Microsoft’s Office 365 not ready to leave beta, analyst says

Support forums illustrate numerous customer complaints about the beta of Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud service

At the same time, Microsoft did not deny that it requires PowerShell to import addresses into the Global Address List. PowerShell is also required to create shared mailboxes for email aliases — which, for example, would let any employee respond from a generic address, such as “sales@company.com.”

 

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We received no word from Microsoft on whether this will change once Office 365 exits beta.

Office 365 is getting some positive reviews. Network World reviewed the enterprise version of Office 365, with tester Mike Heck reporting, “Overall, Office 365 for enterprises’ Web-enabled tools let me access email, important documents, and efficiently collaborate with those inside — and outside — my test organization’s boundaries. This cloud service works handily with Microsoft’s desktop office application that workers may already use. Additionally, Office 365 gives enterprise IT departments control over policies and configuration — while delegating server maintenance and software upkeep to Microsoft.”

But any online service is bound to have problems, and the Office 365 help forums illustrate which issues are frustrating users. One user complains that while Office 365 lets you connect to up to five POP or IMAP email accounts, it only checks the extra accounts once an hour by default. Checking them manually requires a couple of steps.

“In this beta exchange environment you have to wait an hour before connected mail accounts will be checked. This is unacceptable,” the user wrote this week. “Will this change in the final version? If not, I will move on. For me, as a freelancer it is not [a] workable situation.”

Another user complained about calendar tasks not syncing properly with a Windows mobile phone, and others had trouble creating SharePoint sites.

Burns also complained about non-delivery of emails, coupled with a status dashboard that is less than informative. In a case where multiple people told him they received bounce-back emails while trying to contact him, the Office 365 dashboard insisted there were no problems at all.

“Office 365 can have problems on its side, and I’d like to be informed via an administration tool when that happens,” Burns says MCTS Online Training – MCITP Online Training.

Another nagging issue was configuring Office 365 to work with a website hosted by a non-Microsoft provider. Microsoft offers documentation on how to do this, but Burns says the process was full of snags and took many hours.

Burns temporarily had problems inviting people to Lync meetings via email, until that issue was fixed. He’s also struggled with importing Word documents into Office Web Apps while keeping the right format, even though Microsoft has loudly touted its ability to import documents and criticized Google Docs for its failure to do so.

Overall, though, Burns is impressed by Microsoft’s new cloud service. “I’m totally impressed with that price, and I’m really impressed that they’re letting people even just buy one seat per company,” he says.

But will the transition from beta to general availability go smoothly? We’ll find out soon.