Executive Considerations for Office 365 Adoption

• Office 365 offers simplified infrastructure management but comes with new costs for training, migration, and networking.
• The service offers high levels of data security and management features that can help comply with regulations, but customers are still legally liable and will face new types of threats.
• Microsoft’s continuous updating of the products and services can increase audit risk and may result in unplanned and unbudgeted IT projects.
• The array of subscription plans and purchasing options often cause organizations to overbuy and underestimate the full cost of Office 365.

(NOTE: An updated version of this report, discussing Microsoft 365 and the latest components and concerns, is available at “Executive Focus: Microsoft 365 Adoption, Expansion“.)

Office 365 is a line of desktop software and hosted services for document authoring and collaboration that can replace some on-premises software such as the Office suite and Exchange Server for e-mail. Most Microsoft customers adopt Office 365 because it can reduce costs of infrastructure management and help comply with security and regulatory requirements. However, executives should make sure that they understand hidden costs in areas such as migration and networking and provide time for their teams to study packaging and pricing so they do not waste money on services and software that they do not need or cannot deploy in a reasonable amount of time.