Hard to go past 365 in a professional setting, but home users may want to weigh up options
November 09, 2021
Hard to go past 365 in a professional setting, but home users may want to weigh up options
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Microsoft Office 365 (Cloud)
Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365)
Microsoft 365 has been rolled out across the organisation for all users over the past 2-3 years. The organisation has migrated from Office 2016, so most users are already comfortable with the Microsoft/Office environment. Users here make full use of the suite, but primarily use Outlook, Word, and Excel. I have personally been enjoying the new version of OneNote, but have most enjoyed the new version of Excel with new formulae being available (XLOOKUP being my favourite). With almost all correspondence being sent through Outlook, it is hard to imagine a problem that Microsoft 365 does not address here.
- Sending emails and organising meetings through Outlook and integration with MS Teams.
- Basic to moderately complex data analysis through Excel. Running reports and dashboards pulling data from both SQL databases, CSV files and other excel sheets.
- Cloud integration for documents, automatically saving.
- Collaboration on files such as Excel could be better. Shared workbooks do not have the same level of collaboration as alternatives such as Google sheets.
- Outlook should allow mail merge to be sent from group mailboxes rather than the primary account.
- Easier control over alerts from Outlook would allow users with multiple mailboxes to manage their experience better - especially where they may want to quickly monitor one mailbox for a short period.
- Outlook is essential for organising the day-to-day operations of the organisation.
- Excel, and compatibility with years and years of older excel files, is a massive reason for using Office 365. Easy data analysis that most staff can perform is crucial.
- Mail merge with Word and sending from Outlook is a very useful feature.
- Organising meetings using Outlook and Teams has been crucial during Coronavirus lockdowns.
- We have organised peak training awards all through Microsoft 365. All virtual judging has been conducted through Teams and managed through Outlook calendars.
- With many other systems allowing for data exports to CSV, we are able to run our own analyses using excel rather than relying on in-built dashboards. This means we have been able to assess the performance of our podcasts, websites, apps, and more using the metrics that we are interested in.
- Setting up templates in Word and Powerpoint means we are very easily able to make professional-grade documents for public consumption
Microsoft 365 is in almost all cases the best option for office solutions in a professional environment. If there is a budget for software like this, I would generally recommend Microsoft Office. However, where your requirements for features are basic, you might enjoy free software instead. Microsoft 365 is a clear frontrunner for Excel and Outlook, and many users will enjoy OneNote as well particularly for its integration with the rest of the suite. If you are an Excel power user or need heavy usage of spreadsheets, it would be hard to look past Microsoft 365.
Do you think Microsoft 365 delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Microsoft 365's feature set?
Yes
Did Microsoft 365 live up to sales and marketing promises?
I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process
Did implementation of Microsoft 365 go as expected?
I wasn't involved with the implementation phase
Would you buy Microsoft 365 again?
Yes