Microsoft 365 — set up the way it should be .

Office 365 was the original name for the cloud-based subscription that bundles Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive and the Office apps. Microsoft 365 is the broader product, adding Windows licensing, Intune device management and the full Microsoft security stack on top. For most SMEs, the Microsoft 365 Business Standard or Business Premium plan is the right starting point — the latter being significantly more secure and only marginally more expensive.

It depends on user roles, security needs and whether you also need Windows licensing. As a rough guide: Business Basic suits frontline staff who only need web-based apps and email; Business Standard adds desktop Office and is the SME default; Business Premium adds Defender, Intune and Conditional Access, and is the right choice for any business handling sensitive data. We'll audit what you have, sometimes mix plans for different users, and right-size annually.

We use a third-party migration tool to move mailboxes, calendars, contacts and Drive files into your new Microsoft 365 tenant in parallel with your live system. The cut-over typically happens over a weekend or evening — DNS records change, mail flows to the new tenant, and users sign in to Microsoft 365 the next morning with all their email, calendar and files in place. There's a short period of dual-running, so nothing is lost in transit.

It's a good baseline, but Microsoft ships many of the strongest controls switched off, and a default tenant is not a hardened tenant. We enforce MFA, set up Conditional Access policies, configure Defender for 365 properly, restrict legacy protocols, audit privileged access and tune anti-phishing rules. Most of these changes are invisible to your end users but make a substantial difference to real-world risk.

Yes, and this is one of the most common gaps we find. Microsoft replicates your data for availability — that's not the same as backup. If a user (or a malicious actor) deletes mailboxes, files or SharePoint sites and it's not noticed within 30–90 days, the data may not be recoverable. We deploy a third-party backup that gives you point-in-time restore for mail, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams, with retention you control.

Yes — Copilot rollouts are part of our AI Services offering. Before adding licences we make sure your data is structured properly (Copilot is only as good as what it can see), permissions are tightened, and there's clear governance on what staff can and can't do with it. We also run training so the licences actually get used.

Intune (part of Microsoft 365 Business Premium) is the tool we use to manage company devices and personal devices that touch business data. We set up zero-touch provisioning for new laptops via Autopilot, enforce compliance policies (encryption, screen lock, OS version), and configure mobile app management so corporate data on personal phones can be wiped without touching the user's personal apps.