Having a modern, secure, and well-performing Microsoft 365 setup is the key to an effective digital workplace. Whether your organisation is planning to utilise hybrid, remote or flexible working, you need to ensure that your systems are optimised as well as cost-efficient.
If your Microsoft cloud is not protected by security best practices, cyber criminals could exploit the flaws to access your documents and data. Or worse, if your setup was rushed, your employee engagement could be low or overall performance could be affected.
Below are some of the areas you should consider when reviewing and auditing your Microsoft 365 environment for a digital workplace. The benefits of this are:
Performance – Improve your organisational performance with analytics to support resource planning and resilience.
Pricing – Identify cost savings in licensing, subscriptions, new platforms and cloud workloads.
Security – Follow security best practices and enhance your system security.
Modernised – Become modern and data-focussed, trying out new solutions if they fit your organisation’s appetite.
Operational Management
Audit your existing licencing and infrastructure investments to determine if:
- You are running your applications in the correct environment for your risk profile
- If your systems are over-provisioned, planning for changes in demand in advance, and ensuring your long-term cloud services are in the most cost-effective solutions
- Your licences and subscriptions are suited to your needs. Many organisations are over-licensed, which could find some cost savings. Other organisations have unrealised scalability in their infrastructure.
Performance and Pricing
Your cloud infrastructure should be cost and performance optimised to ensure your mission-critical services are prioritised. You can:
- Implement analytics to monitor your cloud resources, identify the causes of your problems and work to provide service effectiveness and user satisfaction
- Build a resource planning capability
- Monitor and review your network consumption and resilience
- Ensure you’re not overpaying for services and any shift in service demand since your implementation has been adjusted for
- Transfer your long-term and stable cloud services to the most cost-effective provider
Security
Your data is often safest in the cloud with the multitude of security services available. However, are you using the most up-to-date tools and regularly reviewing your cloud security?
- Ensure that you are GDPR compliant in where your data is stored, how it is reported on and removed, archived, or purged
- Ensure that your risk appetite is matched with where your data and documents are stored
- Regularly review your services to enhance your system security
- Ensure best practice has been followed, with applications built with security as a priority, following the zero-trust principles
Modernised and Data-Focussed
Keeping up to date is a challenge, so focussing on the essential areas will help to simplify this process. Cloud providers are constantly developing new Platforms as a Service (PaaS), so you may find a solution that you need comes available.
- Regularly evaluate if these new platforms offer better capability or cost
- Migrate your data to new platforms that improve your existing capability
- Utilise modern business intelligence and analytics services
- Test new innovative ideas in low-risk environments
- Join up applications and datasets to offer new insights to support decision-making and improve service delivery
This insight provides a lot of information and checks that you could perform, which can be overwhelming. Cantium has also produced a Microsoft 365 for the Digital Workplace Guide, enabling you to digest this in more manageable chunks.
Alternatively, you may employ a Managed Service Partner (MSP) to support you with ensuring that your 365 implementation is optimised. Cantium’s Microsoft Gold Accredited experts can work with you to define a Microsoft 365 specific security strategy and ensure that your security tools are implemented correctly, maximising their efficiency and protection. We can also assess your performance and operational management to find further efficiencies. And lastly, ensure that your organisation is licensed with the correct subscription model for your usage.
Partnering with Cantium means that we will work together on your Microsoft 365 setup. We will ensure all your essential services are fully operational, monitored continuously, and usage data is captured accurately. Following this, we will design a governance strategy that ensures your resources are managed effectively as your usage and capabilities grow.
You can get in touch by submitting a contact form, emailing us, or calling our solutions team to discuss your needs further.
