1. Home
  2. Office Suites Software
  3. Microsoft 365 Reviews
  4. User Review of Microsoft 365
A small business that needed to change
February 15, 2020

A small business that needed to change

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Microsoft Office 365 (Cloud)

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Office 365

Our organization wanted to consolidate our on-premise Exchange server and Office Suite. We moved the whole business to the cloud of Microsoft Office 365 a little over two years ago. This allowed us to reduce the ongoing costs of maintaining our own Exchange environment and would keep our Office software up to date through the subscription. It also simplified staff access to online Office resources when working outside the office.
  • We no longer need to maintain our own email environment. This helped with security by being kept up to date and protected by the Office 365 environment.
  • Access to online applications. The fact that users can log in from any computer and have access to Microsoft Office 365 applications online is terrific.
  • Creating email accounts that are integrated with our AD meant having to enter values that were automatic before manually.
  • The delay in synchronizing AD with Microsoft Office 365 caused some delays in rushing out new accounts at times.
  • Our needs changed recently, and we moved to the monthly subscription, which allowed us the flexibility of adding and removing licenses on month by month basis.
  • The yearly cost started a little higher than our previous method of hosted Exchange and traditional installations used for many years. But the upside is being current, access to cloud resources, and being more secure. In the end, though, we ended up downsizing, and being able to reduce licenses ended up saving us many in the long run.
We were looking to stay in the Microsoft Office 365 family, so it was either the cloud or a current desktop version. Ultimately the lower startup cost of refreshing all licenses at once, it was decided by the board to go with the new subscription-based Microsoft Office 365. At first, IT was opposed as we felt there was a better ROI from a traditional deployment, but we didn't know there were plans to downsize, shortly and it ended being the right thing for the business.
We have not used direct support for Microsoft Office 365, but they appear to have excellent and regular communications that keep users aware of changes that are coming or in the works. We used consultants to move our business to Office 365 initially, so we didn't have direct dealing with Microsoft. From experience (many years ago) with Microsoft support, I usually try to avoid contacting support until I have exhausted my other means of finding a resolution.

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?

Yes

Did implementation of Microsoft 365 go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Microsoft 365 again?

Yes

I think Microsoft Office 365 is a great and reliable product, but there are times when a traditional Office product would make more sense. Also, the ongoing cost of a subscription needs to be weighed over a flat purchase every few years. Besides the price and situational concerns, the product makes a lot of sense for many business users and is recommended.