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Filling the Gaps in Office 365

Filling the Gaps in Office 365 THE MOVE TO OFFICE 365 Microsoft’s success with Office 365 is undeniable: in April 2017, the company reached the 100 million-user milestone for Office 365 and will likely reach about 120 million users by the end of 20171. Our own research, as shown in Figure 1, clearly demonstrates growth in the adoption of Office 365, as well as the significant shift that is occurring away from on-premises Exchange. Interestingly, however, among organizations that are migrating, will migrate, or have already migrated to Office 365, about two-thirds will not migrate completely to Office 365, but will continue to use other platforms, as shown in Figure 2. Figure 1 Users by Email Platform, 2016 and 2018 Source: Osterman Research, Inc. Figure 2 Plans for Use of Email Platforms Once Office 365 is Fully Deployed Source: Osterman Research, Inc. 1 https://www.petri.com/office-365-hits-100-million-users ©2017 Osterman Research, Inc. 2 Filling the Gaps in Office 365 Our research discovered that organizations moving to Office 365 are focused on a wide range of Office 365 solutions and capabilities, but the features and capabilities that are most important are email, security, multi-factor authentication, archiving, and telephony/real-time communications, as shown in Figure 3. Figure 3 Importance of Various Office 365 Solutions and Capabilities Source: Osterman Research, Inc. Given that one of the benefits of migrating to Office 365 or any other cloud-based platform is the potentially lower cost of ownership for cloud services, one of the key issues that decision makers must address is how best to drive down its cost. For Office 365, a key issue then becomes the means by which to minimize the costs of ownership: • Treat Office 365 as a “one-stop-shop”, employing more expensive plans with all of the features and functions that users require, or • Use less expensive plans and supplement the missing capabilities with third-party offerings. Our research discovered that organizations…are focused on a wide range of Office 365 solutions and capabilities. While Osterman Research recommends the latter approach, as will be clear after reading this white paper, much of the market for Office 365 is still not sure which approach to take. As shown in Figure 4, 22 percent of organizations plan to use less expensive Office 365 plans and supplement the native capabilities with third-party solutions, 37 percent will use high-end plans, but 41 percent simply are not sure. It is important to note that even the “one-stop-shop” approach to Office 365 really won’t work for organizations of medium or greater complexity, since virtually no complex cloud-based or on-premises platform is optimal without the addition of third party capabilities. ©2017 Osterman Research, Inc. 3

Filling the Gaps in Office 365

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