Being a Microsoft partner when i saw they were giving MAPS subscribers their top of the line Office365 package I thought this would be great. I was met with several challenges right off the bat:
1.Setting up the account isn’t straightforward at all. In typical Microsoft fashion it’s a laborious, complicated process. I knew this going in as this is the Microsoft way.
2. Office365 calendars don’t work well with internet based calendars. I tried a couple and the propagation from hosted exchange to anywhere doesn’t work at all. I can put the internet calendar into outlook and it works..but OWA/Exchange it never propagates.
3. Office365 on mobile app only works on mobile devices with screens smaller than 4.5 inches.
4 . Here’s the showstopper. Exchange(at least in Office365 and maybe in on premises too) doesn’t support shared calendars on ANY mobile device…at least any device that’s not windows based. I don’t have any Windows mobile devices(very few do). Since all of my mobile devices are not Windows this is an absolute showstopper for me.
Problems 1 and 2 can be worked around. Problem 3 makes office 365 a total non-usage scenario for anyone with a non-Microsoft mobile device. I’m not willing to purchase additional software to make Office365 work with my mobile devices. Google just works. Something that Microsoft despite all their bluster can’t say.