Microsoft 365 Business Reviews

We primarily use 365 for financial functions, like invoices, PODs, purchase orders, and customer contracts. 

At this stage, we're getting the most value out of Exchange, Teams, OneDrive, and some portions of SharePoint. Another nice thing is that Microsoft has infrastructure within our borders. From a GDPR point of view, our data needs to reside within South Africa's borders, and they've got data centers here. That helps because our government has stringent regulations that say the data we can't store data in the cloud outside of our borders.

365 Business' workflow should be better integrated into our current ERP systems. We are running two different ERP systems that are integrated, so it would make sense in the future to have those systems integrated into a content management workflow system. As it is, 365 is extremely open for integration, but it could be more seamless. Also, from an administrative point of view, it's a bit scattered. A more centralized user environment would be better.

We only started rolling 365 Business out in May last year from the local exchange and migrating everything to it. Due to the pandemic, it just made sense. So, I think most other companies did the same thing. In the beginning, my company was primarily interested in the email aspects of 365, but I showed them the potential of SharePoint as well. I gave them a demonstration, and now they're more using OneDrive than SharePoint itself.

We have no complaints about 365's stability. 

365 Business is easy to scale based on my experience. But it also depends on which portion—which modules— you want to scale. Adding normal users on Exchange is fairly straightforward. But when it comes to databases, scaling up can become quite complex.

I would say that Microsoft's support is fairly good. I would rate it about six out 10.

The initial setup of 365 is relatively straightforward. However, because we have about 120 employees, total deployment takes two or three days, including migrating historical email data. But, we were able to handle it all ourselves. And from a maintenance point of view, it's reasonably stable. It's just typical user issues, like password resets. We don't have any problems with space or anything at this stage. 

The price of 365 Business is highly competitive, especially if you compare it to standalone document and content management systems. Obviously, that excludes Exchange and all of that. But if you compare it to other similar products—which you can't really compare it to—I think it's very competitive.

I rate 365 Business seven out of 10. I would definitely recommend it. It's easy to use from a user's point of view. It's easy to set up and add users.

Microsoft 365 Business is used within businesses for all the Office applications within the package. The reality is most of my clients are using Google Docs or Google software but some clients need to have an offline solution. They will have Microsoft software that synchronizes to the cloud.  Microsoft 365 Business comes with all the Office software, such as OneDrive, Outlook, and Exchange.  It is good for collaboration and sharing. The largest benefit today is that it integrates with Teams which is quite useful and the overall integration is good.

Microsoft 365 Business has an abundance of features.

Google Docs and Google Sheets are much more flexible than Microsoft 365 Business software. Additionally, I have found one of the biggest issues with any of the Microsoft management platforms is they are tremendously unintuitive. However, you get used to it, you accept it, and you work away on it.

Google is much more versatile, and they provide a different experience. That is not to say that they are better or worse.

The solution could improve on the synchronization. The synchronization depends on the time of the day and what is happening in the USA. For example, when Americas wakes up, everything slows down at that point but it is to be expected. Sometimes it can take up to 24 hours to synchronize changes. The same is true for Google but they do it differently. There is a lot less frustration around Google Workspace than there is around Microsoft 365.

I have been using Microsoft 365 Business for approximately a couple of years.

The solution is stable. However, the problem with Microsoft, in general, is the management platform is incredibly slow. The synchronization and platform can be very slow because you have one platform with probably millions of dependencies, this can affect performance. You do not have these issues with Google, G Suite, or Google Workspace. When you make any kind of change to Microsoft 365 business, nine times out of ten, it is going to work. It is a very complex platform but it does not have to be.

Microsoft 365 Business is scalable enough.

I have approximately 50 customers using the solution. The majority of my customers are using Google Workspace.

Microsoft technical support is good. A lot of the time I know more than tech support, but that is only because I have been using these solutions for a long time. You have to go through the process to get technical support similar to any big company. They are professional and good communicators. However, it is a bit of a lengthy process to actually get to where you need to go, this is something you have to accept. There are different levels of support and you have to follow the process which is understandable.

I have used Google Workspace.

The implementation of Microsoft 365 Business is easy. You have an installer, you deploy it, and it installs offline. You can also access the solution through the portal.

I have been involved in the implementation of the solution. I work with other companies and their IT departments to oversee the operations. I help with configuration changes, some training, and anything else they might need.

The price of the Microsoft 365 Business is fair. It is a great suite of products, but then there are other great products on the market as well. The main concern is competition. With Microsoft generally, it comes down to what people have become familiar with, what people have grown up using when they were younger, and when they are older. It depends on the actual adoption of the environment that they work in. The price is not an issue, it is about what people are used to using, and what they are familiar with is what influences their purchase.

Customers can sign up for an annual commitment where they are paying monthly, but it is an annual commitment. I mostly sell annual commitment and it is paid monthly. Which allows them in certain situations to roll the license over. For example, If someone leaves the company, then the license can be allocated to somebody else without having to buy an additional license.

I have evaluated other solutions.

I have been using Microsoft for over 20 years and when you use Microsoft for a certain period of time, you get used to the way they do things, whether or not you like it, it does not matter. Microsoft is not the most intuitive of platforms, with regards to their Azure cloud. From a UX point of view, I would rate it approximately a six or seven out of ten. However, from a functionality point of view, I would rate it approximately an eight out of ten.

If someone is looking for a fully integrated solution that is not Google, then the next best choice is Microsoft 365. From a cost point of view, Google Workspace and Microsoft costs are not complicated anymore. Microsoft does become more expensive when you start adding on features. Google does not have that issue. I mostly recommend Google Workspace over Microsoft. The only reason somebody would want Microsoft over Google is that they are used to the Microsoft desktop applications. Microsoft Azure is not the most user-friendly platform compared to AWS, for example.  Most of the time, I recommend Google Workspace.

I rate Microsoft 365 Business a seven out of ten.

We use Microsoft Business 365 for team document solutions, like SharePoint. There are about 1,000 employees in my company, but I'm not sure if everyone uses it.

I would like to see more integration in the next release.

Microsoft Business 365 is quite stable.

I rate Business 365 seven out of 10.

We use Microsoft 365 Business for Teams and SharePoint.

It is easy to use.

Data protection needs to be improved.

Scalability is an area that needs to be improved.

I have been using Microsoft 365 Business for a couple of years.

We use Microsoft Teams on the cloud, and the rest of the solution is used on-premises.

We are using the latest version.

I don't have any issues with the stability of Microsoft 365 Business.

The scalability of Microsoft 365 Business needs improvement.

We have 300 users in our organization.

Personally, I have not contacted technical support, but my colleagues contact them often.

The installation is easy.

Personally, I don't like working in the cloud. The majority of this solution is used on-premises.

I would recommend this solution to others who are interested in using it.

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

I use Microsoft 365 Business for many of the packaged solutions, such as Outlook and SharePoint.

The solution could improve by being more secure.

I have been using Microsoft 365 Business for a few years.

Microsoft 365 Business is stable.

The solution is scalable enough for what I use it for.

We have thousands of users using this solution in my organization.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Microsoft 365 Business a nine out of ten.

I'm using the solution for business applications. I'm using MS Word, PowerPoint  and Excel and the way I'm using it, it provides me with what I need to do my work.

We're very comfortable with the solution. Since we've been using the product for so long, we're very comfortable with its functionalities.

The solution is scalable.

The stability is good.

One thing that's nice with Office applications, Excel, PowerPoint,  is that  Microsoft and Esri, the manufacturer of ArcGIS, based in California, they have collaboration that provides ArcGIS tools, a mapping technology, within MS Office software.  You can easily drag maps into PowerPoint, for example, or use ArcGIS in Excel to put location context to information. You can immediately access ArcGIS while working within the environment of these tools provided that ArcGIS is on board as well. 

Office applications have been the dominant application for business. In the Philippines, most of the applications are in the MS Office suite. One would want to build skills on these tools as they are what is required and in use in organizations. Doing this increases qualification.

The only problem with 365 nowadays is that it expires. Unlike before, when it would not, nowadays, most of the different tools, most of the computer applications licenses, expires. Even outside of the GIS, Geographic Information System, nowadays in the past couple of years, most of our products also expires.

We've been using the solution for four or five years or so. I've used it for a while. 

The solution is stable. This based from our experiences in using it over the past three decades. It's very reliable. 

In terms of the number of licenses, it is scalable. For example, if now you're using an Office application for five users, then you have the option to increase the number of licenses, to ten or 20 or more. It goes as big as you need it to. 

I've never directly dealt with Microsoft technical support. We have an internal ITP for that, which provides us with support. Therefore, I can't speak to how helpful or responsive they are. 

Before Office 365, we used Microsoft products for a very long time. There's no problem with anything. From the old Office applications to 365, we have had Microsoft in our business for a very long time already.

We are an end-user as well as a partner. We had a partnership before as a developer. 

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten. We're pretty happy with its capabilities. 

The main use of the solution is for business applications. 

Microsoft 365 Business is user-friendly.

I have been using the solution for approximately two years. 

The solution is stable. 

I find the solution scalable. 

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. 

The solution requires a license which is expensive. 

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. 

We primarily use it as a business solution. We're using it for applications such as Microsoft Word, SharePoint, Teams, et cetera.

The solution has been very stable. It's very reliable. 

The scalability is good. When a company needs to expand it, it can do so.

We would like to see the solution use more artificial intelligence bots in future releases. 

I've used the solution for about two years now. It's been a while at this point.

We have found the solution to be very stable. It's reliable and the performance is good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.

You can scale the solution if you need to. 

We have more than 2,000 people on the solution currently.

We have always used Microsoft. We did not use a different solution. We likely used an earlier version of Microsoft.

I didn't take care of the implementation part of the solution. I cannot speak to how easy or difficult it was or what was involved in the process. I also cannot say how big the technical team was that rolled it out. 

We pay a yearly licensing fee, however, I do not have insights into the exact costs. I don't handle anything related to licensing. 

We're using the latest version of the solution.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. We've been pretty happy with its capabilities. 

I'd recommend the solution to other users and companies mostly based on its stability.

In my case, I have a lot of different email domains and they're all hosted in the same environment. With the older exchange on-premise, that gave a lot of conflict with the user IDs, as the client runs on the same workstation. That usually started a lot of headaches for me and my IT supplier. With Office 365, that's no longer a problem.

The solution is stable.

The scalability is very good.

When you're looking at the management of the endpoints, for example, Intune leaves a lot to be desired.

If you're looking at Microsoft 365, Intune is part of that as well and Intune is kind of a nightmare.

The Office platform hasn't changed too much, apart from the fact that the server backend has moved to the cloud. In the cloud, some things work a little better and then some things work a little worse than before.

I've been using the solution for about one and a half years at this point.

The solution is very stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.

The solution can scale well. If a company needs to expand it, it can.

I don't have experience with technical support. We got it outsourced, so I don't need to contact Microsoft myself, apart from when I put my IT architect hat on. For my employer, I need to deal with Microsoft in terms of license procurements and so on, however, for the rest, for the technical stuff, we don't need to contact Microsoft.

I'm a customer and an end-user.

I'm looking at it from two perspectives, one from my employer and one from my own company. And yeah, within my own company, I don't have problems with managing endpoints or whatever. The only thing I had was, with the multiple user IDs on the same backend, which now is no problem anymore. That used to be a big problem. They've fixed it now.

I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten.

I would recommend, if you have an extensive older environment, and you're migrating towards Microsoft 365, to get a partner who has a lot of experience in doing these kinds of migrations. I would take very much into consideration that, if you have a company that has extensive contact with the outside world using email, and then generic mailboxes, and all that stuff, group mailboxes, the world actually changes when you move to Microsoft 365. That takes a lot of adjustment and it takes a lot of work during the transition. The quality of the IT partner that advises you, assists you, manages this for you, can to a large part be graded upon how this piece of the entire puzzle is managed. The problem we had was that there were a lot of changes from the older setup compared to the new setup in 365, and that cost us months of trouble.

I'm using all the fundamental stuff such as Outlook, Teams, PowerPoint, and Word. I use Excel an awful lot for data analysis.

As a small business, the big thing for us is the ability to onboard new people easily. We have people come on board for both short and long term projects. Getting them a corporate identity through email is important and it needs to be painless.

Through the admin portal, it's a matter of minutes to add new users, assign a license or buy a new license, and get them logged on. It takes 10 to 15 minutes. 

A lot of the administration is done through the web interface, and that can be a little clunky sometimes. It is changing. They have a legacy interface and the new interface. So, it takes a little while to get used to one over the other, but it is not a huge thing. In the end, it usually works out.

In Teams, it is a little tricky to set up a guest or to become a guest on someone's domain, but if people do that, then you have an improvement in the shared access. The real pain, which is not a big thing, in Teams is if you're a small business user, it is really hard to get somebody on a different domain into your list of contacts. You can't just chat with them or start an instant meeting. That is easier to do with Zoom, which I also use. The real issue in Teams is that if you're not on the same domain, a lot of the good functionality falls apart. You have to actually be a guest in the other person's domain. I have a large customer, and they created a guest account for me in their domain so that I can chat with people inside their organization as though I was inside their organization, but not everybody is willing to do that. Some of my customers are Aerospace and Defense, and nobody gets on their domain. So, if you're in two different domains, the communication sucks, and you're better off picking up your phone, which is bad. If you go back to the old model of Skype, you could add people, and then you could chat with them whether they were in your domain or not.

I have been using this solution for about five years.

It is quite stable. I had no issues, and uptime is good.

I haven't really dealt with tech support. It has been more around admin and billing, but it has been good. I probably needed some help from tech support a long time ago. They have multiple ways to connect. They can connect with you by email, or they can do a Remote Desktop or RDP. You can basically send them your cell phone number and tell them when you're ready for a call, and they'll call you. So, it has been really good.

Setting everything up initially was pretty straightforward. I didn't get the domain name through Microsoft, but I was able to link everything to a domain that I had purchased from a totally different organization. 

Essentially, I got the exchange servers connected to a domain that I had purchased from somewhere else. It was pretty easy. The most complex part was where you have to go and set up some of the detailed information relating to the domain name. You have to change some mappings and settings in the MX record when you link it to the domain. You have to go back to where your domain is being hosted and modify the MX records based on the information that Microsoft gives you. It validates that you've got it right and tells you what is working or what is not working. It tells you which settings are or are not correct. So, even though creating MX record entries is a little bit complex, they walk you through it really well

I have one of the higher level business licenses, and then I have a number of very basic, lower-cost cost subscriptions for our short term team members. We're a small organization of a dozen people.

We considered Google but almost all of our customers are Microsoft shops.

I come from an organization of 1,200 people, and around the time I was leaving, everything was being migrated to Office 365. The fact that Teams is bundled with the package now is a big thing because a lot of larger organizations are using Teams, so it lets you connect to them rather well.

I would rate this solution a nine out of 10.