Microsoft

wow..where to begin....i have to commend microsoft doing a good job for ensuring backwards compatibility in general with old software and files. considering i have been able to still to this day run software on a new windows machine with some program from like 1992, its quite amazing how much they have committed to this for their customers (one thing that apple lacks, but the next 5 years, i'm sure many apple customers will start to see this issue come to fruition if not a little of it occurring now already). it is a big anchor in a lot of ways, but for engineering applications, there are just somethings that are that old you still have no choice but to use for various reasons and circumstances.
unfortuantely for microsoft, many decisions during ballmer's tenure really screwed this company up 1) dropping the ball on windows mobile phones when they were the only player in the game (yes i had a windows mobile phone before all this, and it was a bear to use, but still, it was the only smart phone in the game and i was able to get what i needed out of it) 2) windows 8, wtf is this cluster POS 3) music services (so much good stuff here they did that paved the way in what you see with spotify, etc, unfortunately execution was horrendous)
oh well, their era is gone. just like dinosaurs disappeared, and most likely humans one day, a new generation of ideas will fill the void

Strengths: Compatibility, everyone generally uses some form of their product

Needs to improve: steve ballmer

Our experience with Microsoft has been a positive experience. Their products have been stable in our workplace and very rarely need any assistance from support. Microsoft's hardware such as the surface has been utilized mostly by our salespeople and they are extremely happy with the tablet. Overall, we will continue to use all Microsoft products as long as we have PC's.

Strengths: Our company can be considered a "Microsoft" shop. We utilize Microsoft products such as their operating systems, software applications such as office visual studio and visio, and hardware such as the Microsoft Surface. Microsoft operating systems are some of the most dependable operating systems out there. Sure there's OSX and Linux, but most people are going to know Windows and know how to use Office.

Needs to improve: Prices of Microsoft products will cost your company a pretty penny. Of course you pay a premium price for a premium product.

Our company purchased the newest MS Office with a download link, but also chose to have the disks sent to us. We had to wait a while for the disks. It wasn't that big of a deal, since we had already downloaded and installed the software, but worth mentioning. Otherwise, Microsoft customer service has always excelled in the past.

Strengths: Microsoft is a tried-and-true product. Each new version of Office released is better than the last (after all of the glitches are worked out, of course). It can be used by those with little or no computer skills and has the tools to create advanced documents and databases. Many of our employees install MS Office and prefer Microsoft software even on their Apple machines.

Needs to improve: Not as simple as some of the other programs, the newest release seems a lot less intuitive than the last.

Lots of room to improve their customer service support. I have not talk to any of their product sales rep, so not sure about how their customer service on that end.

Strengths: Clearly Microsoft software has their ups and downs, but I have been using Microsoft OS\server and Office since the early days. I maybe used to the product, but the ease of use and the online resource for any issue is everywhere.

Needs to improve: The only weakness I found out with Microsoft is their customer service. They have tons of channels\dept\experts on every software. So if you happen to have a complex issue you might be going in rounds on every department until you find the right support. Kind of ridiculous actually.

I don't think I've ever directly spoken to Microsoft customer service - generally, I refer problems to our IT department. I know there are web resources for Microsoft help, which I generally appreciate.

Strengths: My company has always used Microsoft based systems - they are an industry leader for a reason. Our IT department always does a lot of research, and Microsoft always seems to come out on top - for not crashing, for potential infection and virus issues, etc.

Needs to improve: The help function can be annoying and difficult to use. The basic functions of all Microsoft programs are done well - it's instincitive and easy to teach yourself. But anything complicated can drive you nuts!

My office uses all micosoft computers, its reliable and gets all the job done fast. I have had only one in issue in my office, called the customer service line and they walked me through in a easy way to follow. Microsoft really cares about their customers and making them happy. I would recommend any office to use microsoft computers. Very happy with my purchase.

Strengths: Very easy to use, fast to learn. Reliable company, has been around for years. Can always order in big quanites for discounted prices.

Needs to improve: The updates can get pretty annoying at times. It takes long and it seems like our office has a new update every month.

I seriously do not know how I could manage my business without Microsoft. All the computers at our office are ran through Microsoft. They are a reliable software and it is easy for anyone to learn how to use it.

Strengths: The strength Microsoft offers for my business is all the features it has. From word to excel I know that I can rely on my team of employees to get everything finished on time with Microsoft.

Needs to improve: The price to purchase Microsoft is rather on the expensive side, the plus side is it can be ran on multiple computers.

We contracted 20 hours of service from the field product specialists group last year and will most likely do so again this year to work on our Sharepoint document library customization. They gave us an extra 10 hours of service as a show of good faith. Very nice!

Strengths: provides professional services and quality software.
Sharepoint server for document control is the industry standard.
24/7 support.

Needs to improve: Their licensing structure is very complicated. There are CAL, server licenses, OS licenses, and then different structure for different flavor of the same version. The licensing model could be better architected.

I have been using MS Windows and Office for almost 25 years mainly because they are the only game in town with the exception of Apple. Most of the time their software works flawllessly, but once in while, Windows will crash, or do things that I did not want.

Strengths: Microsoft provides a graphical operating system (Windows) and a office suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentation, e-mail and data base. It is fairly easy to use and widely used.

Needs to improve: Unreliable and crashes occasionally. Customer support is not very helpful with problems.

They're everywhere. Can you imagine managing your books, time studies, or professional reports without Microsoft Office? Or their network navigation? How about their search engine? If they suddenly dropped of the face of the planet, you would notice overnight. I highly recommend everything they make, especially if you take the time to learn the ins-and-outs of the their applications. If time is money, they can triple your profits with the time you save. Maybe more.

Strengths: Everything. They revolutionized business.

Needs to improve: Every other operating system released seems like lower quality than its predecessor.

Our company uses Microsoft Office, just like most other companies. We use several of their products, Outlook for email, Office and their cloud service. Although their cost is not cheap it is nice to use many products from 1 vendor. We just need to goto 1 person for maintenance or upgrades. You won't have many problems using Microsoft products. You can try other competitors but you may run into more problems.

Strengths: The standard when you want to use spreadsheet software

Needs to improve: Their license fee's are not cheap but everyone uses their software

Microsoft offers great deals for students and teachers. They support the educational field immensely.

Strengths: Microsoft office, which includes word, excel and powerpoint are the industry standards. The work horse of the industry. I do everything in word, type all my reports any newsletters I have to do. I compile all my data and create graphs in excel and use power point to present anything i need to.

It's simple, straightforward and reliable, everyone can open up a word doc.

Needs to improve: The updates, sometimes updates take forever and don't install or download correctly causing long start up times.

We use microsoft office for our enterprise and it has been very reliable. The main products we leverage are Excel, PowerPoint and Word. We have been using these for years and the ubiquitous nature of the products makes it very easy to share files with our clients and suppliers. One area where they may be able to improve is the help section in each of their programs. Answers are usually much easier to find on the web than in the actual help section.

Strengths: technical reliability

Needs to improve: n/a

Our firm has been using microsoft based systems since the start. We are likely one of the remaining companies who still haven't merged over to the apple platform but so far so good. We haven't had any significant issues and any minor concerns were quickly addressed. Our IT department is always concerned about potential infections but that's their role. We will likely be migrating soon but has been great while it's lasted.

Strengths: convenience, data management, ease of use

Needs to improve: updates, better UX, design

Good overall. They have the most popular programs to use (Excel, Word, PPT) and we use them all the time. What is the next best option? Google docs?

Strengths: The new Windows 8 and most current version of Office is awesome. Very easy to use interface. They definitely have improved the user experience from the previous iteration. Good job Microsoft.

Needs to improve: Loading up Excel can take a long time still versus Apple apps/programs. They can definitely work on improving this part of their software user process.

Our computers in our department are equipped with Microsoft office such as Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and access data base. We use it for making a report, organizing files and documents, making a presentation and managing our inventory count. This software is a must specially for office work. Very useful and reliable software. Great Product.

Strengths: Good for office use, Documentation use, Reliable software, very useful for making documents and files.

Needs to improve: This product has no weaknesses as for my experience.

Microsoft word and microsoft excel are the office programs I have been and still using for creating files and for taking account of our parts in our department. Reliable and useful software. Microsoft are widely popular for office use. I never had problems with this software.

Strengths: Good for documentation use, accountability and reliability, high quality software.

Needs to improve: We have been using this at work for long now and haven't had any issues with it.

Our company utilizes MS products in employee devices as well as server side. MS server and DB software are widely used and support base is endless. Reliability is on par or similar to other systems, but depends on configuration and extent of use. customer service could be more responsive, but with such a huge customer base, it is to be expected.

Strengths: Ubiquitous, universally used with endless support base

Needs to improve: responsive customer service

Microsoft has been our company's trusted vendor when it comes to software products. Their software are user friendly and easy to use with latest updates from their websites. We trusted them so much and tested their products with less issues.We Will always use them until the future. No one can compare to their service.

Strengths: -Tested Products
-Easy to use software
-Product Updates
-Reliable Website
-Excellent Customer Service

Needs to improve: Nothing

We have purchased Microsoft Office for use on our computers as well as Microsoft computers as well. At my facilities we like them over Macs so every computer is a PC. Microsoft computers are excellent they rarely get viruses especially the new ones with all their security and anti-virus features. They are all very fast and overall great computers, highly recommended.

Strengths: -Microsoft Office
-Computers
-Prices
-Software

Needs to improve: -None