When businesses invest in Microsoft 365, they usually do so for a reason. They’ve heard it’s an all-in-one platform that can help improve productivity, streamline day-to-day operations, and strengthen protection against an increasingly complex threat landscape. And it absolutely can.
The problem is that many organisations expect those benefits to appear automatically, straight out of the box. The reality is that while solutions such as Business Premium come with a range of default settings designed to give you a solid starting point, they are still exactly that: a starting point.
Microsoft 365 can support the way your team works, help solve the challenges your business faces, and provide protection against the risks most relevant to your industry. But to do so, its settings need to be reviewed, configured, and very likely adapted to your individual environment.
What needs configuring in Business Premium?
If the goal is to tailor Microsoft 365 to the specific needs of your organisation, then there’s no single answer to that question. After all, every business operates differently, every team works differently, and every organisation faces its own unique security challenges and compliance requirements.
However, after carrying out configuration audits across organisations of all sizes and across a wide range of industries, we’ve noticed a handful of common issues appearing time and time again. If you’re wondering if there’s something you’ve overlooked, or something that’s been configured in a less-than-optimal way, these are some of the first places to look:
1. SharePoint permissions. Many have gradually become too open. Someone shares a folder with a wider group for a legitimate reason, and then it never gets revisited. Over time, access expands far beyond what was originally intended, simply because nobody has had a reason to tidy it up.
2. Retention settings. Often, these don’t provide enough visibility. Audit logs play an important role in understanding what’s happening across your environment, but if retention settings aren’t configured appropriately for your needs, this important information may not be available when it’s needed.
3. Administrative privileges. It’s surprisingly common to find practically an entire business of users all with admin rights. Do they really need them? It’s unlikely. Whether it happened during initial setup or through years of changes, giving too many people too much control creates unnecessary risk.
4. Conditional Access policies. They’re usually too broad. Conditional Access is one of the most powerful security tools in Business Premium, but it works best when permissions are tight. Applying the principle of least privilege helps ensure users only have access to what they genuinely need.
“But I’m pretty sure we’re properly configured…”
That’s great! If you’ve invested time into tailoring Microsoft 365 around your business, you’re already ahead of many organisations. However, it’s important to remember that misconfigurations don’t always happen because something was forgotten during setup. Sometimes, misconfigurations happen as a byproduct of fixing an issue. And at times, it may even be due to malicious behaviour.
That’s why regular reviews matter. A Microsoft configuration audit can help to identify hidden issues in your settings before they become big problems, giving you confidence that your environment is aligned with the way your business works today. Want a helping hand getting it sorted? Call us!