More than just email
Most businesses use a fraction of what Microsoft 365 offers. We set up Teams, SharePoint, Copilot and the Power Platform to work together properly, giving your team faster collaboration, smart automation and a better workflow every day.
The pattern we see most often is a business paying for Business Premium licences while using them as expensive webmail. The collaboration tools are sitting there unused, the security features are switched off by default, and files are still going round as email attachments. Nothing is broken, exactly, but the money is not doing anything.
What we take on
We manage the whole tenant, not just mailboxes. That means identity and access, licensing, the security configuration, SharePoint and Teams structure, retention and backup, and the day-to-day of adding and removing people.
Identity is where most of the risk sits, so it is where we start. Multi-factor authentication on every account, conditional access rules that fit how your team actually works, and a clear separation between everyday accounts and administrative ones. Guest access is reviewed rather than left open indefinitely.
Then structure. SharePoint that reflects how your business is organised rather than how someone's old file server was, with permissions set at the site level so a new starter inherits the right access on day one. Teams configured for calls and meetings, not just chat.
One thing worth being clear about: Microsoft 365 is not a backup. Its retention policies protect you from some kinds of accidental deletion, not from ransomware, a departed employee, or a mistake discovered eight months later. We add a proper third-party backup of Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams, and we would say the same whether or not you bought it from us.
Our Microsoft 365 service includes:
- Migration and setup from any platform, with zero data loss
- Microsoft Teams configured for calls, meetings and collaboration
- SharePoint structured document management that people actually use
- Microsoft Copilot AI assistance rolled out safely and usefully
- Power Platform automating repetitive processes with Power Automate and Power Apps
- Licence optimisation paying only for what you actually need
- Security hardening MFA, conditional access and data-loss prevention
- Third-party backup of Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams, because Microsoft's retention is not a backup
- Starters and leavers handled end to end, including licence reclamation
How a migration runs
Migrations get a bad name because they are usually done over a weekend and discovered on Monday. Ours are staged, so problems surface while there is still time to fix them quietly.
- 1. Audit. We map every mailbox, shared drive, licence and permission, and identify the things that will not migrate cleanly before they become a surprise.
- 2. Design. We agree the SharePoint structure, the security baseline and the licence mix with you in writing, so nobody is guessing later.
- 3. Pilot. A small group moves first, usually the people most willing to tell us what is annoying. We fix what they find.
- 4. Migration. Data moves in batches with mail flow cut over out of hours. Nothing is deleted from the old platform until you confirm you are happy.
- 5. Adoption. Short sessions for the team on what has changed and why, plus written guides they can go back to.
Ongoing support and service levels
Once you are live, Microsoft 365 is covered by the same contractual response times as the rest of our managed support: 15 minutes for a critical issue such as mail flow stopping, 30 minutes for high priority, 2 hours for medium and 4 hours for low. Those are guarantees written into the service agreement with service credits attached, not published averages.
Licensing gets reviewed rather than left to renew on autopilot. Microsoft changes plan contents and pricing regularly, and headcount moves, so we check the mix periodically and tell you when you are paying for something you have stopped using.
That review usually finds three things: licences still assigned to people who left, staff on a premium plan who only need a basic one, and features already included in what you own that you are paying a separate supplier for. Backup, telephony and device management are the common culprits. None of it is complicated, it just needs somebody to look, and it is the sort of saving that pays for a good chunk of the support fee.
What this looks like in practice
Two Kent businesses that got more out of the subscription they were already paying for.
Why choose CT1 for Microsoft 365?
- Certified Microsoft expertise with hands-on migration experience
- Licence reviews that routinely cut monthly costs
- Security-first configuration from day one
- Training and plain-English guidance for your team
Get started today
Ask for a free Microsoft 365 review and we'll show you what your subscription can already do, and what you no longer need to pay for.
