any problem to IT support and they contact Microsoft if needed.
How was the initial setup?
I'm not the one doing the setup, so I don't know exactly how long it takes and if it was difficult, but I think it went quickly.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend it because it's rather user friendly and we don't have any particular problems. I would recommend it to a company without a problem.
A need that a company like ours has is that we want to be able to have data flow into one tool, for example, for all the management of tasks through the company and workflow of who is doing what and so on. There are no real solutions for this at the moment in Office 365. It would be nice if they could implement this in the next release, so we can have one solution from one company giving us the whole data and flow of data into the company.
I would rate Office 365 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.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Good stability and scalability but needs better features
Pros and Cons
- "It's very stable."
- "There are several additional features we would like to see, such as advanced features of SAN protection in Office 365. The main thing is the SAN protection; we would like to see a lot of advanced features added because we had a lot of spam attacks."
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution for email exchange.
What needs improvement?
There are several areas that this service can be improved. The email, there are certain features we would like to see improvements from Microsoft, and also there are applications called BlueJeans, and there are certain things.
There are several additional features we would like to see, such as advanced features of SAN protection in Office 365. The main thing is the SAN protection; we would like to see a lot of advanced features added because we had a lot of spam attacks.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than five years now
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is good. More than 700 people are using this solution. Their job titles range from IT manager, network engineer, to corporate team members, there are several staff engineers, everyone.
We have about three people who are directly working with deployment and maintenance.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using open source email server entourage exchange, and from there the best option was to migrate to Office 365.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was a bit complex because we were migrating to exchange service.
Deployment took around three weeks to fully migrate everything to Office 365.
We used official applications provided by Microsoft for the migration. There were no other articles used.
What about the implementation team?
Technical support of Office 365 is good.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are using a particular type of license which allows each item to be priced around 30 dollars per month. There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees.
What other advice do I have?
The advice I would give depends mainly on their requirements. If they need to minimize their administration, Office 365 would be an excellent option.
On a scale of one to ten, one being the lowest and ten being the highest, I would rate this product a seven.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
CEO/Programmer at Tech Elight
Convert pictures to PDF format with ease
Pros and Cons
- "Most of the work that seems not to work offline works perfectly with Microsoft Office 2013, like converting a Word document to a PDF file."
- "The feature to convert PDF file to a Word document needs improvement as well as the feature to save the file automatically when typing, without using the save command."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case is for creating files, and typing projects and for converting Word documents to PDF format.
How has it helped my organization?
Most of the work that seems not to work offline works perfectly with Microsoft Office 2013, like converting a Word document to a PDF file.
What is most valuable?
The ability to convert Word documents to PDF file is one of the features I love most. Pictures can be pasted into the Word environment and can be converted to PDF.
What needs improvement?
The feature to convert PDF file to a Word document needs improvement as well as the feature to save the file automatically when typing, without using the save command.
For how long have I used the solution?
Three to five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is efficient and effective.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is really good.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support are responsive.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used a different version, Office 2007.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was not really complex.
What about the implementation team?
The installation was done in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is not really high, but one can get the software with the license key for free.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Managing Consultant at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
Easy to use with lots of great applications and easy to access from anywhere
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is quite intuitive and easy to use."
- "I'm not sure if there are areas of improvement. For us, it's working quite well."
What is most valuable?
I like quite a few of the applications included in the solution, including OneDrive as well as Teams.
The solution offers all of the Office features, that we have access to and can use whenever we need to.
The solution can be accessed from anywhere. You don't have to be in the office or at your desktop to use it.
The solution is quite intuitive and easy to use.
What needs improvement?
I'm not sure if there are areas of improvement. For us, it's working quite well.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution since the original launch of the product itself. I'm not sure how long it's been. I believe it's been about ten years or so. It may have been since 2011.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of the solution is great. We don't have any bugs or glitches. We don't have it freezing on us. It's reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is okay. However, we have such a large organization, and because IT has to enact it, it takes a while to do each one by one. In order to scale, a company simply has to buy more licenses, so, from that perspective, it's easy.
How are customer service and technical support?
I never deal with technical support directly. We have an in-house IT department that we go to when we need help or have issues.
For example, iinitially I had some issues with the setup of Office 365 on my mobile. However, it wasn't an Office 365 issue. It was all due to some of the company's internal security policies. Our own IT team procured the licenses, so they dealt with the issue, meaning I never had to actually go back to Microsoft for that or make a call to them.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was not complex at all. It was easy for our organization. The implementation is something that is taken care of by the end user's IT team, so I didn't actually handle it myself. Once it's set up, it is easy to use. It's not very difficult; everything is clear. Once you start using it, you'll see it's a very good tool.
What other advice do I have?
We're just a customer. We don't have any business relationship with Microsoft.
We're using the latest version of the solution.
I'd recommend the solution. It's very easy to use and extremely practical. We find it quite useful within our organization.
We don't use any comparable products, so it's hard to rate the solution in comparison to alternative offerings, however, generally, I'd rate the product 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.
Security Specialist at a tech consulting company with 1-10 employees
Good for processing data in small volumes, but undocumented functionality leads to unexpected behavior
Pros and Cons
- "Many of the features in Office 365 are good, but I think Excel is a very good tool."
- "Using Visual Basic, I have had a lot of trouble with relative paths when programming for Excel, and sometimes it is very difficult to debug programs."
What is our primary use case?
I am a business consultant and have worked in business continuity for about eight years. I work for factories, banks, government, and other organizations. I use different methodologies that depend on the customer's requirements.
I have found that Office 365 is one of the best tools for business continuity, for small companies.
What is most valuable?
Many of the features in Office 365 are good, but I think Excel is a very good tool. Excel is good at processing data in small volumes.
What needs improvement?
Using Visual Basic, I have had a lot of trouble with relative paths when programming for Excel, and sometimes it is very difficult to debug programs. For example, if the user has their focus on a different sheet, one that you do not expect, then the program begins to behave unexpectedly. This means that you cannot use relative paths, and you have to use absolute paths. Microsoft could issue warnings if you are programming in a way that might have side effects.
There is a problem with the Microsoft Office documentation in terms of undocumented features. When you are programming and there is an undocumented and unexpected behavior in the background, it can be very painful to find the bugs.
For how long have I used the solution?
More than fifteen years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability depends on what you expect from the solution. For example, I have had some bad experiences with macros in the cloud version, and I am in the process of figuring out why. Simple macros seem to work well when it comes to storing data in the cloud.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We use Excel to do business continuity for small companies, with perhaps one hundred employees. There are usually four or five people who need to use the tools.
For larger companies, with use other tools because it is easier to manage.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have not dealt with technical support because there are no issues that we could not solve using the knowledge base.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is simple. Once you enter your license key it is done. An unskilled person with no IT background can install it.
What other advice do I have?
Microsoft Office is a basic tool in consulting. I have implemented macros, specialized Office tools, and applications for it using Visual Basic. I usually need to design tools for our clients, because I want to give them a really good product. It needs to be more than Excel, alone, because it has to be easy to enter data. There are also calculations that happen in the background, and we do not want the client to be harassed by things that they do not need to know.
The mission of the Office is to do small computations. It is a tool for small documents and spreadsheets, and I think it's perfect for what it's meant to be. On the other hand, there is always something that can be improved.
I would rate this solution a four out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
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