Microsoft 365 is one of the most powerful productivity platforms available today, but most small and medium-sized businesses are only using 20-30% of what they are paying for. If your organization is using M365 primarily for email and basic Office apps, you are leaving significant value on the table.
This is a practical guide to unlocking more of your Microsoft 365 subscription before license sprawl, weak governance, or default security settings become a bigger operational problem.
If you are already seeing those issues, Fraser IT’s Microsoft 365 consulting services and Microsoft 365 administration support are built to help teams clean them up properly.
1. Start with Microsoft Teams
If your team is still relying on email for internal communication and sharing files over a VPN or physical drives, Teams should be your first priority.
Key features to adopt:
- Channels — Organize conversations by project, department, or topic
- Chat — Quick, informal communication instead of email threads
- File sharing — All files shared in Teams are automatically stored in SharePoint and accessible from anywhere
- Meetings — Replace in-person and third-party video tools with Teams Meetings
The ROI on Teams adoption alone often justifies the entire M365 license cost, especially for organizations trying to reduce email overload and tighten collaboration across hybrid teams.
2. Use SharePoint for Document Management
Most organizations have document management chaos — files scattered across desktops, USB drives, old servers, and email attachments. SharePoint Online is the solution.
What SharePoint provides:
- Centralized, cloud-based document storage with version history
- Granular permissions — control exactly who can see and edit what
- Co-authoring — multiple people can edit the same document simultaneously
- Retention policies — automatically manage document lifecycles
Quick win: Move your most important shared folders to SharePoint. You will immediately gain anywhere-access, version control, and search.
If the structure of your environment is already messy, SharePoint and Teams consulting can help you design a cleaner operating model before the mess scales.
3. Protect Your Organization with MFA
This is non-negotiable. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is available to all M365 subscribers and dramatically reduces the risk of account compromise.
Microsoft reports that MFA blocks 99.9% of automated account attacks. Enabling it takes less than an hour and costs nothing extra, and it is usually one of the fastest risk reductions a growing business can make.
Steps to enable MFA:
- Go to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center
- Navigate to Users > Active users
- Select Multi-factor authentication
- Enable for all users (or enforce via Conditional Access for more control)
4. Leverage OneDrive for Personal File Sync
OneDrive is M365’s personal file storage — and it’s often completely ignored. Encouraging your team to use OneDrive means:
- Files are automatically backed up to the cloud
- Employees can access their files from any device
- You can recover files after ransomware attacks
- No more “I left that file on my other computer” situations
5. Explore Power Automate for Simple Automation
Power Automate (formerly Flow) lets you create automated workflows without writing code. Even basic automations can save significant time.
Easy automations to start with:
- Send a Teams notification when a new file is added to a SharePoint folder
- Save email attachments automatically to OneDrive
- Create calendar events from form submissions
- Send approval requests via Teams for document reviews
Getting Help
Setting up and optimizing Microsoft 365 properly takes expertise. Many organizations have licenses configured incorrectly, security settings at default (and therefore insufficient), and features they don’t even know exist.
Fraser IT helps organizations get real value from their M365 investment, from initial configuration and tenant cleanup to ongoing optimization and governance.
Ready to maximize your M365 ROI? Get in touch with Fraser IT.
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