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reviewer1498125 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Easy installation, incomparable functionality, and has bundled products
Pros and Cons
  • "When trying to compare other products there are not a lot of product that can even compare with the functionality."
  • "Some of the functionality in the solution needs to improve. For example, when receiving a message in Outlook regarding the start of a meeting, it is not easy to connect, pick a microphone, or click the link."

What is our primary use case?

I use the solution for various tasks as it is a bundle of products. I use Outlook for messaging, Visio for chart modelling, PowerPoint for presentation, Excel, Word, and OneNote. For me personally, OneNote is mostly helpful application.

What is most valuable?

When trying to compare other products there are not a lot of product that can even compare with the functionality. There are many products bundled together.

What needs improvement?

I think every product manager has to use the products by himself because I am a product manager in my company for years, I have seen rudimentary mistakes. For example, in previous versions, there were no problems with simple operations. Currently, I see unstructured development. In previous versions it was always stable, now they focus on un-useful features, instead of useful ones.

Some of the functionality in the solution needs to improve. For example, when receiving a message in Outlook regarding the start of a meeting, it is not easy to connect, pick a microphone, or click the link.

Some of Google services are better than the ones with this solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for a couple of years.

Buyer's Guide
Microsoft 365 Business
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft 365 Business. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
859,687 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I observe the dynamic of Microsoft products from unstable to more stable. They have improved over the years from critical mistakes. For example, Microsoft Teams, strange product, but now I can say it is a good product with mistakes, often unstable, but I observed the solution getting better over time. They need some more work done on stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have 3,000 employees in my company using the solution.

How are customer service and support?

I have used the solutions technical support in the past and I received an answer but it did not have the solution. It was a standard automated message. They could improve on the agent's knowledge for dealing with issues.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I used Lotus from IBM in the past and it was terrible. I decided to find a new solution without Lotus. It was very hard to work with Lotus and other IBM product. Additionally, I have used Google products too.

How was the initial setup?

I ordered this solution and the supply manager installed it. They had no problem.

What about the implementation team?

We have an IT division in my company that manages all the deployments.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There is a licensing fee that is quite expensive. However, the solution is useful and the price is equal to the value.

What other advice do I have?

Microsoft wonders me, I am quite satisfied with this solution. I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Microsoft 365 Business a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1482039 - PeerSpot reviewer
Business Collaboration Supervisor, Information Services at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
It is stable and easy to deploy, and it works for us
Pros and Cons
  • "It is easy to deploy and do the settings. It has also been stable."
  • "Their technical support could be faster. The admin portal, report generation, and other things could also be much simpler. We can't do columns adjustment at this time. The desktop app of Teams had lots of issues recently. The web version worked fine. We had to do a lot of things in terms of infrastructure and networking. It could have been better. It is quite new, so we got to bear and go with that, and then we'll see."

What is our primary use case?

I am in charge of the collaboration piece of this. We use 365 Business as a whole. We use almost all the tools.

What is most valuable?

It is easy to deploy and do the settings. It has also been stable. 

What needs improvement?

Their technical support could be faster. The admin portal, report generation, and other things could also be much simpler. We can't do columns adjustment at this time.

The desktop app of Teams had lots of issues recently. The web version worked fine. We had to do a lot of things in terms of infrastructure and networking. It could have been better. It is quite new, so we got to bear and go with that, and then we'll see.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for less than a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It has been stable so far.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have about 4,000 users.

How are customer service and technical support?

They are doing a great job. We go and create a ticket, and then someone responds. If required, we are also able to escalate stuff, but their support is not that fast. It should be faster.

How was the initial setup?

It is easy to deploy and do the settings.

What about the implementation team?

Our infrastructure team is responsible for its upgrade and maintenance. 

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution, but it depends on the user base and company. We are a government organization, and it works for us. I would recommend it for other government organizations. Our county and other counties are using this solution.

I would rate Microsoft 365 Business an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft 365 Business
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft 365 Business. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
859,687 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1361796 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager Technical Procurement & Logistics - Global IT at a real estate/law firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Feature-rich and promotes collaboration, but the technical support needs improvement
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a collaborative platform, so you can do everything in one place."
  • "n the future, a dashboard should be included."

What is our primary use case?

Our main uses for this product are PowerPoint Slides, Excel, and Word. There are the main business use cases. We also use Outlook, Skype for Business, and Teams.

What is most valuable?

All of the individual features and components are good, although the one that I like best is Microsoft Teams.

It is a collaborative platform, so you can do everything in one place.

What needs improvement?

In Microsoft Teams, there is a lot of opportunities to improve. For example, search capabilities should be improved. When performing a search within Teams, it should also search through Outlook, files, and the other areas of the system. This is something that is missing within the collaboration platform.

In the future, a dashboard should be included.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Microsoft 365 Business for almost two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

So far, this product has been stable and we have not experienced any challenges.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have more than 2,400 users and do not have plans to increase usage.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is pathetic.

How was the initial setup?

The current deployment that we have was quite simple. However, we are planning to integrate it with Cisco, and once that is complete, we will know how complex it is.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This is an expensive product because it is subscription-based, which is always more expensive than a perpetual license.

What other advice do I have?

My advice for anybody who is implementing Microsoft 365 Business is to have some in-house capability, as we do. This is the best way to engage with this product.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

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
PeerSpot user
IT Specialist Databases at Botswana Open University
Real User
A stable and scalable solution with popular applications, but the price should be better for educational institutions
Pros and Cons
  • "Office products such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are strong points of this solution."
  • "Microsoft Teams can be improved. It is a bit taxing on resources and is resource-heavy on the devices. When you install it on a PC, it uses a lot of memory. They should look for a better price model for educational institutions, and it should be free. We are also using Google Suite, which is free for educational institutions. They charge business people, not nonprofit institutions."

What is our primary use case?

Students use it mostly for sending emails, storing their documents, and collaborating.

What is most valuable?

Office products such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are strong points of this solution.

What needs improvement?

Microsoft Teams can be improved. It is a bit taxing on resources and is resource-heavy on the devices. When you install it on a PC, it uses a lot of memory.

They should look for a better price model for educational institutions, and it should be free. We are also using Google Suite, which is free for educational institutions. They charge business people, not nonprofit institutions.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for some time.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. We have around 2,000 users, and we want to increase the usage.

How are customer service and technical support?

We get support from Microsoft through their local dealers. Their support is fine.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We are also using Google Suite. Microsoft 365 has a price attached, whereas Google Suite is free for educational institutions. Microsoft 365 has got popular applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, whereas Google Suite has got similar products that do the same thing, but they are not very popular.

How was the initial setup?

It was straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

I installed it myself.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

They are always a bit pricey. They should reduce their prices or make it free because we already have other solutions, like Google Suite, which are cheaper or free.

What other advice do I have?

If you can afford it, then go for it. It is a good product.

I would rate Microsoft 365 Business a six out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Director - Digitization at KYC Technologies Botswana
Real User
Robust platform for office procedure including document sharing, with excellent technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features are that it is quite robust and is a collaborative model."
  • "I would like to be able to connect Power BI to data sources easily."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution for our office administration purposes, emailing, and document sharing.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are that it is quite robust and is a collaborative model. For example, if I have opened a file in Word or Excel, every member of the organization who is logged in with their accounts at that same time can collaborate on the same document. We don't have to create multiple copies.

I like auto-server mode and the fact that you can unify them under one platform.

The fact that they are able to save directly to cloud storage and collaborate is something that is helpful.

What needs improvement?

The pricing can be reduced.

I don't like the number of email notifications that are sent, it's too often. I receive emails every day. It would be better to have weekly updates with one summary or have the summary every fortnight.

I would like to be able to connect Power BI to data sources easily. The Enterprise level comes with gateway connectivity, and that comes with many permissions. I understand that they are concerned about security, but they don't make it easy to automatically link your Power BI workflow to your apps such as Excel, PowerPoint, data sources, Access, and to your Microsoft flow at an enterprise-level deployment. It would be good to have a back-to-back connection between applications.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for two years.

We are using the 365 Enterprise, which is the lastest one.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This solution is quite stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This is a scalable solution.

We are a small organization aiming to grow. We have three core users and adding another one at the end of this month.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is very good. When I first signed up, I received a call and they spent close to an hour going over everything, step by step. They were quite helpful and very patient with me during that process. He went beyond his real competency by assisting me. This experience helped me appreciate Microsoft packages and services.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have always used Microsoft. I have set up the normal Microsoft Office versions that you can install, such as 2013, and 2016.

Primarily I use two systems, Windows and Linux, but for office administration purposes, Office is the leading solution provider. Linux is mostly for deep development and server setups.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward.

I had some challenges because I have approximately seven different applications on my computer that are directly related and connected to the cloud. It took me 30 minutes to deploy.

There are many apps on the cloud for 365, but on your device, you are limited to anywhere from nine to eleven.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price just keeps going up and it never comes down, but the service that you receive with the support is worth it.

It works out to be $12.50 per user per month. For us, it will cost approximately $50.00 for four users per month. This doesn't include the cost for other licensing on other app subscriptions.

What other advice do I have?

We have a setup file that we are running on our systems but most of the functionalities and features are from the cloud.

I would recommend this solution. The challenges with technologies are very dynamic. It changes daily based on the requirements and the scope.

If we look at the world right now, we are moving towards digital platforms at our premises due to the non-contact, issues of working from home, being able to pay people, and needing to have meetings.

Proof of concept is okay when you are trying to purchase or have a trial to purchase. You start the first month on a free platform. It is nice because the first month is free.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

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
PeerSpot user
Group IT Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Good collaboration in office applications that are consolidated in a single interface
Pros and Cons
  • "You can have conference calls with different parties using video and voice."
  • "The security sites need to be simplified and the technical support needs improvement."

What is our primary use case?

This solution is used for everything, the task, and the teams. It is a collaboration of all of the applications that are found in Office 365, but with one interface in which you can communicate between people.

We have some that have been deployed on a hybrid cloud, others that are just cloud, and some that are hybrids with an Active Directory that is on-premises and connected through Windows Azure. It connects to the cloud to sync all of the users from our campus.

For email assistance, or SharePoint or for sharing drives, it is all the cloud.

How has it helped my organization?

One of the O365 applications that made a huge impact is the Microsoft Teams that enhanced our communication in sharing files with online modification and execution helped in focusing our conversations and divide them into channels to have an efficient and effective output. Also chatting has been evolved to be not only sharing text but also solving problems instantly due to the ease of communication (Chat, Voice, Video). Work-From-Home became much easier then you can even imagine with O365.

What is most valuable?

These are the main things that help the business collaborate.

  • At the same time, you can share files, you can send emails on the spot, and you can also assign meetings on the spot.
  • You can have conference calls with different parties using video and voice.

It saves a lot of time. When opening a new business, you need the main server, file sharing, and you need to secure them.

Not only to have them there on-site or on-premises, you need to have them backed up, and archived. So rather than going for a new place, with a new Internet, we go to Cloud and it will provide everything that we need.

You're not restricted to a certain place or certain country. You can work from any place on Earth, from any device, without having your laptop.

This is one of the main factors, and that it is secured. This is also a big advantage.

They have already made some improvements to the interface and dashboards that have made a positive impact.

What needs improvement?

The security sites need to be simplified and the technical support needs improvement.

In the next release, I would like to see the management of the security features become more user-friendly.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This solution is stable.

In our team, we don't have many users. We are in the early stages of migration.

Other companies that I work with have approximately three hundred or four hundred in different countries and the other sites I have one hundred and fifteen to one hundred and thirty users.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This solution is scalable.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support needs time to understand your problem to help you, because of the language barrier. It takes time to solve certain things.

In the Gulf area, most people call in Arabic and want to translate to English. The problem is the Technical support does not understand English well, so it takes time to explain what the problem is when it could be a simple issue to resolve.

This doesn't represent all of the technical support, maybe 75% is good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have Google. Google is good, but I was not familiar with the application and the tasks because most of the time I have worked with Microsoft. They have the same features, but I didn't find that Google was easy to work with applications.

They have evolved a lot but there are still some laps between them like an on-premises exchange and Lotus Notes.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward.

Within thirty minutes you will have your site up and running, including emails and shared folders.

Even if you need more options, like profiles and hierarchies, it is straightforward. You just go ahead and add them.

For a new business with twenty people, you will need approximately two or three days maximum to have all the sites up and running for all services.

What about the implementation team?

I did the implementation myself. I did not use any vendors or integrators.

What was our ROI?

The return on investment is very high for companies whose work is based on communications.

This is targeted for countries with unstable internet. As an example, in our region you don't know when the internet will go off, we have now been without the internet for over a week. This is a problem for people who have on-premises deployments and need to connect to the internet.

For new businesses, rather than having a lot of servers, they can go online. Most people have 4G on the mobiles so they can just search it on their mobile. The Internet is not an issue.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

After the last update that was made, you are not obliged to take the same license for all of your users. For example, if you go for E1 it is $12 USD per month for every person.

Now you can select different licenses, for example, if somebody doesn't need all of the features, it would cost $8 USD per month and if they didn't need the email application then it would cost $6 USD per month.

What other advice do I have?

This solution requires a lot of money. It's a huge expense and it's a concurrent expense. You don't just pay it once, it's going to be continuous and you pay annually.

Unless there is a huge impact on the business, then it would be worth going for it. If there is no impact on the business then you can use it on-premises and work with the old office.

I would recommend this solution for newly opening businesses that need collaboration and communication that requires the internet but doesn't need a fixed place to work. They should go with Office 365.

They are going to pay every year but they will be saving a lot of money for electricity and maintenance for the telephone, voice, VOIP, IP telephones, internet, and subscriptions.

The security is also important, it's not exposed to everybody. 

You won't need an IT department because one person can handle everything.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

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 does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Ayman Said - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure System's Manager at ICAPP (Americana Group)
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
A complete, reliable application that makes business easier
Pros and Cons
  • "The good feature with the cloud is that you can access Microsoft Office from anywhere. It's integrated with Outlook, so you can edit a file in Excel, Word, or any other application and just attach it in the mail. It makes the business easier."
  • "Excel hangs many times, especially when we have equations. Excel is very heavy on the hardware, and it needs powerful hardware. I hope they can enhance the performance of Excel. Other products are working well, except for Excel."

How has it helped my organization?

Microsoft 365 Business is helping the business very much. Office 365 is reliable, full of a lot of applications, such as Word, Excel, and so on. It is very easy. Some versions are deployed on-premises, and some are deployed on the cloud.

We have around 200 users in our company. We are also a member of a group, and we have more than 3000 users all over the group. 

What is most valuable?

The good feature with the cloud is that you can access Microsoft Office from anywhere. It's integrated with Outlook, so you can edit a file in Excel, Word, or any other application and just attach it in the mail. It makes the business easier.

What needs improvement?

Excel hangs many times, especially when we have equations. Excel is very heavy on the hardware, and it needs powerful hardware. I hope they can enhance the performance of Excel. Other products are working well, except for Excel. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for five or six years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is very good. All Office products work fine except for Excel, which hangs many times.

How are customer service and technical support?

We did not need technical support. We are handling our problems.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

For emails, we migrated from Gmail to Microsoft mail.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward. It takes a very short time. Deployment time depends on the application, that is, whether you are deploying the whole Office or just Excel or Word.

What about the implementation team?

We are deploying our products. In our group, we have more than 100 members for deploying our products. For Microsoft products, we have around 41 members.

What other advice do I have?

I would, of course, recommend Microsoft for all people. Microsoft always meets your expectations. 

I would rate Microsoft 365 Business a nine out of ten. I think it's a complete application. They just need to enhance the performance of Excel.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer973497 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
This is a familiar suite of business tools that you can install and use without training
Pros and Cons
  • "Microsoft products are familiar to most users and intuitive to use."
  • "The Teams feature should be more flexible in integrating with other communications products."

What is our primary use case?

We take care of our business tasks and communications using the full office environment.  

What is most valuable?

Teams is also a part of the Office 365 suite from Microsoft that I was actually using separately from Office before we moved to the Office 365 product.  

What needs improvement?

The thing I think can be improved is the Teams functionalities. Teams software is like Zoom and it is more-or-less the same idea. It is less intuitive in comparison to what I was used to in Zoom. Zoom has a much more intuitive interface and is user-friendly in how you create meetings, how to participate, and how you invite people to join groups. You can do conference calls with many parties more easily using Zoom.  

Inside the organization where everyone else also has Teams, it is a very good tool. But if I want to have someone join that is not in my organization or using another connection method like a phone number, it is tricky. You cannot dial to regular phones which is a feature that exists in Skype for Business.  

The integration with other products is less fluid compared to Zoom and Skype for Business. Those products are more flexible and I am able to dial regular phones. Zoom is a much more flexible product and I may like it more because it is familiar.  

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the complete suite for the last seven months.  

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a mature and stable product. There are no concerns with stability.  

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have no complaints about the scalability. The entire company is using the product and we are a company with about 800 employees. Maybe some people in the production areas are not using it because it is not important to their work, but all the office people are working with this tool.  

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used other versions of Microsoft products. Let's say we have been using Microsoft products for the last 10 or 15 years, which is common practice for many companies. It is company policy and not something that I can influence. No one asked me my opinion. It was the organization's decision to move to 365. We are all using Microsoft tools.  

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward. We did not use an integrator, reseller, or consultant for the deployment. We have an IT team inside our company that helps us to use the tools and do installations.  

We did not need to have any very special implementation strategy. We could just install the software to start using it. There is no deployment of hardware along with the software so the implementation time is very short.  

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

The Microsoft Office 365 suite is a pretty nice product. It is working fine, no real complaints. It is a sophisticated product. You have to explore on YouTube how to use some tricks and tips to work with it more efficiently.  

What other advice do I have?

Overall I am satisfied with Office 365. It is a very convenient and common product — so nothing special to give advice about that most people do not already know. You really do not need any tools, any skills, or any special training to start using it.  

Of course, later on, you can learn about some tips and tricks to enhance your experience and productivity. But in general, it is very nice.  

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate this product as a nine-out-of-ten.  

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft 365 Business Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Microsoft 365 Business Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.