If you’re a firm or a small business, chances are you run on Microsoft 365 or Office 365 applications. And with Exchange, Outlook, Office 365 apps and collaboration tools like Teams, Microsoft 365 likely houses the bulk of your client and business information.
If you manage your Microsoft 365 licenses and applications on your own, it takes time away from your business and your clients. Having an internal or outsourced IT resource doesn’t solve this problem. Why? Because the focus is likely on vendor and application management—not improving your employee and customer technology experience.
That being said, the amount of data contained in your Microsoft 365 applications means you should be outsourcing security. Enlisting a security partner who can monitor your Microsoft 365 account—and stop potential data loss for your business—is key to ensuring your data remains safe.
A managed service partner can help. By streamlining your vendor ecosystem and finding a single vendor for everything related to Microsoft 365, you can free up valuable time and resources.
What Managed Service Partners Should Offer
When you begin the search for a managed service partner, you need to consider the following five critical components:
1. Flexible licensing
Your firm or small business should get out of vendor management entirely and gain back precious work hours. Find a reliable vendor for Microsoft 365 licensing that gives you access to flexible, monthly billing and the applications your business needs.
2. Always-available support
Managed services should have a sizable certified technical support team for Microsoft 365. One of the benefits of licensing from a third-party provider is the ability to call them directly when you have a question or a problem.
They should be available, whether it’s the middle of a typical business day or a busy weekend during tax season. And the right provider has 24/7 reachability, so you can talk to a local expert—with limited wait time.
3. Comprehensive backup
You may not have considered Microsoft 365 backup a priority. After all, it’s a cloud service…and that means your data is always backed up, right?
Well, it’s more complicated than it seems. While your data is replicated and backed up, this doesn’t mean that granular data is always available to your business in the event of data breaches or natural disasters. Your managed services should include a dedicated Microsoft 365 backup solution to avoid accidental data loss or downtime.
4. Secure email
Microsoft Exchange or Outlook email is likely a big part of how you interact with your team and your clients every day—sending numerous messages that include business-critical communications. According to Verizon’s 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report, email is the most common threat vector for security incidents after web application hacking.
Managed service partners should offer email monitoring that reduces employees’ exposure to spam, phishing, spoofing, Business Email Compromise (BEC) or other kinds of security risks that can compromise business and client data.
5. Malicious account takeover protection
Your firm or small business can’t afford downtime in the event of a security incident, as each hour lost has a price tag. Since the loss of access to your Microsoft 365 data means compromising your ability to operate, your managed service partner may be able to protect against malicious account takeover as part of its monitoring services.
Find the Right Managed Service Partner to Stay Secure
The right security partner gives you peace of mind and time back in your day. And they offer advanced security features to ensure you don’t lose access to your account and the data it houses.
Bottom line: Management of your Microsoft 365 is a lot more complicated than simply procuring licenses for employees. It may be time for your firm or small business to consider managed services for Microsoft 365.
And that’s where Right Networks Managed Microsoft 365 comes in. Get best-in-class, expert-managed security features; Microsoft 365 licensing; and a comprehensive backup across all Microsoft products. Not only are we a certified Microsoft Partner—we’re experts in protecting small businesses.
Learn how to protect your Microsoft 365 data with Right Networks.