After some research you have a shortlist: Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, a password manager, a backup solution. All that software needs licences. The offering is overwhelming, and every package promises something slightly different. As a result, many organisations buy too much or too little, both with unnecessary costs and risks. In the second edition of The Digital Compass we offer some guidance.
Four questions before you buy anything
The right choice does not start with the supplier’s advice, but with your own organisation.
- Which processes are critical? Which activities bring everything to a halt if they stop working? Think of invoicing, customer contact, planning or processing orders. Which systems, accounts and data do they need?
- Where is your risk? For one organisation a leak of the customer database is the biggest blow, for another it is not being able to deliver services. Make a simple risk matrix (risk is likelihood times impact) and decide what needs extra coverage.
- How mature is your organisation? You do not need to get everything perfect at once. Start with what is really needed and build step by step.
- Which legislation applies to you? Check whether you fall under NIS2 and what that means for risk management, incident reporting and continuity. A good starting point is the NIS2 overview of the Dutch Digital Trust Center. Also read NIS2: don’t start buying, start watching.
Why a strong foundation saves money
Many organisations only discover too late that they paid for licences they never used for years, or missed essential features when it mattered. A good foundation prevents duplicate tools that do the same thing, gaps you thought you had closed, and costly re-implementations because the wrong licence was chosen.
Where you start matters too. Email from a random hosting provider “that also does email” sounds attractive, but quickly runs into limits: no proper calendar, no modern security options. Then you have to switch later anyway.
Zooming in on Microsoft
Microsoft has a huge portfolio, from basic productivity to advanced security and compliance. Working out the licences is far from easy, and many organisations use only a fraction of what they pay for. For most organisations, one of the Microsoft 365 bundles is the technical foundation. The difference between the bundles lies mainly in:
- security: MFA, identity management and email security
- device management: policies, updates and compliance
- data protection: data loss prevention, encryption and backups
Many organisations buy separate tools for things already in their package, such as email filtering, device security and device management. Microsoft often already has good options within the licences you have anyway.
The security features you really want to use
If you work with Microsoft, a few features are not a luxury but a necessity. Think of them as the smoke detectors, fire extinguishers and locks of your digital office.
- Safe Links checks links in emails and documents the moment you click, even if criminals change a link afterwards. That way one click on an “invoice” does not become a ransomware incident. Safe Links is included in Business Premium, but is also available separately for Business Basic, Business Standard or Exchange Online.
- Safe Attachments first opens attachments in an isolated environment. Only when they turn out to be safe do they reach the recipient.
- Identity Protection provides mandatory MFA, protection against password guessing and risk-based access. One stolen password then does not mean someone walks straight into your organisation.
- Defender for Endpoint blocks malware and stops suspicious processes on laptops and other devices before they do damage. With hybrid working, that is no longer a luxury.
Want to know why we start most organisations on Microsoft 365 Business Premium? Read Why you should arrange your digital foundation now.
Help with the choice
Not sure whether you have the right licences, or whether you use everything you pay for? A baseline assessment shows what is already there and what is missing.
More in The Digital Compass
This article is based on the second edition of The Digital Compass (in Dutch). It also covers logins, authorisation, email security and backups.
