Microsoft 365 Business Reviews

I am not a technical person, I am from the sales side and more on the commercial side of things. Our company is in Mozambique and we are the main Dell EMC repair center and service provider.  

My main use case for Office 365 is really to type documents with Word, to prepare presentations with the PowerPoint, and also to do spreadsheets with Excel. The product in the suite that I use the most is Word. PowerPoint and Excel to a somewhat lesser extent. But I do use all three frequently.  

We also resell the product so we do deployments for our customers as well.  

With Office, the interface is now more user-friendly than the previous versions of Microsoft Office. The functionality and ability to work offline are also great. There are more helpful tools in the interfacer now. For example, if you are working with Excel and you are typing a formula, Office 365 gives you tips as you work if you do something wrong. It will identify what is wrong and then you can apply the corrections. Things like that make the product more intuitive and helpful. The previous version did not have that kind of help to this extent. So, the most valuable features are the ability to work offline, the ability to have tips when writing formulas, and the improved more user-friendly interface.  

I believe one thing I enjoy more about the experience of using the product is that it now the basic features that I use most frequently are easier to find, access, and manage. This helps to make my work easier and speed up productivity.  

Microsoft could still work on the bandwidth used with Office 365. It does not seem to behave the same depending on the networks that I am working on. Sometimes I can tell the program uses more or less bandwidth and actually measure the difference. I believe that this can be enhanced to be independent of the network that I am working on. The bandwidth consumption should always be about the same.  

Some features of specific products could be more user-friendly. For instance, in Excel, some functionalities like the Pivot tables are not always so easy to use. Right now if you want to create a new formula, you need to have some knowledge about programming in Visual Basic. It does not seem to me that this should be a requirement. So you can type a command and then set up a new formula that is not listed on standard functions supplied with Excel. For users who do not understand the basics of programming and VBA, that really becomes an impossible mission. They may know that they can create a formula and what they might want it to do but they do not know how to do it. So if they do not find the formula in what is provided, then they really have to forget using Excel for that type of solution. If they knew how to do the programming they can do virtually anything through Excel, but they need to have the ability to do the programming and develop the formula. It does not really have to be that way. Microsoft could expand those capabilities.  

One final issue we have has to do with the backups. Microsoft does not assure the backups of the information that you store at their data centers. So besides deploying Office 365 as a solution, you also need a backup solution specifically for Office 365 on the cloud. We definitely recommend Office 365, but unfortunately in our country — specifically for the public companies — it is not easy to sell because we have some strict policies and regulations regarding data. Public companies cannot store information outside of the country. So, since Microsoft Office 365 is a Cloud product some public companies can not go for that option. They still have to work with previous versions of the product. Private sector companies do not have this type of restriction. We can only recommend the product when interested customers can do it within the proper guidelines.  

I have been using Office 365 for about one year now.  

Office 365 is a stable product. Besides the issues with the bandwidth use where sometimes the product uses more bandwidth depending on the network, it performs well and it is very stable and very reliable.  

We have done sales and installations for SMBs (Small and Medium-sized Businesses) as well as for enterprise companies. The issues with scalability would be budget and Internet bandwidth. If the money is there it is not an issue.  

My technicians deal with Microsoft support if they have to. Mostly they will take care of issues themselves. They have a dedicated contact and a direct portal for support purposes. So that is great. If a technician needs to open a ticket for a customer, the technician can open himself and go straight to the support portal to log the tickets and carry on from there. In terms of response time, I am not exactly sure because I am not directly involved.  

Previously, I was using Microsoft on a version from 2016. So it really is not a complete switch of products as it is still the Microsoft solution. It is just a newer version.  

I do not think the installation was easy but that is because we have around a hundred users. I did not manage the installation, but I heard from the technical guys that it is generally easier than the previous versions. We signed an enterprise agreement with Microsoft. With that, we got the keys and we got the centralized management panel from where we deploy the Office on all the endpoints. So this made it easier. For the previous versions, the technical guy had to go to each user machine to make the installation through a compact disc. But with volume licensing installation is centralized and the IT manager deployed remotely to the endpoints.  

We handle the setup and the deployment in house. We have a separate team with more-or-less 30 technicians. Some of them are specifically certified on Microsoft products through the partnership that we have with Microsoft. So, depending on the infrastructure that our customer has, we can send out as many as three technicians if it is to be deployed for say 200 users. When we need to do a mailbox migration, most of them have to be migrated at the same time. In that case, we allocate two to three technicians to do it as quickly as possible. If we are talking about enterprise companies with 1000 users — depending on what the customer requires in terms of delivery time — we might allocate as many as 20 guys. It is more likely we will allocate 10 guys. It basically depends on the customer's requirements.  

The pricing for the product is a bit of a tricky question. In terms of the total cost of ownership, I can say that it is expensive. It is a fair price, but in our country or another country with economies similar to  Mozambique, the pricing structure may be a little high and prohibitive. The first issue is the volatility of the exchange rate because our currency, the Metical, is very volatile related to the dollar. The problem here is the customer has an agreement and when he realized that he wants to add some other applications or services or something else, he has the expectation of price based on what he signed on the first agreement. But when he sees the new price, it could become a lot higher than expected because of the exchange rate. It would be nice if somehow Microsoft had some flexibility with the initial agreement so that pricing would not fluctuate dramatically because of the exchange rate.  

Another thing that factors into the pricing is that the Internet connection and Internet bandwidth is still very expensive here in Mozambique. So it is not always an easy decision to make the migration to Office 365 due to these two variables.  

I recommend the Microsoft Office 365 product to clients. We are able to do proofs-of-concept with clients who are interested and carry forward from there.  

On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate Microsoft Office 365 as eight-and-a-half.  

As a business intelligence specialist and business owner, I primarily use the standard apps in this solution. I enjoy the fact that there's a smorgasbord of additional apps that make for great productivity within the business - especially when you realize what all the apps can do for your business.

MS365 Business has offered me a robust infrastructure with the out of the box standard offering but also provided amazing apps and features to encourage growth in other areas of my business.

I like that the standard solution is easy and intuitive. It's worth taking the time to go and poke around all the other apps, though. 

There are rules of engagement that are important to know and it can be overwhelming at first if you're never been a Sysadmin. The Apps within the solution provide different business functions so you don't have to hire anyone - you can actually do most of it yourself. It's a huge cost saving for a small business and with the subscription, it's actually much cheaper than buying the products outright, as you would have had to do in the past. You can get everything you need for a reasonable price e.g. if you wanted, say, five features/ functionality you'd pay between $100 and $1000 for each, potentially spending close to $5000 once off but then next year arrives and you need to buy the next version and again you're spending precious funds. Instead, with subscription plans, you get between ~20 features/ functions. My plan, plus the add-on Apps costs my business $12.50x2 + $30 +$9.99  per month = $780 annually - the key is TODAY'S cash stays in my pocket.

You have to buy licenses for everything, but the pricing structure is very competitive. From a small business perspective, there's lots of advantages to going with 365, because not only are you getting the standard tool set to actually just run a standard business, but you're getting add-on Apps/features that open up opportunities that you might not have thought of and... the realization that you don't have to pay another entity because you can do it yourself e.g. sway and bookings

I think where Microsoft could help with the product is to perhaps have an agent/ comprehensive start up video, that can assist with the initial setup since you're now dealing with several admin panels. You can learn it yourself but there are certain tips and tricks that could much more easily be communicated in a conversation. For example, know that if you go into an admin portal, you're going to need five things; and you need those five things before you go into the portal and they each may need their own setup/initiation.

I submitted a good few support tickets early on because some of it was a bit overwhelming. When you're a small business and you suddenly realize that there are various admin portals which all do different things and you set something up in this portal and then you have to go set something up in another portal and connect the dots. If you don't know to do that and you haven't yet read ALL the documentation, it can be very overwhelming and you can feel a little lost. But once you get your head around it all, it's quite brilliant - the architecture and how they set everything up in the background.

I've been using the MS365 Business standard plan for two months. 

The stability of this solution is superb. No issues. Just know that when you make updates or edits in the admin panels, the change(s) may not take effect instantaneously, in some cases.

I haven't tested scalability as we are a new business, just starting out. There is only one other person working with me and I purchased two licenses even though the other person in the company doesn't yet use the product. You have to have one license per user even though each user gets to load it/ use the license on several other devices. It might be a waste but I wanted to do the right thing. It would be helpful if they provided an option for two licenses so you could legitimately have it on a second computer. 

I've bought additional licenses for other apps because my business is going to be delivering a very comprehensive business intelligence/ project management service offering. I expect to expand use and embark on several upgrade routes available to me, when the time is right.

Very responsive, thorough and professional. Just be aware that they have teams with specialities and they don't cross lines e.g. I needed help with Power BI so you have to specify that in your ticket or deal with a generalist who will not be able to help you. I learned to state the product first then state your issue.

I've used Google in business as well, and I like the ability of being able to collaborate that they offer, but Microsoft 365 actually fixed that and you are now able to collaborate in the documents e.g. Word and Excel. So I really didn't see the need to stick with Google. The only thing that Microsoft wasn't able to deliver for me was photo and video organization/editing. Even if you're not a photographic business, you do still take photos and videos for your business. I do still use Google for all my photos and images.

The intial setup was very straightforward and took me less than an hour but all the administrative elements can take longer, depending on what you choose to do. You need to configure it with all it's variables and that can take extra time. The basic setup to just start work, was super quick. If you have a powerful computer it's about the download time and then some setup time. It's the Sysadmin leg of work that was a steep learning curve for me.

Handled it by myself with great support from a very responsive MS365 Tech team.

incredible. Very lower startup cost.

For the standard plan, the cost is USD $12.50 per month, committed annually. There are often discounts offered versus month to month.

I wanted to stick with the best and only evaluated all the different price plan options. For my size and stage of business the standard option offered everything I needed, plus some.

I would rate this solution a 10 out of 10. 

We are using Microsoft Office and Teams for collaboration purposes, Microsoft Teams specifically helps us during the COVID phase, increasing productivity for both remote work and onsite work.

We see a productivity increase and a better collaboration platform. Instead of booking a meeting room for discussion, we can just use Teams to meet. 

You can access Microsoft 365 Business from anywhere. You have full access to Office 365 or Outlook 365, and the support is there.

It's always updated because Microsoft does patching regularly.

It's easier to configure, and you don't have to worry about supporting the solution.

The price could be cheaper.

The technical support could be more knowledgeable.

We have been using it for two years.

We use the cloud-based solution.

It is stable.

It is scalable. We have more than 1000 users.

Technical support is okay, but they could be more knowledgeable.

We were using the on-premises version before the cloud solution.

We have a yearly license, and it could be cheaper.

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate Microsoft 365 Business at nine.

If we have the email address and the password, we can access our documents from any system anywhere in the world.

The solution is quite friendly.

The price is the main issue. Not everyone can afford the product.

I have been using the solution since 2017. I am using the latest version of the solution.

The tool is stable.

The tool is scalable. In my organization, 10 to 15 people are using the solution. We use the solution regularly. We need the files, drives, and presentations regularly.

The product is easy to set up. The deployment was not tough. We just need to get the login credentials.

I deployed the solution myself.

We pay a yearly licensing fee for the solution. It could be more affordable.

I took feedback from others and learned about the solution’s features before using it. I would recommend the product to others. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

We use Microsoft 365 Business for email and desktop management. We also use Office Suite products like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to manage documents. 

I don't like the tool's administration which consists of crappy operations. 

I have been using the solution for three to four years. 

Microsoft 365 Business is stable. 

The product is scalable and my company has 300 users for the tool. 

We escalated a few issues and did not get a response from Microsoft's support. The support is too complex and takes a lot of time. It is not quick. 

The product is expensive and the licensing costs are yearly. 

I would rate Microsoft 365 Business a seven out of ten. I will recommend the tool for corporate email and document management. 

Microsoft 365 Business's most important feature is mobility. I have the application on my system and many other devices.

The program's UI could be faster. Additionally, more customization and cheaper pricing would be good.

I have used the latest version of Microsoft 365 Business for over three years.

I rate the stability of the program a nine out of ten.

I rate the scalability of the program an eight out of ten. There are approximately 100 users in our organization.

Previously, we used Google Workspace but switched to Microsoft 365 Business because our users were more comfortable with the program.

The initial setup was straightforward. I rate the process a ten out of ten. It is deployed on-premises and on the cloud in our organization. The deployment process took around three months. We required two people for the implementation.

I rate the pricing of the program a seven out of ten.

I rate Microsoft 365 Business an eight out of ten.

You can use Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Access, which is a database.

You can make frequent presentations to customers, and create invoices.

Excel is a very powerful tool. I can create a lot of data in Microsoft Excel and then use it and extract the data in any analytics platform.

It is a complete tool. It gives me every kind of feature that I want. It's quite good.

When you talk about ease of use, it's relative. I have been using Microsoft products for a long time. I have grown with it and the product has grown with me. I feel comfortable. But, for someone with no background in IT that doesn't have the dexterity to play with the IT tools, they may find it difficult to use.

When you get used to it, it's like picking up a paper and a pen and drafting it. You can use many more features. Paper and pen are used to exemplify simplicity.

When using PowerPoint, I want to create a very illustrative presentation. I can draw many pictures globally with several designs. It's flexible. After preparing the presentation, I can preview the form and share it with people.

It's very user-friendly.

I can use this product on five devices. I can use it on my mobile, and I have two laptops. I can access it from any one of my devices, even if I am commuting or in another country, I can access all of my documents.

Microsoft OneNote is also included. I can create my shopping list, or go on a trip, and make all of my notes accessible on all devices.

With such a complete tool, it may be difficult for a beginner to use without help.

I have been using Microsoft 365 Business for between four and five years.

It is a stable solution.

It's a scalable product. Most people in our organization use it.

We have approximately 50 users, maybe more.

With all Microsoft products, online help is available.

I have not had the need to contact technical support. I have not had any issues.

Positive

The initial setup was nothing at all. It was no effort.

It was very easy and very comfortable to complete.

Microsoft 365 has multiple packages. I use the auxiliary version. We can deploy all of them in 10 to 15 minutes maximum, but it depends on the internet speed as well.

I completed the deployment and implementation myself. It doesn't require any help.

It could be a little less expensive.

You have the option of 1TB of storage per user, or you can keep it on your desktop or laptop.

I can create documents in Microsoft Office and fill them in PDF. I use Adobe quite extensively. Between them, I don't need anything.

There is no other alternative, except maybe Google.

Overall, I am very satisfied with this product and I recommend it to others.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

An area for improvement would be for Outlook to sync with Google Calendar.

I've been using Microsoft 365 for five years.

This product is reliable.

It is possible to scale up this solution.

I would rate this product eight out of ten.

Myself and my colleagues have been using Microsoft 365 for our real-time communication (Teams), social networks, mailing, document processing and much more. 

My company has employee of almost 600 staff across regions.

Microsoft 365 Business has helped my organization get organized using email, calendar and contacts all perfectly synchronized with a real time collaboration.

It's strictly in the cloud, so the company doesn't need to invest in hardware to install their Active Directory. So I find that it's a cost-effective alternative. I see what's going on in Microsoft DevOps to be very intriguing. We have artificial intelligence and machine learning that can help us with everything, like how you respond to daily emails, collaboration, etc.

It will be nice if the constant/regular updates can be minimized  and I also notice that the application is highly resource intensive and needs to be checked. 

Microsoft also need to find a way to educate their customers on how best to utilize their paid apps because they hardly use up to 20% of the features. 

I've been exposed to the usage of Microsoft Office 365 (now Microsoft 365) Business as far back as 2012 in my former company. And the application suite has continued to improve from time to time with a lot of outstanding features releases. 

It's relative stable

Microsoft 365 Business is scalable

I give 365 Business an eight out of 10.

We're a small startup company and an IT solution reseller in Dubai. I'm the operations manager.

The good thing about 365 is the accessibility and file storage. Compared to the desktop of the old Office application, 365 has total flexibility and accessibility from anywhere. It's easy to use.

These days, most people have multiple devices but you can only configure 365 on two devices with a license. I'd like to see a license option for multiple devices. Licensing costs are quite high especially for our trainees who have no need for the fully-fledged 365. It would be helpful to have an option for smaller packages that have a reduced licensing fee. 

I've been using this solution for four years. 

The solution is stable. 

The solution is scalable. 

The company hasn't needed technical support but we contacted them for one of our clients when they needed an upgrade. There were no issues. 

There are five people in the company using 365 and the initial setup was very straightforward.

We're very used to Microsoft products and they're part of our daily activities. I'm sure our usage will increase. 

I rate this solution nine out of 10.