Microsoft 365 is where most small businesses actually live — email, files, calendars, the sign-in that everything else depends on. It is also the part most likely to have been set up once, years ago, by whoever was nearest, and never looked at again.
Email that arrives, and email that does not
The worst email faults are the quiet ones. A form on your website reports “message sent” and the message never lands. Invoices go to a customer’s junk folder for months. A newsletter reaches half the list. Nothing errors, so nobody investigates, and the assumption is that business is simply slow.
These are almost always authentication problems — SPF, DKIM and DMARC records that do not describe who is actually allowed to send as you. Getting them right is what separates mail that is delivered from mail that is silently discarded at the far end, and it is work that pays for itself the first time a lost enquiry turns out to have been a real customer.
Sign-in, access, and the day someone leaves
Most breaches of a small business are not clever. Someone reuses a password, it appears in a breach list, and an attacker signs in as them — no malware, no alarm, just a normal-looking login.
Multi-factor authentication, conditional access rules and knowing which accounts have more power than they need are the difference between that being a non-event and a fortnight of cleaning up. So is having a process for leavers: an account that still works six months after someone walked out is a door nobody is watching.
Files, and where they actually are
OneDrive and SharePoint are useful once they are structured, and chaotic when they are not. Shared documents that only one person can find, four copies of the same spreadsheet with different numbers in them, an external link that was shared once and never expired.
Setting this up properly is mostly a matter of deciding who needs what and then making the tooling reflect that decision, rather than letting it accumulate.
What this covers
- Microsoft 365 setup, migration and tenant configuration
- Email deliverability — SPF, DKIM and DMARC, checked and corrected
- Multi-factor authentication and conditional access
- OneDrive and SharePoint structure, permissions and sharing rules
- Moving from another provider without losing mail or breaking calendars
- Starters and leavers, licensing, and removing what you are paying for and not using
- Outlook faults, repeated password prompts and sync problems
A free hardening check
If you already have Microsoft 365, the security configuration can be reviewed at no cost. You get a plain list of what is exposed and what it would take to close, and no obligation to have any of it done here.
It is offered free because it is genuinely quick, and because the findings tend to speak for themselves.
What it costs
Quoted once the tenant has been looked at, because “set up Microsoft 365” covers everything from one mailbox to a migration with shared calendars, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.
Common questions
Does Microsoft back up my email?
Not in the way most people assume. Microsoft protects its own infrastructure and keeps deleted items for a limited window. If something is deleted and nobody notices for a few months, that window will have closed. Backup is a separate decision.
Can you move us from Google Workspace, or from an old POP mailbox?
Yes. Mail, contacts and calendars come across, and the cutover is planned so nothing is lost in the gap.
We think our email is going to spam. Can that be fixed?
Usually. It is normally an authentication problem rather than the content of the messages, and the records can be checked before anything is changed.
Do we need Business Premium or will Basic do?
Depends on whether you need the security and device management features. You will get a straight answer rather than an upsell, including the case for staying on what you have.
Tell us what is not working
Describe how your team uses Microsoft 365 today and what keeps going wrong. You will get a plain answer on what can be tidied up and what it costs.
Message on WhatsApp Send an email
Prefer to talk? Call (941) 424-8081. Serving Bradenton, Lakewood Ranch, Sarasota, Palmetto and Parrish.
BRATechSystems carries $1,000,000 general liability and $1,000,000 technology errors and omissions insurance through The Hartford. A certificate of insurance is available on request.
