Most small businesses pay for Microsoft 365 for email, Word and Excel, and stop there. That’s a shame, because the same subscription includes tools for file sharing, video calls, device management and security that would otherwise cost extra.
More than email and Office apps
A typical Microsoft 365 business plan gives you:
- Exchange Online: professional email on your own domain, with calendars and shared mailboxes.
- Teams: chat, video meetings and channels that replace long email threads.
- SharePoint and OneDrive: secure file storage you can reach from anywhere, with proper permissions instead of files emailed back and forth.
- The Office apps: Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint on PCs, Macs, tablets and phones.
- Security tools: multi-factor authentication, spam and phishing filtering, and (on Business Premium) device management and advanced threat protection.
Which plan do you need?
The three business plans cover most small firms:
- Business Basic: email, Teams, SharePoint and the web and mobile versions of the Office apps. Good for staff who mainly work in a browser.
- Business Standard: everything in Basic plus the installable desktop apps.
- Business Premium: everything in Standard plus Intune device management, Defender for Business and conditional access. For most businesses handling client data, this is the one we recommend.
You can mix plans across a business, so you don’t have to pay for Premium for everyone if some users only need email.
Common set-up mistakes
We regularly take over Microsoft 365 tenancies that were set up in a hurry. The usual problems are:
- No multi-factor authentication. This is the single biggest security gap, and it’s free to fix.
- Everyone is an administrator. Admin rights should be limited to the people who actually need them.
- Files still live on desktops or old servers. Moving them into SharePoint means they’re backed up, shareable and searchable.
- Wrong licences. Paying for features nobody uses, or missing the security features you need.
- No backup. Microsoft keeps the service running, but recovering your data is your responsibility. More on that in our post on why Microsoft 365 needs backing up.
Migrating to Microsoft 365
Whether you’re moving from an old Exchange server, Google Workspace, Dropbox or a mix of all three, a planned migration avoids lost emails and broken file links. We map out your users, mailboxes and folders first, migrate in stages, and train your team so day one goes smoothly.
How we can help
WilliamWare sets up, migrates and manages Microsoft 365 for small businesses across Reading, Caversham and Berkshire. We’ll review your current set-up, check your licences and security settings, and tell you plainly what’s worth changing.
Book a free Microsoft 365 health check, or call 0118 962 0081.
