We are happy to share some insights about Microsoft drawn from our latest market research, Ventana Research Buyers Guide: Digital Communications, which assesses how well providers’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
We recently published four Ventana Research Digital Communications Buyers Guides, an assessment of technology providers and products that provide individual and combined 
Digital Communications, basic suite, platform and premium suite support. At Ventana Research, we continue to believe that, for most use-cases, there is a clear choice for digital communications for any use in your enterprise. We developed four technology assessments and buyers guides to focus on overall Digital Communications requirements as well as specific basic suite, platform and premium suite use-cases.
In all of our Buyers Guides, we utilize a structured research methodology called the Value Index that includes evaluation categories designed to reflect real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal (RFP) and provider selection process for digital communications. We evaluated Microsoft in seven categories, five relevant to the product (adaptability, capability, manageability, reliability and usability) and two related to the provider (TCO/ROI and provider validation).
In the overall Digital Communications Buyers Guide, our analysis classified Microsoft as Exemplary, and an overall Leader and a Leader in Product and Customer Experience where it
received an overall grade of A- with an 86% performance. Microsoft’s best grouped results came in Product Experience at 86.4% performance and an A- grade, due in part to its A in Usability. In Customer Experience, Microsoft received an A- grade and was the overall Leader with an 83.4% performance due to its 86.4% performance in TCO/ROI. Microsoft was designated a Leader in six categories including: Capability, Manageability, Reliability, Usability, TCO/ROI and Validation.
Microsoft’s A- grade in Product Experience was impacted by its B++ in Adaptability, where it could improve its APIs and configuration of its platform. Customer Experience was impacted by its B++ in Validation, where it could improve onboarding and services.
Microsoft performed best in Product Experience with an A- grade, and was a Leader in four of the five categories, notably receiving an A in Usability, due to its intelligence and accessibility. In Capability, it performed well with the breadth and depth of its portfolio. In addition, its rating in Manageability and Reliability was due to its commitment and support for global deployments. It’s A- rating in Customer Experience was supported by an A- grade in TCO/ROI, where it led with its depth on strategic value of investment and insights on the costs for investment.
In the Digital Communications Basic Suite Buyers Guide, our analysis classified Microsoft as Exemplary, receiving an overall grade of A- with an 85.6% performance. Microsoft's best
grouped results came in Product Experience at 86.3% performance and an A- grade due in part to its A in Usability. In Customer Experience, Microsoft received an A- grade with an 83.4% performance due to its 86.4% performance in TCO/ROI. Microsoft was designated a Leader in six of the 10 possible categories, including, Overall, Customer Experience, Capability, TCO/ROI, Usability and Validation.
Microsoft’s A- grade in Product Experience was impacted by its B++ in Adaptability, where it could offer more pre-built configurations for easy-to-use features. Customer Experience was impacted by its B++ in Validation, where it provides more case studies and client references for buyers and develop a simplified contract-to-invoice process.
Microsoft performed best in Product Experience with an A- grade, notably receiving an A in Usability due to its capability to integrate intelligence to the platform and commitment to relevant investments to make it a more reliable product. Microsoft’s documentation is a great resource in summarizing strategic value derived from the platform. It also provides good assistance to prospective buyers that brought the grading to A- in TCO/ROI.
In the Digital Communications Platform Buyers Guide, our analysis classified Microsoft as Exemplary, and an overall Leader where in Product and Customer Experience it received an
overall grade of A- with an 84.4% performance. Microsoft’s best grouped results came in Product Experience at 84.7% performance and an A- grade due in part to its A in Usability. In Customer Experience, Microsoft received an A- grade with an 83.4% performance due to its 80.3% performance in Validation. Microsoft was designated a Leader in three categories including: Usability, TCO/ROI and Validation.
Microsoft’s A- grade in Product Experience was impacted by its B++ in Adaptability, where it could improve its APIs and configuration of its platform. Customer Experience was impacted by its B++ in Validation, where it could improve onboarding and services.
Microsoft performed best in Product Experience with A- grade, and leader in one of the five categories, and notably in Usability, receiving an A due to its Intelligence and Accessibility. In Capability, it performed well with the breadth and depth of its portfolio. Its A- grade in Customer Experience was led by Validation and a B++ grade, where it led with its strong expertise in customer support and robust operating performance with strong client credentials.
In the Digital Communications Premium Suite Buyers Guide, our analysis classified Microsoft as Exemplary, receiving an overall grade of A- with an 86.3% performance. Microsoft best
grouped results came in Product Experience with an 86.8% performance and an A- grade due in part to its A in Usability. In Customer Experience, Microsoft received an A- grade with an 83.4% performance due to its 86.4% performance in TCO/ROI. Microsoft was designated a Leader in four of the possible seven categories, including Usability, TCO/ROI and Validation, in addition to being a Leader in the Product Experience, Customer Experience and Overall categories.
Microsoft’s A- grade in Product Experience was impacted by its B++ in Adaptability, where it could improve its APIs and the configuration of its platform. Customer Experience was impacted by its B++ in Validation, where it could improve its onboarding and services.
Microsoft performed best in Product Experience with an A- grade, notably receiving an A in Usability due to its intelligence and accessibility. In Capability, it performed well in the breadth and depth of its portfolio. In addition, Manageability and Reliability fared well due to the commitment and support for global deployments. Its A- rating in Customer Experience was supported by an A- grade in TCO/ROI, where it led with its depth and insights on the strategic value and costs of investment.
This assessment was based on Microsoft Teams, Copilot for Microsoft 365, v. February 2024 and was available in February of 2024.
This research-based guide is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of digital communications software in the industry. Technology buyers can learn more about how to use our Buyers Guide by clicking here and included software providers that wish to learn more can click here. Click below to read the individual reports:
Digital Communications Overall
Digital Communications Basic Suite
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