Although Office 365 is still in its infancy, it could be an attractive option for financial advisory firms of all sizes. For small firms, the ability to get hosted MS Exchange accounts, hosted SharePoint, Lync and a limited but functional Web-based version of MS Office that can be self-administered for as little as $6 per month per user sounds very attractive. The ability to rent the latest version of MS Office 2010 monthly is also appealing, and it would be more so if there were other versions of Office for rent at a lower price.
For many larger advisory firms, the ability to get rid of your Exchange servers plus the hardware and other costs associated with the equipment is compelling. Microsoft commissioned a study by Forrester Research entitled "The Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Office 365."
This study is based on a composite of seven midsize firms Forrester studied in depth. The composite firm employs 150 people and uses a full range of MS Office 365 features. Forrester concluded that the three-year, risk-adjusted ROI from an Office 365 deployment was 321%. The net present value per user was $5,936. Even if you take these findings with a grain of salt and discount them by 50% or 75%, that is still an impressive ROI.
In spite of the compelling ROI projections, it will probably take a while before a significant number of advisors migrate to Office 365. Whether you embrace it today or not, however, we do believe it behooves advisors to become familiar with technologies of this sort. As advisory firms continue their slow but steady migration to the cloud, offerings such as Microsoft Office 365 will no doubt play a role. As the product matures and additional options are added, advisors may find that Office 365 is a better fit for them than the alternatives they employ today.