Our current use cases for Office 365 include using it as our email handler as well as for MDM, and we also have offline office which is very important for doing our regular work such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and all. We get help from the E5 plan and we are using MDM for more than 50 people in our team. This is because there was an incident where a data breach occurred in our organization. After that, we decided we should implement the MDM solution to protect personally owned devices. After implementing MDM, we are now secure enough to prevent leakage of our organization data.
Office LTSC Professional Plus 2021
Amazon Web Services | MS Windows Server 2025 25.05.06Windows, Windows Server 2025 Windows Server 2025 - 64-bit Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
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Implementation enhances organizational security and collaboration through versatile feature set
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature or capability of Office 365 that I found is the legal hold feature, which is excellent for customers to maintain regulatory compliance. Deleting data is a common occurrence; people can delete their data from their device, and it will be moved to the recycle bin for a certain period of time. After the email is deleted, we found that if legal hold is enabled for a particular user, Microsoft offers unlimited archival, meaning any email that comes to that email ID will be stored, and we can easily use the E-Discovery feature to check the emails, their history, and export them in a PST file, which is very beneficial for customers during audits.
Overall, Office 365 brings organization efficiency, as these tools are very helpful for every organization to maintain their records, organization data, compliance, and collaborations. Everything that is basically required by an organization is already taken care of in the Office 365 products.
What needs improvement?
The areas of Office 365 that need improvement include the organization sharing option in Teams, which we found to be limited. If the organization does not enable it, we cannot get the IM details in Teams. If Microsoft can make it more reliable similar to social media - for example, if I am dealing with customers and I already had a meeting with them in Teams previously, the customer account should be visible to me along with their current status, such as busy, away, or available.
It would be easier for us to communicate with our customers or colleagues because it works within the organization. I am specifically referring to cross-functional connectivity for other organizations that we work with.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Office 365 for almost two and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of this solution is very high, and I would rate it a full 10. I have been using it for the last three years and have not faced any issues during this time, leading to 100% uptime.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability of this solution as nine out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
I rate the technical support for Office 365 at about four to five out of 10 maximum. The support center is in China, and making them understand our issue is a hectic challenge. Every time we log a ticket, a new agent comes, and we have to describe the problem again. It is common that when the shift changes, the new staff does not have the case history, and we have to start explaining again. Customers expect quick solutions rather than reading KB articles.
With tools such as ChatGPT allowing us to find the same KB within seconds, we question why we spend so much time waiting for responses from Microsoft support. I suggest improving regional support for India, making it easier for customers to connect. Additionally, when we log cases, the support should check known issues quickly and engage with us directly when addressing unknown issues rather than just sending us basic help articles.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Office 365 is easy. Though I don't have hands-on experience, I can share our thoughts. During implementation, it took very little time and was very easy. We did not face any issues. We found that email delivery, which was being held, got delivered after three or six hours. I would give it at least eight out of 10.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Regarding similar service providers available in the market, we used Zoho previously, and we found it to be a wonderful product. However, we are more comfortable with Microsoft's UI, which influenced our choice to move to Microsoft instead of using Zoho.
What other advice do I have?
The feature of Office 365 that has proven most beneficial for collaboration in my team is definitely Microsoft Teams. It is a commonly used platform throughout the organization, serving all our collaboration and instant messaging needs.
For the maintenance of Office 365, we only need one person.
Regarding pricing, I would give Office 365 an eight. It is pretty expensive.
The licensing is complicated because when we ask for pricing, the Microsoft team presents 10 to 15 different plans with almost the same features but different prices. It is difficult for customers to differentiate, especially since we are dealing with specific use cases. We need the application for specific purposes, and Microsoft has 20 options. Customers generally tend to choose the least costly option, resulting in missing out on crucial features and needing to upgrade through the pricing tiers again. If Microsoft can simplify the licensing, it would be easier for customers to opt for their services.
Overall, I rate Office 365 eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Collaboration tools and AI integration support workflow efficiency
What is our primary use case?
Having the Copilot implemented recently in Office 365, Microsoft has some edge on that.
What is most valuable?
Having the Copilot implemented recently in Office 365, Microsoft has some edge on that.
Teams and SharePoint are the best features for my team's collaboration in Office 365.
The Copilot integration in Office 365 stands out by providing various different kinds of support to daily users utilizing AI help on other products.
What needs improvement?
To make it even better in the next release, they can improve the categorization and utilize AI help to suggest mail descriptions and everything to categorize mail in different ways, depending on the priorities of a user, and so on.
They still need to improve their email categorization, and their AI capabilities have room for improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have implemented Office 365, and it has been already a few months.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
We have not faced any issue with the integration of Office 365.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is already implemented and being used.
What other advice do I have?
I am generally satisfied with my current solution.
I rate Office 365 eight out of ten.
I have another call and meeting in five minutes.
Integration and collaboration improve efficiency but interface and customization need enhancements
What is our primary use case?
I'm an IT consultant, so I work across the board with various industries including retail, healthcare, and military government. There is really no specific target area, and right now I have a big Power BI project with a large retail store helping them with some of the Power BI reports.
What is most valuable?
For me, the most valuable features in Office 365 are the integration between all of the various apps and how you can still communicate even without third-party apps. The integration of tools such as Power Automate with SAP or Salesforce, and the connectivity coming out of Teams based on requests is my biggest takeaway; I really appreciate that Office 365 is cloud-based.
SharePoint, which is my bread and butter, integrates seamlessly with Teams to enhance project management. I started with building out SharePoint sites and having them connect with Teams to offer a user-friendly experience for those less comfortable with SharePoint. SharePoint serves as the backbone for Teams, storing all their content and capitalizing on workflow pieces; I enjoy working with Teams and SharePoint.
SharePoint acts as a glorified portal with extensive integration options not only between Office 365 apps but also third-party applications. For instance, building a Power App linked to a SharePoint list is quick and easy without needing a SQL database, resulting in tremendous cost savings as well.
What needs improvement?
Currently, I recommend that the focus remains on improving Teams since its interface still lacks certain features when compared to Skype, which has been retired. Chat-switching can be a bit challenging. While I enjoy that Teams serves small to large groups and integrates well with other Office 365 products, the user interface is where I see the most room for improvement.
On the SharePoint side, allowing more customization options would greatly enhance functionality; simpler out-of-the-box versions are fine for some scenarios, but customizing SharePoint can be super challenging with newer Office 365 versions compared to previous on-prem ones.
How are customer service and support?
We are typically Microsoft consultants because people usually come to us for assistance. I find that tier one support is somewhat lacking, often focusing on what's in front of them without considering the bigger picture. If I had to rate it on a scale of one to ten, with one being the lowest and ten the highest, I would give tier one a score of six and a half, whereas I would rate tier two and three higher, around eight or nine. Sometimes tier one can even drop to threes or fours, depending on who you reach that day.
The overall rating would be seven and a half.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What was our ROI?
The return on investment with Office 365 is pretty good; it's usually positive when I look at continued usage. I've been involved with this for more than a year without it becoming stagnant, unlike some Salesforce work that has come and gone. Since my company focuses on Microsoft products, the same products keep coming up repeatedly, indicating ongoing assistance is required.
We are also shifting toward big data solutions and A.I.-generated everything, so I'm trying to redirect my focus beyond just being an Office 365 expert, considering how A.I. can improve Office 365.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing for Office 365 nowadays could be better. While they have some decent offers, they're more beneficial for larger clients. For smaller companies just getting started, I believe they should offer more affordable packages, but it is what it is.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I am familiar with competitors of Office 365, such as various content management systems that often provide poor security. I find that many can be quite challenging to navigate, and systems such as Drupal are complicated and often limited to on-prem setups, even though there are cloud-based solutions. Office 365 is the most mature option, and if I were to recommend a solution, it would be the easiest for clients to get started with.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Office 365 to others primarily for larger companies. For smaller companies, I would ensure that they have the available budget first before making a recommendation, as cost is the primary limitation.
I have not yet played with Microsoft Security Copilot or Copilot for security. I am currently dealing with Copilot as I'm working on a demo today to build my own chatbot. I want to showcase the ease of building it and discuss the associated pains and struggles while also demonstrating to the group why we should use Copilot and where we should go next.
This is just the Copilot Studio accessed via office.com under Power Apps; I did not go through GitHub. I deal a lot with Gemini and use ChatGPT frequently. I consider ChatGPT my extra voice of support for inquiries, but I trust but verify what it provides, as I have encountered incorrect information from it several times.
On a scale of one to ten, I rate Office 365 an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Daily routines streamline with enhanced communication tools
What is our primary use case?
My most common use case involves starting my day with Office 365, specifically with Outlook and Microsoft Teams. Teams is very good, and I am trying to get used to the new user interface because it changed a bit, but I spend a lot of time in Teams and, of course, also in Outlook. I also use Microsoft Loop for structuring and organizing meetings that I have with my colleagues. It's a very handy way of keeping the information without being over-structured, and I use Loop because I prefer to note something down instead of just saying 'Oh, I will remember this' and not writing it anywhere. Rather than using a very complex, huge application that needs time to open and has a very big structure, Loop is something in between, and I find it a very useful tool that I also use on a daily basis. If I would have to pick three, they would be Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and Loop.
What is most valuable?
In terms of advanced features, those are things that we usually do with Power Platform. We try to avoid building super complex Excel templates when we can use another more suitable tool or build a Power App for that.
What I appreciate in the Office 365 world is having Copilot as an assistant that can help automate many things. For example, if you need to translate something and want to ensure the translation looks professional and has a specific tone—formal, informal, friendly—then you can use Copilot for that or get a first idea and then edit the result. It helps to summarize meetings in Microsoft Teams and points out the most important key aspects discussed in the meeting.
If you have people who were not able to join the meeting, you can copy the summary and the next steps and send it to them. I find the extension with Copilot very good. One of my favorites is Copilot in Microsoft Outlook, which helps you find a meeting with people who have very busy calendars. I have a lot of appointments, and it's difficult to find a free slot. When I need help finding a slot that works for three or four colleagues with busy calendars, Copilot in Outlook helps with that.
What needs improvement?
In terms of improvements in Office 365, there might be things that need to be improved in many tools. I have some improvement suggestions for Copilot, but not the actual product itself, because I grew up with these tools. I did not know it differently. I had to use Outlook, and I learned how to do it, and now it's the default for me.
Sometimes there are simple bugs. For example, I create an appointment, and it disappears or is differently showcased in Microsoft Teams because Teams also has a meeting section as opposed to Outlook, but these are just temporary bugs. In general, these tools are very synchronized with each other.
What I would to be able to do is copy-paste meetings. If I want to send several blockers or potential meetings to the customer, I create the first one, and I want to be able to paste this first blocker on another day as blocker two, just paste and change the title. That's difficult to do. This is not something which works with Outlook yet.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Office 365 for 7 years.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Regarding whether I consider Office 365 a cost-effective solution, I would say that if in the normal packaging, using AI—which will become the norm and the default in the near future—costs extra in Outlook, it would be nice to have those integrated in the licensing and not have to pay extra for Copilot or extra AI features. AI should be an intuitive thing and a daily job, and perhaps Microsoft should find a way to make the model still financially beneficial for them without raising the price just because we have new features and AI capabilities.
What other advice do I have?
The name of the company is Orbis SE now. It's just the company change; the rest remains the same. On a scale of one to ten, I rate Office 365 an eight out of ten.
Valuable features and seamless integration enhance project management
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use it for document collaboration and team communications.
For example, we work with mid-sized companies in the tech sector.
What is most valuable?
The cloud storage and real-time collaboration features are incredibly valuable. The integration has definitely been beneficial to our project management.
It is beneficial that we also use Teams and SharePoint alongside Office 365 for better team collaboration.
What needs improvement?
The integration with third-party apps could be enhanced.
Streamlining the user interface would help.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have about five years of experience with it.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
The initial setup is generally straightforward.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate Microsoft's technical support an eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is generally straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
Usually, it involves a team of three to five people.
We usually require IT specialists and project managers during the deployment phase.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Office 365 provides a more integrated experience with a variety of productivity tools.
The seamless integration with tools such as Word and Excel sets it apart from other content collaboration platforms.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend that they take advantage of the trial period to see if it fits their needs.
I would give Office 365 an eight overall.
Facilitates collaboration and efficient workflows for data presentation
What is our primary use case?
I work in IT and I use Office 365 primarily for collecting and presenting information, but it is not the main tool for my job.
What is most valuable?
Office 365 is a stable product, and I find it very useful for collaboration, especially when I use Excel to elaborate data that I later use with Power BI. I extensively use SharePoint for workflows such as document approvals between departments and internal approvals.
What needs improvement?
It would be beneficial to have integrated analytics with SharePoint, allowing insight into workflow timelines and efficiency, such as identifying delays or fast completions for day-to-day operations.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used Office 365 for thirty years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
I have not faced significant issues with deployment.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have not faced any stability issues, such as downtimes, with Office 365.
How are customer service and support?
I have had limited experience contacting Microsoft support, but when I encountered an issue connecting to SharePoint, it took more than a day to resolve.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The setup is very quick. I recently changed laptops, and it was a matter of minutes to set up Office 365.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am not really involved in the pricing, but I perceive a good ratio between value and cost.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Office 365 eight out of ten. I suggest considering its benefits for collaboration and the potential value it provides compared to its cost.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Collaboration and real-time editing transform document management
What is our primary use case?
I use Office 365 primarily for analytics with Excel, document creation with Word, and managing emails with Outlook. I also use it for collaboration and real-time editing.
What is most valuable?
One of the main advantages of Office 365 is its widespread use, which makes it easier to collaborate on documents. It brings collaboration possibilities in real-time and offers time and money savings.
What needs improvement?
Sometimes Excel crashes unexpectedly when working with large datasets.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Office 365 since before it was called by that name.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Excel sometimes crashes when dealing with large datasets.
How are customer service and support?
On a couple of occasions I have contacted Microsoft support, and I was satisfied with their responses.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
Installing Office 365 directly on my machine takes about fifteen to twenty minutes, making it fairly easy to deploy.
What was our ROI?
Office 365 is costly, but there aren't many alternatives. It is considered cost-effective as it brings some benefits such as collaboration and time savings.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Office 365 eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Developing user guides and prototypes has become time-efficient through robust document creation features
What is our primary use case?
I primarily use Office 365 to develop user guides, prototypes, and set up documents.
What is most valuable?
Office 365 fulfills our basic requirements for developing documents and basic forms. It provides a lot of facilities and options, which are very helpful. I use it for document creation which saves a lot of time compared to other document creation tools.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see improvements in the Excel forms. The backend I wrote in Visual Basic could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Office 365 since I joined this organization in 2020. I work on the desktop version of Office.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I find Office 365 stable and have not experienced any stability or performance issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I mostly use Office 365 for personal or simple tasks, so scalability has not been an issue.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Office 365 on my personal PC was straightforward and user-friendly.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Office 365 an eight out of ten because it fulfills most of my requirements. I recommend it to others because it saves a lot of time, and one can manage data well with the options available in Microsoft Office.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Emails and teamwork have enhanced productivity through effective calendaring and collaboration
What is our primary use case?
Our main use case for Office 365 is its use for emails and Teams meetings. We have integrated our Active Directory, specifically through Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS).
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Office 365 for our team include email and Teams. We use calendaring, which plays an essential role in our productivity. Additionally, Microsoft Intune is a part of our usage, albeit it's not directly linked to Office 365. Another beneficial aspect is the integration of selectively using Copilot with Office 365.
What needs improvement?
I would suggest the inclusion of a data insights feature. In the past, there was a digest that provided insights into time distribution in emails and company mail, such as whom I communicate with most. There should be more relevant insights on the collaboration platform. It would be helpful to have an archive or a dashboard showing how much time is spent on collaborations or meetings.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Office 365 for more than five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have not faced any significant downtime. There was an outage about three years ago, but it was resolved quickly and was widely reported. Overall, Office 365 is pretty stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Office 365 is very scalable for our company. I would rate it ten out of ten for scalability.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used Gmail in a previous company, but now I am used to Microsoft tools and prefer them.
How was the initial setup?
I was not part of the initial setup process, but the onboarding and engagement process for new recruits has been smooth.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing is determined by our company's policy to align with Microsoft. Compared to other solutions, it may be perceived as expensive, though the decision was made at a corporate level.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have used Google tools before, specifically Gmail, in another company.
What other advice do I have?
Office 365 is a reliable and feature-rich platform. To fully benefit from it, users need to explore its various tools, which enhance productivity. It would be helpful to have a popup or widget providing training tips or news about features, like what used to appear for Windows products. I would rate the overall solution an 8 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Online collaboration improves coordination for educational tasks
What is our primary use case?
I use Office 365 for making documents and PowerPoints. This was primarily during my college days and continued after I graduated with my Master's. I am still in the education industry, so the use hasn't changed significantly.
What is most valuable?
The recent addition of having the online version of Microsoft Word is really good. It used to be not as effective, but now it closely resembles Google Docs. The connection with the sheets is also a valuable feature. Teams is really helpful because my university uses Microsoft Outlook. Integrating with Teams and coordinating with my team members is very useful.
What needs improvement?
Regarding improvement, in Microsoft Word, I suggest addressing the difference in page length between the offline and online versions. When I download and open a document on Windows, it may show as a one-page document. However, the spacing might differ online, and I often need to re-edit to ensure it appears as one page online.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used Office 365 for about seven to eight years, starting from my college days.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
There were no issues during the deployment. It is pretty straightforward.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution. It's the most efficient thing.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Office 365 is widely used, so it has good scalability.
How are customer service and support?
I have never tried to interact with customer service or technical support, so I have no idea about it.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used Google Docs and other Google applications back when I was in my home country. I am currently using Microsoft Office 365 because my peers are using the same.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is pretty straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing seems decent. I'm currently using a free version provided by my university. I am not familiar with the paid version cost, but the product seems good, and it’s okay to pay.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
For documentation purposes, I used Google Docs along with Microsoft Office. For spreadsheets, I had a different experience between Google Sheets and Excel. Google is slightly easier, while Excel offers better automation tools.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Office 365 to businesses, especially those using Outlook and Teams heavily. If they are using Outlook and Teams a lot, then they definitely have to have Office 365. I rate the overall solution an 8 out of 10.
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
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