Item: Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Microsoft 365 Business Premium has been adopted organization wide as our solution for many different applications. This includes typical Email and instant message features, but also through SharePoint integration allowing us to be able to aptly organize an Intranet that is shared across the organization through Microsoft forms and flows, document repositories, etc. The added features of Microsoft InTune and Azure Information Protection – which are not available in lower level M365 products tiers have created a solid foundation for IT asset management and control that compare nicely with other more known end-point management tools that are not as easily integrated into one platform solution.

Pros and Cons

End-Point Management
Active Directory Management through Azure
Organizational Communication Integration

Softphone/Teams Integrations
Account Management
Administrative Back-End

Most Important Features

InTune - Device Management
Cloud-Hosted Applications (Exchange, SharePoint, etc.)
Azure Active Directory

Return on Investment

Positive Scalability
Cloud Resources; More Remote Possibilities
InTune Device Management

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) and Google Workspace (formerly G Suite)

Before migrating to Microsoft 365 Business Premium, we possessed an in-house exchange server. Therefore, it was difficult for us to look at alternatives to Microsoft for a solution – we did look at the Google Suite of products, but the transition for us seemed less cumbersome to stay with Microsoft from a staff and administrative perspective. While the G Suite does offer us many outstanding products and services, we also didn’t feel that Gmail is up-to-par as a corporate solution the way Exchange/Outlook/OWA are – this alone was also a driving force for our end-users, as there was minimal transition for them to move from an on-premise solution to an off-premise solution. The additional features of SharePoint, Teams, Project, and so many other applications within Microsoft 365 also helped us make a strong case to stay with Microsoft and expand what we were using. The end-user and mobile protections of InTune have also put us at ease when issuing laptops and mobile phones to an almost fully-remote end-user base.

Key Insights

Do you think Microsoft 365 Business Premium delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Microsoft 365 Business Premium's feature set?

Yes

Did Microsoft 365 Business Premium live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Microsoft 365 Business Premium go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Microsoft 365 Business Premium again?

Yes

Other Software Used

AppRiver, from Zix, Mimecast Secure Email Gateway, Vonage Business Communications, Zendesk Sell (formerly Base CRM)

Likelihood to Recommend

Whether you are looking for a lower-tier of the Microsoft 365 suite, or want to move into the Business Premium collection, I would strongly recommend it to other colleagues in the field. First and foremost, the cloud management of the Email operation alone is an ideal move in the right direction as it is a cost-effective means to manage Microsoft Exchange. The same cane be said for features such as Azure and Active Directory. Additionally, when you move yourself into the higher tiers, you get a product like InTune which is used for end-point management which helps implement a very thorough mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM) policy.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium Delivers Needed Results and More

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft 365 Business Premium