Why does it seem like the reviews here are for 365 in general? The page header is for Teams, which I came here to review because it has only made me miss Skype in the workplace. So many reviews here for 365 are misleading! Teams is a product from 365 but I use it as a stand alone downloaded to my PC. I don't like it at all. It seems to be lacking in every way imaginable. Teams seems to be an unfinished design, released too early.
A rudimentary design in comparison to Skype. Teams is sparse and unattractive, it does not provide any new features over or beyond Skype, and it is not worth the money or the headaches. If you like ease of use, stay with Skype.
The search feature on Teams seems to be from the mid-90s, the emoticons to respond quickly has fewer reactions than Skype, Skype will log me in automatically once I have logged into Microsoft, but Teams does not log you in, leaving you to hope you remember the password...if somebody forgets their password, it could take a full day to get a new one in a work environment. Teams has been - at best- a frustrating annoyance
I like the way the apps interact with each other and the fact that they can be downloaded to my systems or used online. Having 1TB of cloud space in OneDrive simplifies things tremendously. Likewise, being able to download and use the apps on my Android phone ensures that when I need something, it is available.
Last year, I implemented Office365 for Education in the school where I serve as Director of IT. For all of my users, whether using Windows or IOS, the transition was nearly seamless. We also offer this to our students and teach them office productivity skills utilizing Office365 apps.
I prefer the web user interface for gmail over Microsoft Outlook. Nevertheless, Outlook provides most of the same features, just presented differently.
Extensive user collaboration suites as well as familiar interfaces across operating systems.
Most, if not all of their Office suite software available online with the option to install locally on your personal computer.
It's very convenient to have your cloud-based documents available anywhere you go.
If you have an internet connection and a web browser, you can get to work with your documents.
Constant improvements and rollouts are being made to the Office 365 experience, which continues to add value to your experience with the product.
There is constant improvement and change, and this can sometimes be concerning for certain products rolled out, as they will sometimes be retired, for reasons best known by the vendor.
However, staple products like Excel and Word won't be disappearing, this is more of a concern for newer/lesser-known products, and it is unlikely that they will remove products without notice.
Another side-effect of constant improvements is user interfaces may change or be completely overhauled
When this happens, previously available features may not be included in the newer interfaces, or may be rolled out at a later time. This can be frustrating for users who are used to a certain interface.
Office 365, the way our campus is licensed for Microsoft products, began as a free benefit to offer faculty and students, kudos to Microsoft.
Cloud-based storage for personal files makes it convenient to utilize Office 365 for home as well as work, while also providing cloud-based resiliency for files, instead of relying on multiple places to store files and software.
I like having all of my office apps connected and have the ability to share online documents that can be updated in real time without going back and forth with "version".
There is a glitch when it comes to having more than one user edit a document at once on the browser-based apps. For example, if a teammate and I are both editing a PowerPoint deck together, it becomes slow and sometimes deletes changes one of us is making.
If she were to open it in the semi-offline mode then my changes in the browser version would overwrite all updates she makes in the semi-offline mode. We have figured out these things over frustrating times, so by now we have workarounds, but I would love to see improvements in that area.
having a comprehensive solution to office management
O365 is the gold standard, right? Yes, there are other spreadsheet composition apps you can use but they're all compared to Excel. The measuring stick for how a word processor or document editor holds up is how similar it is to Word. PowerPoint is such an industry standard that people use it to describe a sequence of slides prepared for presentations even when the creator used a different piece of software. And so on.
Real talk - Cloud Tech Smart is principally an IT services provider for small businesses. Tier 1 help desk stuff is our bread and butter. So, if a client's Outlook is being weird or whatever, it's me who calls. Not them. And I have to say, Microsoft's customer support DOES eventually resolve every ticket I bring to them but they don't make it easy.
First they want to make sure I am who I say I am. Clarifying that the person who originally purchased the license has outsourced his IT department to us is insufficient - sometimes I have to log in to their admin portal and send an email as whatshisname to tech support to tell them to trust me.
After we get through all of that, the tech working on the issue insists on going back through the troubleshooting process starting from Step 1, no matter how much of that I've already done in the hope that I could resolve the issue without calling him in the first place.
Anyway. Like I said, I've never opened a ticket that couldn't be eventually closed with a desirable resolution.
But I do know one client in particular (a lawyer) who wanted to litigate over a problem that took literally days to fix, was ultimately Microsoft's fault, and the solution for which was to just delete and reinstall the software, which is what I wanted to do in the first place but was explicitly told not to by the tech who took my ticket. So there is that.
Office has always been one of my favourite apps.It is very easy to use and can do a powerful range of functions.
For a while it was eclipsed by Google Docs, by now Microsoft have updated it.
It now has all the features of Google Docs, plus all the features of Office, which makes it the ultimate office solution!
Very easy to use. Extensive training videos to show you how to do things.
Wide range of advance features such as table of contents, indexes, spreadsheet functions.
Can be used fully online and even has excellent collaboration tools to allow multiple people to work on it at once.
The online version is free of charge just like Google Docs.
Can sometimes crash but this is very rare. On the whole it is excellent. I can't think of any way to improve it.
Try out the free online version first. If you like it, then you can expand to the paid version.
Office 365 cloud hosting eliminates the need for a lot of on-premise maintenance that use to come with an Exchange server, and also mitigates the need for additional on-premise security to lock down an Exchange server.
The uptime has been near 100% (we have had 0 reports of it ever being down) and that has been the most notable improvement for our organization. The rules can all be set through the admin portal, and for the most part, are pretty simple to implement.
Some of the rules and SPAM filtering is limited in its functionality, and requires an Exchange server to provide these functions.
They are never anything you cannot live without, but it is a nuisance if you have a demanding organization who refuses to take no for an answer and does not want to shell out additional money for professional assistance and/or an onsite Exchange server.
The speed of the site leaves a lot to be desired, be prepared to wait to get into any portal through office and have to clear out your cache/history in order to get back in on occasion.
A lot of the functionality still requires Powershell commands to perform, such as recalling an email or setting explicit policy settings that are not available in the Admin portal.
Decreased downtime, decreased maintenance, increased security, decreased cost, and decreased risk associated with BCP (Business Continuity Plan.)
Office 365 is powerful, integrated and easy to use. There is an option to download programs to you computer and/or use in the cloud. The basic storage is fine for documents.
I chose this because of the experience with older versions and the ability to "pay as you go" on an annual basis rather than a large initial investment. Outlook is very powerful and keeps me in contact with clients/members. I can use Office 365 from any computer with a great secure feeling.
Some of the features take so getting used to. One Note is still on my "to do" list to learn more applications and uses. The online helps are adequate but sometimes I get better response for online forums. I will contiune to use and learn the application to work smarter and not harder.
Office 365 brings so many excellent features to "boring" productivity programs.
First, the syncing of files across machines, accounts, and cloud storage is brilliant. I can't believe we used to email files.
Second, the stability of programs is greatly improved. Office 365, as a subscription service, gives us constant updates, which is great for bug-fixes, feature improvements, and new capabilities.
Third, the integration into the Microsoft ecosystem is great. We already use Outlook and OneDrive, so now that we only have to pay a single price for all these services spiraled into one is great.
Fourth, look and feel. Office 365 looks so much better than it used to. Not only does our work look better, but on a daily basis we gripe much less than we used to about the ugly windows we stare at for hours.
Fifth and final, Office 365 is just so easy to manage. No more worries about compatibility issues after an upgrade. No more worries about onboarding new accounts, or even waiting for installation from the admin. It's just so easy now.
Office 365 has some glaring bugs that have just never been fixed. For example, if a file is synced to an off-site location (whether that be in the cloud, a network drive, etc), and the web connection gets interrupted or is not stable, there can be sync issues which lead to conflicting versions of the same file. This is an easy issue to avoid, but it has bitten us a few times.
Over all, the biggest con is just some ugly bugs that seem to endure.
Cheap, easy to manage, and capable office productivity software.
Launched in 2017, Microsoft decided it needed to jump in to the newly developing team collaboration market with their Office 365 addition of Teams. Similar to other options available, Microsoft Teams builds off of the idea of a persistent, cloud based work chat. However, different from all other options, Microsoft Teams specifically builds off of the Office 365 platform to bring together the entire Microsoft Office Suite of applications and solutions. Microsoft themselves bills Teams as an entirely new experience, one that brings together people, conversations and content while also bringing to the table the necessary tools that teams need - all wrapped up in the familiarity of Microsoft's Office applications.
Microsoft Teams is a different solution from others on the market, and from the grand-daddy Slack specifically. While Slack can work for almost any size, its strength in smaller teams especially those with developers, Microsoft Office has an immediate edge in the Enterprise market. With so many companies already invested in the Microsoft Office 365 environment, or even older Microsoft legacy apps, the familiarity and basis for adding Teams to their arsenal already exists. With its unique activity feed, chat ,teams, meeting and file sharing support, along with deep Skype and Office integration, Microsoft Teams stands as a unique option to expand on an already existing, widely used and robust platform of office solutions.
Microsoft Team's is unique in its pricing and plans in that Teams is not a standalone product, but rather an addon to the Office 365 subscription. Microsoft Teams is part of the entry level Business Essentials package, with email, video conferencing, teams and related tools as well as online Office access. However, for teams that want the entire Office 365 platform, there is the Business Premium plan that expands beyond just the essentials.
Office 365 Business Essentials
$5 per user/per month
Office 365 Business Premium
$12.50 per user/per month
While at its core Microsoft Teams aims to deliver a similar experience to other solutions in this market: that is a replacement for email, an easy way to connect with coworkers, stay on top of projects, and ultimately cross tasks off your to-do list. How each platform enables teams to complete work will differ on factors like the features and tools available, the ability and availability to integrate and customize with other tools, and the overall ease of use. Microsoft Teams manages to hit all of these points, in a way that hasn't been done before quite the same way just yet - and the real trick of Microsoft Team's sleeve is the platform from which it was able to grow.
Built from the ground up off of the Microsoft Office platform, specifically the subscription and cloud based Office 365 solution, Teams works directly and very closely with the existing Microsoft Office solutions that are so incredibly in offices, schools and even homes. In fact, Teams is only available to companies utilizing Microsoft Office 365, and is built into that subscription model. The power of Teams becomes most obvious when fully invested into the entire Microsoft ecosystem. Teams expands beyond the idea of simple, yet consistent, messaging with occasional file sharing or a video call.
In fact, Microsoft Teams allows users to easily share Word or Excel files to be edited directly within Microsoft Teams, or even allow users to sync up their Outlook inbox and Calendar for quick access to all your important information. With the combination of an activity feed, similar to a Facebook news feed, and both private one on one chats, team spaces, and specific meeting spaces, Microsoft Team's makes it easy to stay on top of not only your coworkers and their projects, but your own projects and files as well - all while enabling deep collaboration on your resources directly in the same exact app. Oh and don't forget deep Skype integration for video and audio calls, along with the other multitude of available integrations
Microsoft Teams is aiming a bit higher than other options on the market, focusing mostly on the Enterprise end of the spectrum. The combination of the already loved Office 365 suite of solutions, and the in depth collaboration and communication provided by Microsoft Teams, is an incredibly capable combination that will empower users to get more done, quicker.
