Microsoft 365 is the most popular cloud-based suite for businesses. And there’s a good reason for that: it’s better in almost every way than alternatives.
If you aren’t already part of the Microsoft ecosystem, this article will explain exactly what Microsoft 365 is and why your organisation should (probably) think about migrating.
What Is Microsoft 365?
Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) is Microsoft’s cloud workspace offering – a bundle of apps available under a monthly, per-user subscription. Plans are available in three classes: personal plans, business plans, and enterprise plans (E3 and E5).
For the purposes of this article, we’ll look at the four business plans: Business Basic, Apps for Business, Business Standard, and Business Premium. Most small and mid-sized businesses (5–200 employees) will either opt for Business Standard at $18.70 per monthly user or Business Premium at $32.90 per monthly user.
So what do you get for that price? Business Standard includes the following apps:
- Word (word processing)
- Excel (spreadsheets)
- PowerPoint (presentations)
- Outlook (email client)
- Teams (chat, file-sharing, voice calling, and videoconferencing)
- OneDrive (cloud storage for personal files)
- SharePoint (cloud storage for organisational files)
- Exchange (email server and calendaring)
- Clipchamp (video editing)
- Microsoft Loop (modular note-taking and information-sharing).
Many of those apps will be familiar territory for your teams – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook are still the industry standard, despite the growing array of competitors. If you choose Business Premium, you’ll also get:
- Microsoft Entra ID (identity and access management)
- Intune (endpoint management)
- Microsoft Defender (antivirus)
- Microsoft Purview (data governance and protection).
Other Productivity Options
If you’re reading this article, your organisation probably isn’t using Microsoft 365 – which means you’re working with either:
- a legacy or on-premises version of the Microsoft suite
- a combination of different apps
- a cloud-based alternative like Google Workspace or Zoho Workplace.
In the first scenario, upgrading to Microsoft 365 is a matter of ‘when’, not ‘if’. The older versions of Office – like Office 2016 and 2021 – require more management, have greater security vulnerabilities, and lack new features that are automatically rolled out across the Microsoft 365 suite. They’re also objectively less cost-effective. Purchasing Office 2021 costs around the same as thirteen months of Microsoft 365 Business Standard – and you only get access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
Hybrid stacks of various third-party apps have the same problems, but magnified. Without a unified ecosystem, your data is spread across many different locations, with no central management of accounts. Data security (and general security) aside, you’ll also see duplicated costs, poor data accessibility, a lack of interoperability between apps, and associated productivity drops.
On the other hand, if you’re already using another productivity suite like Google Workspace, identify the issue with it. Why do you (or your leadership) want to undertake a potentially expensive migration? Is it that your current solution doesn’t have the general capabilities you need (which Microsoft 365 does)? Or is there a specific issue that could be better solved with a third-party workaround over a full-scale migration?
Generally, Microsoft 365 is the business gold standard for a reason. Price aside, it has a richer feature suite, is easier to manage at scale, has superior security functions (like conditional access), and includes apps like Intune for device management. You also won’t have your end users asking to use Word or Excel instead.
Benefits of Migrating to Microsoft 365
There are many, many benefits to migrating to Microsoft 365 – to the point where the question is less ‘why should we migrate to 365?’ than ‘why shouldn’t we?’.
Continuity
Most of your end users will have grown up with the Microsoft staples: Word, Excel, and Outlook. Keeping them in the same environment can make a big difference to their productivity, particularly when alternatives – like Docs and Sheets – lack feature parity.
Vendor continuity also matters. Microsoft has served as the business world’s productivity suite of choice for almost 40 years. Most of its competitors are vastly smaller – which can mean less product support and a greater risk of business failure. Even Google, which is comparable in size, has a history of abruptly discontinuing offerings, with minimal support for legacy apps.
Cost Efficiency
Whether Microsoft 365 is more directly cost-effective than your current solution depends on what that solution is. If you’re using an a la carte software stack that involves various apps, then you’ll likely see direct savings by combining all those costs into a single, per-user subscription.
Compared to older versions of Microsoft or competitors like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 might be more expensive. Ultimately, though, that additional cost is recouped through productivity gains (which we’ll talk about more in a moment) and avoided costs – like less MAC and a lower risk of security incidents.
Productivity
Microsoft 365 is an ecosystem. In other words, its apps are designed to integrate with each other, promoting better user collaboration between users than they would in isolation. That can be as simple as a desktop Word file keeping its formatting when an end user uploads it to SharePoint instead of Google Drive, which saves that user spending a few minutes making manual corrections.
But Microsoft 365’s productivity benefits also extend more broadly: to unified communications software like Teams (which lets you collaborate in real time on Word or Excel files), to having a single ecosystem with one account per user, and even to reducing your IT workload, which frees up your in-house technicians for more business-critical work. If that’s not enough, you can add on Copilot to automate more of your workflows.
It’s also worth mentioning that all the Microsoft 365 apps can be used across devices and browsers. That’s not unique to Microsoft (Google and other cloud competitors have the same functionality), but it’s a big advantage if your end users have historically been restricted to on-premises work. Combine that with Teams and a voice solution like Connect Voice, and you have everything you need to build a mobile or hybrid workforce.
Resilience and Security
It almost goes without saying that Microsoft 365 has excellent security and disaster recovery mechanisms. Microsoft does offer high-security environments – like GCC, GCC High and DoD – but, even with Business Premium, you’ll have access to Intune, Entra ID, and Defender. Between them, you’ll be able to manage your endpoints, set up multi-factor authentication and conditional access policies, and build a robust security posture – which your managed service provider (MSP) can supplement with monitoring software like Connect Cyber or SaaS Alerts.
Like other cloud-based ecosystems, desktop Microsoft 365 files automatically back up to OneDrive, which means you don’t need to worry about endpoint failure. Unlike competitors, though, the Microsoft 365 suite is available in desktop, web and mobile forms – if the internet goes down, even temporarily, your end users’ ability to work won’t be completely compromised. Both SharePoint and Exchange also have robust recovery features, including a ‘Files Restore’ function for mass deletions or data breaches.
Scalability
Microsoft 365 is designed for organisations of all sizes. At the most basic level, you can easily access different functions and apps as and when you need them without a complex change management or integration process. You can also simply add seats as your organisation grows – no additional networking or server equipment required.
For larger organisations, Microsoft 365 has better security and compliance features. If you upgrade to a Business Premium licence, Intune lets you manage your endpoint fleet (which matters as you grow) and Entra means you can implement conditional access policies for better security. You’ll also be able to more easily comply with standards like GDPR during international expansions – which, for Google Workspace users, require a costly additional Vault licence.
Importantly, Microsoft 365 is based on Azure, the cloud environment of choice for 95% of Fortune 500 companies. That can open up a lot of options for how you access and manage your cloud-based resources.
Next Steps
This article has covered the benefits of migrating to Microsoft 365, but it wouldn’t be complete without a firm caveat: everything we’ve talked about has been general information. The right productivity solution for your organisation depends entirely on your business requirements and IT resources.
The best way to assess both is to work with an MSP (like us) who can help you determine necessary features within your budget. (Your IT department size and existing environment are also important considerations.)
Keep in mind that whichever solution you decide on isn’t just a choice for today. It’s one that will have significant impacts for years – some of which may not materialise until your organisation reaches a certain size or complexity level. When you work with your MSP to evaluate your needs, you’ll need to roadmap future scenarios to ensure you won’t need to switch solutions again in three or four years’ time.
You’ll also need to develop a proper implementation plan before you make the switch. Even a ‘simple’ transition (like upgrading from a legacy Office suite to Microsoft 365) can lead to disruptions in data migration, workflows, and end-user experience. Make sure your migration budget includes documentation and user training costs.
If you’re looking for a partner who can evaluate whether Microsoft 365 is the right solution for your organisation, talk to us. We can prepare an analysis of potential solutions based on your requirements and, as required, prepare implementation and change management strategies.
