TrustRadius Insights for Microsoft Exchange are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.
Pros
Ease of Access: Users have appreciated the easy access to Outlook administration tools within Microsoft Exchange, finding it convenient for managing their email and calendar efficiently. This quick accessibility has allowed users to streamline their tasks and stay organized with ease.
Collaboration Features: Many users value the shared contacts and calendars feature in Microsoft Exchange, as it promotes collaboration and coordination among team members within organizations. This collaborative aspect has improved communication channels and enhanced teamwork efficiency.
Reliable Uptime: The robust uptime of Microsoft Exchange products, including Outlook and OneDrive, is praised by users for being reliable and beneficial to their workflow. This consistent performance ensures that users can rely on these tools without disruptions, resulting in increased productivity levels.
Microsoft Exchange is still the primary communication method inside our organization for internal and external communications. It is email, calendar and does pretty much any other groupware task we would need. It is easy to use and integrate fantastically to the rest of the Microsoft suite of products. It addresses communication across all devices.
Pros
Email
Calendar
Task Management
Cons
UI
New Outlook need parity
Better Teams tie in
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft Exchange is well suited for external and internal email communications. Ideally, more for external communications. The experience has been very much satisfactory.
Microsoft Exchange as a unified communications platform could use much work, and while it has mostly been phased out for MS Teams today, it should fully point to Teams going forward.
VU
Verified User
Director in Information Technology (Non-profit Organization Management company, 51-200 employees)
I have used Microsoft Exchange for many years in numerous organizations. In an ever-changing business landscape and in an incredibly crowded field, Microsoft Exchange has consistently delivered, especially for remote employees. During long periods of remote work (especially at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic) Microsoft Exchange ensured that our calendars, emails, and documents were shared seamlessly. This was especially useful when collaborating on projects.
Pros
Ease of use- it has been a stalwart in business communities
Reliability- I have yet to experience any server outages or data breach concerns
User Interface- Microsoft Exchange products are incredibly intuitive
Cons
High Expense- Initial cost of the on-site server and licensing fees can be burdensome for small businesses
Better protection against data loss
More on-site support from technicians when needed
Likelihood to Recommend
For businesses with experienced on-site administrators that want ultimate control of their data, Microsoft Exchange is a no-brainer. For those with smaller office sizes or cost limitations, it can be a little pricey especially when you consider licensing fees. So many of the cloud-based major players make the reduced cost very attractive.
VU
Verified User
Director (Non-Profit Organization Management company, 11-50 employees)
Everyone in our organization has an email account with our on-premise Exchange setup. This is our primary system of communication internally and externally. We also utilize multiple public calendars to manage meeting and event times for our conference rooms. Most employees setup their email account on their mobile devices so they can stay up to date with the constantly changing schedule.
Pros
Almost everyone, whether in a small non-profit or fortune 500 company, is familiar with Microsoft products. Having an Exchange server that 'just works' with their Outlook desktop program and mobile devices is a huge time saver for any organization.
The calendar function is extremely useful. Shared and public calendars make it easy to schedule meetings and confirm availability. Being able to attach documents to calendar events is a plus as well.
The ECP GUI is admin friendly and allows our junior IT staff to assist with account creation and other basic tasks.
Cons
Better built-in spam filters/protection. It would be nice to not have to immediately purchase a spam filter appliance or pay several dollars per mailbox to cut down on spam. This may be a pipe dream since Microsoft is all but dragging people from on-premise to O365.
No way to disable ECP from being exposed to the outside. It would be nice, for security purposes, to be able to just have it accessible from the LAN.
CAL licensing can be a pain to manage and keep track of.
Likelihood to Recommend
Any large organization with a dedicated IT staff can save money by having an on-premise Exchange server rather than paying a monthly fee per mailbox every month. Also, any organization that uses Outlook for the desktop email clients will enjoy the ease of setup and use. Non-Profits also have the benefit of reduced software licensing costs for Windows Server and Exchange Server but this is now a moot point with up 300 free mailboxes in O365 for qualifying non-profits. Any small startup that doesn't have the capital to invest in servers, licenses and other costs would not be well served by Exchange. Any organization, whether small or large, will need IT services, either an MSP or dedicated staff, to manage Exchange. If you do not have the staff then Exchange is not for you.
VU
Verified User
Employee in Information Technology (Non-Profit Organization Management company, 51-200 employees)