Microsoft 365 Business Premium

Score8.8 out of 10

1,696 Reviews and Ratings

What is Microsoft 365 Business Premium?

An integrated solution, designed for small or medium-sized businesses, bringing together the productivity of Microsoft Office with advanced security capabilities to help safeguard data from external threats and help protect against data leaks. With Microsoft 365 Business Premium, users can empower employees to be productive anywhere on any device. Get more done with AI built into the Office apps. Work better together with a hub for teamwork bringing your tools and people together in one place. Build a better business with tools to engage customers and optimize your business processes and operations.

Beyond applications available in Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), Microsoft 365 Business Premium includes:

Microsoft Intune mobile device and operating system management.
Azure Information Protection - tool for protecting sensitive information
Microsoft Defender ATP to provide endpoint security
Azure AD Conditional Access
Windows Virtual Desktop to provide virtualized desktops and applications in the cloud

Categories & Use Cases

Lawrence Fondrick View profile

Sr. Consultant in Information Technology at VP of IT, LLC (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I usually use it for managing email communications and presentations. The filtering and folders inside Outlook allow quick decisions on priorities and the junk filtering seems to work fairly well (way to much junk e-mail in this world). The capability of scheduling meetings and instant messaging within the product (Microsoft Teams) keeps everyone visible for a more timely response when issues come up. The ability to insert various objects directly in the email also minimizes idea transfers and workflow processes have made it streamlined and trackable as the activity is delivered.

Pros

Filter out junk emails and viruses
Allow secure communications with Microsoft Store add-ons
Allow multiple email addresses to be delivered in a single sign on interface
Sync with other platforms (Androids and Mac)

Cons

Better message backup and archiving
Quiet time capabilities and filtered access groups
Better message recovery of erroneous emails
More AI integration between products

Return on Investment

Premium is expensive but worth it if justified for your company
A mix of Business standard and premium should always be considered
The right product for the right workload requirements should be the mantra.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Teams

Other Software Used

Microsoft Project, Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Access

Bryan Grant View profile

Head of Product & Portfolio Management in Product Management at Loyalty Information Technologies Inc (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are a Microsoft-centric organization and use the full suite of Office 365 products (word, excel, ppt, SharePoint, etc) on a daily basis. With the integrated Microsoft login, gives us mobility and secure access wherever we're working and on whatever device we have. This has allowed for transparent collaboration on pitch decks, financial and product analysis, through to everyday communication with outlook and teams.

Pros

Simple collaboration
Secure access
Web and local-install instance

Cons

Mac versus windows issues on installed versions
Powerpoint is old school and clunky
License cost for add-on products like project was for a fixed term (1 year) so was costly to commit

Return on Investment

Quicker analysis for decision making using excel collaboration
Consistent pitch deck look and feel with powerpoint templates
Reuse of content across documents and pitches to avoid rework

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Canva, Pitch and Google Workspace

Other Software Used

Microsoft Visual Studio Code, Atlassian Jira, Stripe Payments

Raj Rai

Financial Controller in Finance and Accounting at Innovative Freeze Dried Food (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Microsoft 365 Business Premium in all aspects of our business. From sharing and collaborating on files on our shared OneDrive, to communication on teams, to creating PowerPoints and using Microsoft Outlook for our emails. I would say we use almost every aspect of Microsoft 365 Business Premium. It has definitely helped us elevate to new heights in terms of business.

Pros

Communication Via Microsoft Teams
Email Ease with Outlook
Excel Spreadsheets

Cons

Teams could be easier to navigate
incorporating AI into the microsoft apps
more personalization on emails

Usability

Verified User

Manager in Finance and Accounting (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Microsoft 365 Business Premium helps us with a multitude of aspects for our organization. It is our primary method of communications. We use it for our organizational email accounts where we communicate internally and with donors, vendors, partners, and information requests. We use the OneDrive for cloud-based storage options, which provides the capability of sharing documents and working simultaneously or separately. We use the various software applications throughout the organization to help us run easier and more smoothly, streamlining our small team's efforts to maximize our work.

Pros

Email communications
Easy invoicing
User management
Software capabilities
Sharing documents
Cloud-based storage

Cons

Downtimes happen frequently
Server connection issues
Administrative console

Return on Investment

Much needed cost-savings for our nonprofit
Easy access for remote-based team
Easy sharing capabilities
Large catalog of included apps
Large OneDrive storage capacity
Easy Administration Portal

Usability

Other Software Used

Bonterra Network for Good, QuickBooks Online, Gusto, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Excel, Skype (discontinued), Adobe Acrobat, Google Chrome, Meta Business Suite, Canva, monday.com

Verified User

Director in Information Technology (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our company faced multiple challenges with the inability to share documents and the inadequacy of our email provider. Microsoft 365 Business Premium enabled us to address those issues successfully and to save money. An added bonus was the ability to consolidate our meetings and conference calls on Teams rather than using disparate platforms.

Pros

ability to collaborate on shared documents in near real-time
ability to get emails across multiple devices and to share calendars
consolidate collaboration on the Teams platform
ability to use microsoft Office online from any device

Cons

adding calendar invitations is not straight forward
copying folders from SharePoint libraries to an external drive should not be relying on the available space on the C drive
administering mailboxes for our company is convoluted forcing me to hunt for settings and options
lack of flexibility on the location of the OST and PST files
the new version should not do away with PST files but rather improve their reliability.
the PST internal structure is inefficient. the PST file should be able to shrink automatically when one delete emails.

Return on Investment

ability to consolidate tools around the Microsoft 365 Business Premium platform, including emails, collaboration and video conferencing
time saving on administration tasks
time savings on collaboration in near real-time

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Google Drive, Google Sheets, Google Calendar and Google Meet

Other Software Used

Barracuda Backup, Barracuda Email Protection, Atlassian Jira, TeamViewer

Slack

SysTools Cloud Backup Tools

Microsoft 365 Business Premium

What is Microsoft 365 Business Premium?

Categories & Use Cases

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