Item: Microsoft Powerpoint
Rating: 10
Author: David Seidner

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Powerpoint is used across our entire organization for presentations. It's the perfect tool for communicating ideas to a wide audience. It's used for end user training, pitching ideas to executives, pitching our products to potential customers and other applications. It's the preferred presentation tool at every company I've worked for. My kids also use it for school presentations.

Pros and Cons

It's the gold standard. No need to relearn a new presentation tool. Powerpoint is used widely.
Transitions, styles, backgrounds and media gives each presentation a professional and eye-catching look that keeps your audience engaged.
Having notes for each slide only visible on your laptop while the presentation is on the big screen is very helpful for keeping the presentation on track.

I truly cannot think of any cons. Presentations are as simple or robust as you want them to be. PowerPoint walks users through the more advanced options. It's really quite perfect.

Most Important Features

It's tough to pin down specific important features. The entire package is great and equally important, IMO. Do all presentations need fancy graphics and transitions? No. But they enhance the experience for presenter and audience alike and all features are very easy to use.
PowerPoint does one thing very well. PowerPoint makes it easy to create and deliver an informative and engaging presentation. Full stop.

Return on Investment

PowerPoint has had positive ROI. The ideas presented and conveyed on a daily basis across our organization for a number of different reasons wouldn't occur as effectively or efficiently without PowerPoint, or a tool like it.
One example would be when I used PowerPoint to pitch an idea to executives which led to us adopting a server monitoring system we were already paying for, but not utilizing. Adopting this tool saved our organization time and money, allowing for proactive solutions for common issues that wouldn't have been easily identified. The presentation was very successful, the execs were impressed with what was presented to them. I'm typically not comfortable presenting in front of a group of people, but PowerPoint made it easy. As a presenter, I could stay focused and on track as I was sidelined with questions from the execs. Without the aid of PowerPoint, I'm not sure that the presentation would have gone as smoothly.

Key Insights

Do you think Microsoft Powerpoint delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Microsoft Powerpoint's feature set?

Yes

Did Microsoft Powerpoint live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Microsoft Powerpoint go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Microsoft Powerpoint again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

PowerPoint is suited well for any business or educators that want to convey something to an audience. Whether the audience is large or small, whether this is a sales pitch, a training session, a stakeholder update or just conveying new ideas, PowerPoint helps keep the audience engaged and the presenter focused and on topic. It's truly an ingenious tool.

PowerPoint has saved my hide on more than one occasion. It's truly a life saver.

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Powerpoint