Microsoft commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying Office 365. The purpose of this study is to provide readers at large organizations (more than 1,000 users) with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of Office 365 on their organizations.

To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with an Office 365 implementation, Forrester interviewed three existing customers with multiple years of experience using Office 365 and conducted an online survey with 60 large organizations also using Office 365. Office 365 is the software-as-a-service (SaaS) version of Microsoft business products including Office Professional Plus, Exchange, Lync, SharePoint, Yammer, and OneDrive. Prior to moving to Office 365, customers had implemented various solution components in a traditional on-premises model. With Office 365, customers were able to accelerate the deployment of the latest versions of Microsoft solutions, decrease technology costs, increase business and IT user productivity, and stay up-to-date with the latest features and solutions. Said one IT manager: 'We were looking at our five-year IT plan, and the trends were clear. We knew we had to move to a subscription model in order to keep up-to-date on the latest technologies in an effective and efficient way.'