For many small businesses, Microsoft 365 starts with a fairly simple requirement: email.
You want a professional email address using your own domain, perhaps Word and Excel on your computers, and somewhere to store files. Microsoft 365 is an obvious option.
But that can make it difficult to judge whether you're actually getting good value from it.
Microsoft 365 isn't really a single product. It's a collection of services covering email, Office applications, cloud storage, collaboration, security, device management and much more. Depending on the subscription you choose, quite a lot of the technology a small business needs can sit within that one platform.
So is it worth paying for?
For many businesses, we think it is. But the more useful question is whether you're making good use of what you're paying for, and whether it suits the way your business actually works.
It's about more than Word, Excel and Outlook
The familiar Office applications are still a major part of Microsoft 365, but the platform goes considerably further.
Depending on the plan, Microsoft 365 can provide business email, cloud file storage, shared company information, collaboration tools, online meetings, booking tools, task management, forms, workflow automation, identity and access controls, device management and security capabilities.
That doesn't mean every business should use every Microsoft product available to it.
But it does mean the value of the subscription shouldn't be judged purely on the cost of Word, Excel and an email inbox.
Your work follows you
One of the practical benefits of a cloud-based environment is that work is no longer tied as closely to a particular computer or office.
Email, documents and other business information can be available across appropriate devices and locations, subject to the access and security controls the business puts in place.
For a small business, that can make everyday things considerably easier: working from home, visiting customers, replacing a computer, bringing somebody new into the business or collaborating on a document without emailing different versions backwards and forwards.
The technology becomes less dependent on where somebody happens to be sitting.
Files become a business resource rather than someone's folder
File storage is an area where small businesses can accumulate problems without really noticing.
Documents might sit on individual computers, a local network drive, somebody's personal cloud storage, email attachments or several different services at once.
Microsoft 365 provides OneDrive and SharePoint, which can help separate an individual's working files from information that belongs to the business and needs to remain available to the organisation.
That distinction becomes increasingly important as a business grows.
If somebody leaves, changes role or replaces their computer, the company shouldn't have to work out where its important information went.
There's quite a lot included in the subscription
This is one of the easiest things to overlook.
Depending on your Microsoft 365 plan, you may already have access to tools for online booking, task management, forms, shared file storage, internal information, automation and other everyday business requirements.
That can create opportunities to simplify the collection of separate subscriptions a business has accumulated over time.
It doesn't mean Microsoft's tool will always be the best tool for the job. A specialist product may be considerably better for a particular requirement.
But before buying another piece of software, it is worth asking whether something you're already paying for can solve the problem well enough.
Security becomes increasingly important as you grow
A business with a handful of people can still hold valuable information.
Customer information, supplier details, contracts, financial records and access to business systems can all sit behind an employee's account.
At the very least, businesses should be thinking about strong authentication, sensible access controls and what happens if an account or device is compromised.
Microsoft 365 can provide increasingly capable identity, device and security controls as you move through the available plans.
The right level depends on the business, the information it handles and the risks it needs to manage.
Buying a more expensive licence does not automatically make a business secure. The controls still need to be configured and used appropriately.
Joining and leaving becomes easier to manage
New starters and leavers are good tests of whether business technology is properly organised.
When somebody joins, what accounts do they need? Which files should they see? Which shared mailboxes should they access? What applications do they need?
When they leave, can that access be removed reliably?
A well-managed Microsoft 365 environment can make those questions easier to answer because identities, permissions, email and business information can be managed more centrally.
That becomes increasingly useful as the number of people, devices and systems grows.
It can reduce the number of separate subscriptions you need
Small businesses often accumulate software one problem at a time.
A booking tool here. Cloud storage there. A survey tool. A task board. Video conferencing. A file-sharing service.
There is nothing inherently wrong with that. Specialist products can be excellent.
But subscriptions accumulate, information becomes spread across different platforms and somebody eventually has to administer all of those accounts.
Microsoft 365 can sometimes consolidate some of that functionality.
The important question isn't whether Microsoft offers a feature.
It's whether using that feature would make the business simpler without sacrificing something important.
It can grow with the business
The technology a two-person business needs is different from the technology a twenty-person business needs.
One advantage of Microsoft 365 is that you don't necessarily have to design the final environment on day one.
A business can start relatively simply and introduce more structured file management, security, device controls, automation and administration as the need develops.
That can be preferable to repeatedly replacing disconnected systems as the organisation grows.
Which Microsoft 365 plan does a small business actually need?
For most small businesses, the conversation tends to centre around Microsoft's Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium plans.
The right answer doesn't have to be the same for everybody in the company.
Business Basic
Business Basic can be entirely appropriate for people who primarily need a business identity, email and access to shared information and cloud services.
That can include mobile or frontline roles, some contractors, occasional users and people who don't need the full desktop Office applications installed on a computer.
For the right role, Basic isn't a compromise. It can simply be the appropriate licence.
Business Standard
Business Standard is often a natural fit for people who regularly use the familiar productivity applications alongside business email, storage and the wider Microsoft 365 environment, but don't require the additional management and security capabilities needed for other roles.
Business Premium
Business Premium becomes particularly interesting where the business wants greater control over devices, identities and information.
That might include people travelling with company laptops, users with access to sensitive information, senior staff or situations where the business wants stronger central control over how company devices and accounts are managed.
The decision is therefore about security and management requirements as much as access to applications.
And a business can reasonably use a mixture of licences.
Licence the person and the requirement, rather than simply buying the same thing for everybody.
Microsoft changes its packaging, features and pricing over time. Rather than reproducing a pricing table here that may become outdated, use Microsoft's current business plan information (opens in a new tab) to check the latest options and inclusions.
Not sure which combination makes sense?
If you're trying to work out which licences are appropriate for your business, Fairbourne can help you look at what your people actually need, what you're already paying for and where the different Microsoft 365 options might fit.
Start with a no-obligation conversation
What about Teams?
Microsoft has changed the way Teams is packaged with some Microsoft 365 subscriptions, and the exact options can vary.
The useful starting point is the business requirement.
If Teams fits the way the organisation communicates and collaborates, it can be an important part of the environment. If the business has already standardised on another platform, paying for overlapping functionality simply because it sits within a familiar ecosystem may not make sense.
Check Microsoft's current plan information (opens in a new tab) for the live licensing position rather than relying on an old comparison.
And what about Copilot?
Copilot should be treated as a separate decision from the underlying Microsoft 365 licence.
The question isn't simply whether AI is available.
It's whether the deeper AI capabilities would save enough time, improve the quality of work or create enough other value to justify the additional cost for the people who would use them.
For some roles that may be easy to justify. For others it may not be.
Buying AI because it is fashionable is not a business case.
You don't necessarily need an IT company to manage it
A small Microsoft 365 environment can be self-managed.
Other businesses prefer occasional support, while some want somebody to administer the environment on an ongoing basis.
All three models can work.
What's more important is that the business retains appropriate ownership and control of its tenant, domain and data.
Using an IT provider shouldn't mean becoming dependent on that provider simply to retain control of your own technology.
A good technology relationship shouldn't depend on making it difficult for you to leave.
But Microsoft 365 isn't automatically the right answer
Microsoft 365 is a strong option for many businesses, but it isn't universally the correct one.
If your company already works effectively in Google Workspace, there may be little value in moving simply because Microsoft is common elsewhere.
A very small business with simple requirements may not need every capability available in a more advanced Microsoft licence.
And implementing more Microsoft services doesn't automatically improve the business.
Every additional tool introduces some combination of configuration, administration, training and change.
The useful question remains:
Does this solve a problem or create useful value for the business?
If the answer is no, the fact that the technology is available isn't a good enough reason to introduce it.
So, is Microsoft 365 worth it?
For many small businesses, yes.
It can bring email, productivity applications, files, collaboration, identity, security and a growing collection of business tools into a platform that can develop with the organisation.
But the value comes from choosing the right licences, configuring the environment sensibly and actually using the capabilities that matter.
Paying for a more capable subscription while continuing to work exactly as before doesn't create much value.
If you're paying for Microsoft 365 already, though, there may be considerably more sitting inside your subscription than you realise.
And that's probably worth finding out before you buy your next piece of software.
Not sure whether you're getting good value from Microsoft 365?
Whether you're considering Microsoft 365 for the first time or already paying for it and wondering if you're using it properly, Fairbourne can help you understand what you have, what you actually need and where there may be opportunities to simplify things or get more value.