Microsoft Office 365: First Impressions

Here at TechMinds we've been ardent supporters of Google Apps for the last couple of years. It's cheap, efficient, and quick to set up. Office 365 is the next evolution of Microsoft BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite). It's supposed to be Redmond, Washington's answer to Google Apps and we've been using it since it entered open beta last month.

What we like:

Familiar Outlook interface. One of the things we dislike the most about GMail is the limited view of your messages. In Office 365 you can resize the columns for your folders, your list of messages, and the preview window. 

Sharepoint. While the small business version of Office 365 doesn't yet work with Windows Phone, we expect it to upon release to the public. The easy access to Office Web Apps from Sharepoint is a nice touch, and because this is Microsoft you don't have any formatting issues to worry about. However, we still prefer Google Docs with Google Cloud Connect for its simplicity and ability to sync documents regardless of where they're stored locally.

What we don't like:

Forced website bundling. In the small business version of Office 365 your company cannot keep the website you already have. This is ridiculous. We understand it was done to make deployment simple, but there should really be an option to go the complex route and keep the website you've spent time and money on. This "feature" is a deal-breaker for all but brand-new businesses.

Sharepoint. I know, how can this be both something we like and something we don't? Easy. The potential for easy document collaboration makes this one of the most powerful tools a business can use. However, in its current implementation it's lacking good mobile access, and can't match Google Cloud Connect's file syncing feature. In its current form Sharepoint online is cludgy, slow, and not very pleasant to use.

Pricing. While the "official" prices for Office 365 have yet to be set in stone the word from Microsoft is to expect slightly more than Google Apps. While the difference between the $50 per user (yearly) Google charges and the potential $75 from Microsoft isn't all that different in the end, Office 365 is a tough sell as the more expensive of the two.

 

While we really liked the ease of setup, robust and simple administrative controls, and user interface of Office 365 the staff here at TechMinds just can't recommend it in its current form. We hope that criticism from around the Internet will be heard in Redmond, because it'll only take a handful of changes to make this online productivity suite a true competitor to Google Apps.