HCL Verse vs Office 365 comparison

The compared HCLSoftware and Microsoft solutions aren't in the same category. HCLSoftware is ranked #13 in EA , and holds a 1.4% mindshare in the category. Microsoft is ranked #2 in CCP , with an average rating of 8.5, and holds a 6.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of HCLSoftware users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

HCL Verse

Read 3 HCL Verse reviews

722 Views
397 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Office 365

Read 143 Office 365 reviews

2,360 Views
1,440 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

HCL Verse

Office 365

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between HCL Verse and Office 365 based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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Email Applications

June 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

HCL Verse

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Email Applications (13th)

Office 365

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

143

Ranking in other categories

Content Collaboration Platforms (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Messaging and Collaboration solutions, they serve different purposes. HCL Verse is designed for Email Applications and holds a mindshare of 1.4%, up 1.4% compared to last year.
Office 365, on the other hand, focuses on Content Collaboration Platforms, holds 6.9% mindshare, up 5.9% since last year.

Email Applications

Content Collaboration Platforms

Featured Reviews

Marcos Roberto Silva

Diretor at MASTERDOM

Stable, scalable, and good interface

HCL Verse has a nice interface and it is a practical email solution. There are a diverse set of features, such as the search bar on top of the screens. The usability from the old applications to the new version has been very good. It was great that we were able to migrate applications from the older version to the new one.

Read full review

Gary Cook

Executive at Empowered Analytics

Access to advanced features boosts productivity despite pricing concerns in developing regions

I need to do maintenance for Office 365 very seldom, once a year. In the maintenance process for Office 365, we have about 12 people involved. For the maintenance side of Office 365, only one person is involved. Looking at Office 365's pricing, I would give it a 4 on a scale from 1 to 10. My overall rating for Office 365 is an 8 out of 10, but for the product itself, I would give it a 10. I would definitely recommend Office 365 to other businesses, probably a 9 out of 10 for recommendation. This is only because of its price and the fact that they do not take into account developing countries such as South Africa, where they should give us more favorable prices or local prices. We do not have a partnership with Microsoft, which is a sore point for us. We have reached out to Microsoft South Africa, and they are very hard to contact and largely uncooperative. We are a B-Level 2 and a B-Level 1, which are local affirmative action ratings that companies get. Level 1 is the highest, and Level 8 is the lowest. We hold amongst the highest BEE ratings, but we have not found Microsoft South Africa to be forthcoming or very open. We should have a partnership with them, and we run Power BI as we are a Power BI shop now. I strongly would want to see a box within Office 365 for our team to have ChatGPT through OpenAI as well. We use Excel as a data source for many tasks and find that it integrates really well with Python. We write a lot of Python code and use Excel as a data sheet many times, and we operate through SQL and other zero elements as well. From an Office 365 viewpoint, we find that with Copilot and Python and Excel's provision for Python, it is very useful.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"HCL Verse has a nice interface and it is a practical email solution. There are a diverse set of features, such as the search bar on top of the screens."

"The most valuable feature is the mail server."

"I love all of the applications being interlinked. I do not have to separately work on an independent system when it comes to file storage, email, and other tools."

"Using Office 365 has allowed us to go digital and onboard people seamlessly for working at home during the COVID pandemic."

"The integration with other applications is pretty good."

"The most valuable feature of Office 365 is that it has many solutions bundled together."

"The most valuable feature of Office 365 is automatic saving. If something happens on the computer your work is saved."

"We use it for documentation management, to collaborate with Microsoft Teams, web calls, web conference calls, chats, and as a documentation repository mainly. We have an Office pack suite to be able to write documentation, make spreadsheets, and create PowerPoints."

"It is stable."

"There's a lot there in terms of apps and features."

More Office 365 pros

Cons

"Security is very important to us, so improvements to this functionality are welcome."

"The solution could improve by allowing us to use a color that we want in the editing boxes."

"Using Office 365 is not that flexible on some mobile devices, like Android."

"Improvements can be made to the products generic offering. It's not customized for health care. It doesn't understand the meaning of health care related concepts. Providing a greater degree of industry specificity would make the tool much more unique and valuable."

"The security should be improved."

"I would like to see the macro functionality in Excel made simpler."

"I rate the support of Office 365 a four out of five."

"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."

"As a private user, I do not appreciate the cloud features, but I doubt that this is something Microsoft would consider a feature request."

"We have found that, with Teams, if you are including one more person who is not in the company ecosystem, supposedly I'm inviting them as a guest in the chat. However, when I do that, I can't share files."

More Office 365 cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is reasonable."

"This is an affordable solution but the price could be improved."

"The pricing is good for all the features that we receive, e.g., Skype for Business."

"The price of Office 365 is very expensive."

"Most of the time, we purchase Microsoft Exchange licenses, which are less expensive and provide only an email platform and 50 gigabytes of email storage for free."

"Good reporting and good value subscriptions for international calls."

"Licensing fees are paid on a monthly basis, or we prepay them."

"I think that we pay $9.99 USD per user, monthly."

"The pricing/licensing is easy to manage."

"The pricing is high and has actually caused us to limit the number of licenses we purchase due to budgeting."

More Office 365 pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Government

21%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

46%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Office 365?

For pricing, I think it's fairly priced, I would rate it 8.

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What needs improvement with Office 365?

The areas of Office 365 that have room for improvement are what should be better in this solution.

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What is your primary use case for Office 365?

A typical use case for Office 365 is how I primarily use this solution.

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Comparisons

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Compared 51% of the time

Huddle vs HCL Verse

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Exchange Online vs HCL Verse

Compared 9% of the time

Hub vs HCL Verse

Compared 9% of the time

Adobe Experience Manager vs HCL Verse

Compared 6% of the time

More HCL Verse Competitors

Google Workspace vs Office 365

Compared 39% of the time

Amazon WorkDocs vs Office 365

Compared 9% of the time

Atlassian Confluence vs Office 365

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft OneDrive vs Office 365

Compared 7% of the time

More Office 365 Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Email Applications

June 2025

Download HCL Verse product report

Buyer's Guide

Office 365

June 2025

Download Office 365 product report

Also Known As

Verse, IBM Verse

Microsoft Office 365, Office 365 Enterprise, Office 365 Enterprise E1, Office 365 Enterprise E3, Office 365 Enterprise E5, Office 365 ProPlus, Office 365 Business, Office 365 Business Essentials, Office 365 Business Premium, Office 365 F1

Overview

IBM Verse is a powerful email hosting solution that enables users to access their business communications from a laptop or desktop browser or from a mobile device. This email and business messaging experience is based on an innovative user-centric design, including social analytics and advanced search capabilities. IBM Verse helps users quickly find and focus on what content is most important, empowering them to build stronger working relationships while optimizing business results.

HCLSoftware

Office 365 is more than just Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. It provides powerful services like business-class email, online storage, and teamwork solutions that you can access from anywhere. Bring teams and resources together with solutions like Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business that make working together more productive and enjoyable regardless of where participants are located. Easily implement security and privacy controls to help protect business data and devices against malicious threats and help you meet your compliance obligations. Automatic updates ensure your employees will always have the latest features and security updates.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Canon Marketing Japan Inc., Australian Trade Commission, BTC, Havas, Canal Barge Co.Inc., RAVInvest, Elemental Path, WDR mediagroup

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