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What is Microsoft 365 Business Voice

Microsoft business voice is a new service being offered by Microsoft.

It allows you to import your landline numbers into Microsoft Teams and utilise teams as your phone system.

Best suited for SMEs and particularly useful in the modern post COVID-19 world. It allows you to access your traditional desk phone number from either a mobile app, the teams desktop app or from a teams enabled desk phone. Perfect if you've got staff working from home but still need the sales calls picked up.

It has all the features of a simple phone system, allowing you to setup call routing and hunt groups. As long as your existing phone system isn't doing anything too complicated it should be able to slip straight in and handle all the facilities your current system does.

It's a Software as a Service product (see our article here about SaaS). It's licensed within Microsoft 365 (more details on Microsoft 365 here), this means you can scale it as you need. You only pay for what you require and you no longer have to look after the cumbersome hardware of a phone system on site.

What does it cost and what do you get

The standard cost is £12 user/month and that includes 1200 minutes of UK calls per user each month. These minutes are pooled at the tenant level. This means your users can share all their minutes between them. You likely have some users who make lots of calls and some who make hardly any. This allows you to share the minutes between them, making your allowances go further.

The only requirement is your users need to have a Microsoft 365 license as well.

You can implement desk phones, if you like the traditional approach, but the system works just as well from within the Teams desktop app with a headset, making a very cheap way of implementing a new system.

If you'd like to chat about implementing Microsoft 365 Business voice then please give us a call on 01252 918 990, or why not book in free consultation here

We previously wrote a blog on the varying levels of Microsoft 365 licensing for small businesses (have a read here). In that article we highlighted that our recommendation to our clients would be the Business Premium license level.

In this article we're going to look at the main reasons why we recommend this and why it's worth the extra money.

Whilst there are a number of minor additions included in the business premium license, there are a two key features which make the extra money a sound investment for your business.

Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)

ATP is the name for a selection of features designed to protect you and your business from spam email, phishing attacks and other malware.

It comprises of the following features

• A powerful spam filter - Used to filter out spam email. It uses artificial intelligence to scan the email and make a better judgement on what is spam and what is genuine.
• An anti-phishing policies -  These prevent or at least highlight what it sees as attempts to impersonate your users. This protects against the type of attack where an attacker impersonates a senior manager and asks a more junior person to do something, say transfer some money.
• Malware detection - Checks emails and notifies users when suspected malware is detected.
• Safe links - Scans all links sent in emails to ensure the destination site is safe. Preventing the user clicking on a link which is dangerous.
• Safe attachments - Scans all email attachments before they are given to a user. Identifying and removing any malware before a user can access it.

These tools help to protect your users and business from a number of threats. There will always be different levels of IT knowledge and experience within your team.  The risk to your business of someone clicking the wrong link or entering their credentials in the wrong website is huge. The extra help these tools bring is invaluable and can save you both money and brand reputation in the long run.

Intune

Intune is a feature which allows you to manage your business devices. Intune can keep track of all your devices. It can highlight any devices which are no longer compliant from a security perspective. You can use it to manage updates and deploy software to laptops and desktops. In the event a device is lost or stolen, you can remotely remove all the company information from that device.

In a growing business there is a real risk of losing track of company equipment. Intune allows you to keep track of all your devices. In the event a device has gone missing you can effectively turn it into a paperweight. Removing all your corporate information from it and any risk of your data getting into the wrong hands.

We've all ignored updates for our devices. Many users within your organisation will continually ignore them and allow their machines to get out of date. You can use Intune to ensure critical security updates are delivered to all your devices, ensure that they are compliant and if devices become non-compliant, you can remove their access to your company data.

In short, Intune allows you to manage risk and takes the responsibility away from your individual staff members.

Summary

Both ATP and Intune allow you to manage risk within your business. They are both there so your users no longer have to worry about these threats. They centralise the management of risk and ensure a consistent approach throughout your business.

To us, the additional license cost is a very reasonable price for this reduction in risk.

If you'd like to have a chat about Microsoft 365 licensing and the benefits of the premium license or anything else then please give us a call on 01252 918 990 or book a free consultation with one of the team here.

Microsoft 365 licensing can look very confusing from the outset. Understanding what you need for your business and finding the information on what each level of licensing actually gives you can be quite a challenge. Combine that with a recent rebranding from Office 365 to Microsoft 365 and renaming all the license levels , there is a lot of confusion around.

The license options for small businesses can broadly be broken down into 3 options:

Microsoft 365 Business Basic (£3.80 user/month)

As the name suggests, this is the basic license. It provides you with email, online storage and access to MS Teams. It doesn't provide you with access to the desktop apps. With this license you can't use Excel, Word, PowerPoint or Outlook on your desktop. However, you do get access to the web versions of the Office apps.

This license is probably most useful for someone in your team who needs access to email primarily working on a Mobile or Tablet. You want to be able to share files to them, primarily for read only purposes.

Microsoft 365 Business Standard (£9.40 user/month)

The standard offering has all the features of the basic version, plus access the desktop applications. This means that this license is suitable for someone using a laptop or desktop computer and accessing your files and data to edit.

If you're getting started and just bringing on a couple of members of staff, this license level probably suits you best.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium (£15.10 user/month)

The premium license has all the features of the basic and standard licenses but adds additional features including the ability to manage devices, laptops, mobiles tablets. It also includes advanced threat protection which helps protect your business from spam and malware threats.

We generally recommend a premium license. That said, it probably only suites businesses who have an IT partner on board to manage the additional features.

You can mix and match your licenses. We have a few clients who give basic licenses to staff members who don't need the desktop apps and primarily only use email, whilst the rest of their staff use standard or premium licenses.

It's worth mentioning you can also get an Exchange Online license. This is just email and nothing else. The license is £3 user/month. We generally don't advise clients to go down this road as the cost difference with the basic license is minimal. We often find users who just have email do occasionally need access to shared files or other services. However, it is an option if you have users who only need an email address.

We always happy to chat with anyone about their Microsoft 365 licensing options. Why not book a free consultation here, or give us a call if you have any questions on 01252 918 990.

If you're interested in reading more you can see our article here about how combining Microsoft 365 with Windows 10 Pro can add value to your business.