Public cloud services like Microsoft 365 are great, but a common misconception amongst organisations is that once Microsoft Exchange and other apps are moved from on-premise to the cloud, support, backup and maintenance are taken care of…
Not the case.
In fact, you have to handle both ticket and support requests with only “how-to” articles and video tutorials to help you, add and remove users, tackle billing and licencing, configure and implement the environment – not to mention security, backups and recovery. You might not realise it but 60% of availability and performance errors with cloud services are the result of misconfigurations. This can cause disruptions and ultimately hinders workplace productivity; incapacitating your IT team when their time and energy should be spent focusing on other initiatives instead.
When you combine these hurdles with the added difficulty in hiring and retaining staff that are able to handle projects like this with no hiccups and zero downtime, it makes good business sense to consider Microsoft 365 as a managed service.
We’ve picked our top seven issues organisations face when implementing and managing Microsoft 365 and how these headaches can be alleviated by considering a managed service provider whose experts can handle the high maintenance and (potentially costly) work for you.
1. Payback!
The last thing you need after carrying out assessments, getting stakeholders to agree and then implementing a solution with as much potential as Microsoft 365, is myriad issues, errors and complaints. You want a smooth transition which immediately drives value and ROI deeming the project a success as quickly as possible. Not only could issues and complaints harm the productivity and efficiency of your organisation, they could also reinforce negative feelings towards change. In this fast-paced period of innovation, unwavering adoption of new tech is so important that organisations can’t afford to have key stakeholders drag their feet.
2. The cloud skills shortage
With 94% of organisations struggling to find the right cloud talent and 90% reporting a lack of skills in multiple cloud disciplines, it’s no wonder many organisations are looking for a solution to this issue. In fact, 77% of organisations are turning to managed services to ensure they are using the latest tech and have access to the best in the business.
Wasn’t the whole point of cloud to outsource the grunt work and risk to expert teams in the first place?
Read our How to Navigate the Cloud Skills Gap Storm [eGuide] >>
3. Consistency is key
As mentioned, 60% of availability and performance errors with cloud services are the result of misconfigurations. Once you’re over the first hurdle of initial configuration there is still active management and oversight to deal with.
Despite many wanting Microsoft 365 to be a set and forget affair, this is not entirely the case. Better to have an expert and dedicated team to oversee all eventualities and react quickly to keep things running smoothly than having to call on staff late at night or over the weekend. Which brings us to our next point…
4. 24x7x365 support
Microsoft provides customers with a basic level of online support for Microsoft 365 as standard, through “how-to” articles and video tutorials. When issues and errors start being reported, this often initiates the daunting task of having to resolve problems yourself by trawling through documentation without the proper knowledge or confidence to remedy the issue.
This is where a managed service provider (MSP) can help take away the day-to-day burden of your already overstretched IT team, providing you with an easily-accessible 24x7x365 service desk function for Incident Management, requests for change and service requests.
5. Tasks piling up
Seemingly routine tasks like adding users, or more complex tasks like configuring advance features all add up and can negatively impact productivity if done incorrectly. These things also affect your investment and are not normally accounted for in the initial business case assessment.
With an MSP, you have the option to ‘do-it-yourself’ and add licences and subscriptions via a simple and intuitive web portal, or you can sit back and let your MSP handle it all.
In the ‘do-it-yourself’ scenario, you have the flexibility to easily and seamlessly control your cloud estate from a single dashboard. You can add Microsoft 365 licences in just a few clicks, allocate them to users, and view event logs. You can also analyse billing through analytics and reporting so you have complete visibility of your estate.
Take a look at our CloudBridge Portal | Cloud Management Made Simple [Video] >>
For those who don’t have the time or capacity for this, your MSP will acquire the licences on your behalf and correctly assign and remove them as necessary from your account. What’s more, they will also provide general assistance for any subscription, licencing and invoicing queries.
6. People cost & Training
It’s easy to ignore the additional costs that come with hiring someone already trained in a certain skill – or for that matter, the cost of the training itself. Both the cost of the trainer and trainee’s time carrying out the training plus the administration costs of putting it together. These costs can add up quickly and there’s no guarantee of quality at the end of it. Is this really where organisations should be investing their capital?
MSPs can provide consistent, high-quality training and also appreciate that within any organisation, different users have different demands on how they use the technology. It’s their MO to build trusted relationships with clients by providing a highly-professional and cost-effective training and education service that enables users to get the most out of the product provided. This specialism is hard to replicate in-house.
For instance, Daisy Corporate Services can offer our customers a comprehensive Microsoft 365 Training Prospectus covering the following Microsoft 365 Solutions:
- Implementing and Administering of O365
- Day-to-day administration of O365
- SharePoint
- Teams
- OneNote
- To Do
- Forms
- Planner
- Skype for Business
Our training methodology follows three phases:
Phase 1 – Proposal: You advise us on your training requirements, the number of staff and their profiles, we will then provide you with a proposal of courses.
Phase 2 – Education plan: A training coordinator is allocated to you and will be your main point of contract regarding any training requirements and queries. It is at this stage that the training plan and schedule is formulated and confirmed.
Phase 3 – Delivery: The courses are delivered in accordance to the format agreed in the previous phase.
7. Call for backup
A surprisingly large amount of businesses believe that it is Microsoft’s responsibility to protect their Microsoft 365 data, this is not the case. This responsibility lies with the customer to ensure they preserve and safeguard Outlook email, Sharepoint and OneDrive data etc.
Our Backupsolution for Microsoft 365 forms part of our extensive backup and recovery portfolio. It provides backup and restoration functionality of the customer’s public cloud based Microsoft 365 accounts by combining Veeam’s dedicated Microsoft 365 backup product with our mature data protection and recovery experience. This effective partnership gives businesses complete access and control of their Microsoft 365 data and eliminates the risk of unnecessary data loss. Backupfor Microsoft 365 helps businesses:
- Protect data from accidental deletion, security threats and retention policy gaps
- Restore individual Microsoft 365 items and files with industry-leading recovery flexibility
- Comply with legal and requirements with efficient eDiscovery of Microsoft 365 backup items
We can ensure you have complete backups of this business critical data and a full recovery solution in place.
You can read more about it in our Microsoft 365 Backup and Responsibility [Report] >>, or our 6 Critical Reasons to Backup Your Microsoft 365 Data [eGuide] >>.
Why Daisy for Managed Microsoft 365?
Daisy’s aim is to help customers get the most out of their Microsoft 365 investment with managed services and enterprise-class support. Customers have the choice of one of three support packages to fulfil a wide range of service level and budget requirements: Essentials, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus. Each of the options delivers key features to help customers optimize their IT resources.
Our team of experts will be on hand to guide you were necessary, and will work closely with you every step of the way to help you determine which support package best meets the requirements of your organisation and the users within the business.