Why a basic email service is not enough 

Why a basic email service is not enough 

Whilst most businesses have moved their email services to Microsoft 365, particularly where they had to maintain and manage an internal email server, a lot of smaller business still rely on the limited services provided by their web hosting provider. 

One of those smaller businesses asked “why should we move, it’s just email?” 

Time 

There is never enough time. As business owners, there is always something else to do, so why waste your time on email?  

Think about how much time you spend…sorting and getting rid of spam/junk mail whilst organising emails and tracking their associated actions. 

Whilst Microsoft cannot completely solve these problems they can certainly filter more spam/junk email so you don’t have to deal with it. Plus, categories, rules and tasks help you manage and deal with the associated actions. 

Synchronisation across devices 

If you use older connection protocols such as SMTP or IMAP to access your email then you will likely find that your email doesn’t look exactly the same across your devices. This is especially the case for sent items and possibly items that you mark as read or unread. 

With Microsoft 365 you do not end up with different copies of your emails stored on different devices, instead all the devices and web mail look at the same, centrally stored mailbox so every device views the same thing. 

Security 

Like it or not but us humans are the weakest link in the security chain and email is a prime target for scam, phishing and fraud and there is a good chance that you will open one of these emails and interact with it.  

Again Microsoft cannot guarantee that these emails will not get through, but they do implement robust systems to detect and filter these emails so you don’t get them in the first place.  

However, it’s not just opening a “dodgy” email that you need to look out for, you have to login and that includes your email address, password and must now also include multifactor authentication. This is on by default via Microsoft and if you do not have this you are at high risk of someone capturing your password through a phishing attack and then sending email pretending to be you. 

Flexibility 

Access email from anywhere on any device, all you need is your username, password and multifactor authentication. With those, you can access either directly via Outlook on your mobile or PC/Laptop/Tablet or via a web browser.  

Even in the “just email” Microsoft 365 environment you have Calendaring, Contacts, Contact lists, To Do’s, automated rules, Out of Office and categorisation there is so much more than just an inbox.  

Beyond the basic email only subscription there is also OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, Microsoft Office, Bookings, Forms, Planner Power apps, Power automation, Power bi and Copilot. The ability to access and make use of additional tools, services and automations to help run your business is almost limitless.  

Cost 

Of course there is a cost but its minimal compared to the amount of time you can save:  

*all correct at time of writing, excluding VAT, per person per month and annual commitment 

Business Basic (Email, Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint and online only version of Office) = from £4.60 per month 

Business Standard (All Business Basic + Full versions of Microsoft Office) = from £9.60 per month 

Business Premium (All Business Standard + Entra, Intune and Microsoft Defender) = from  £16.90 per month 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/business/compare-all-microsoft-365-business-products

How to migrate 

Although the steps are relatively simple it is important that you get the steps right and we can help to make sure that your migration goes smoothly without any disruption: 

1. Identify all your existing email addresses, forwarding distribution lists etc

1. Setup a new Microsoft 365 environment 

1. Setup new accounts, mailboxes, forwarding and distribution lists to match your existing environment 

1. Carry out a behind the scenes migration to copy all existing email to the new tenant whilst you are still using your existing system 

1. Arrange a cut over date/time (normally out of hours) to switch email delivery to the new Microsoft environment 

1. Cut over you are now live in the Microsoft environment and reconfigure all your devices to point at the new setup 

1. Verify everything is working as it should 

Whatever your IT question – big or small – drop us a message or give us a call. We’ll make sure you get a straightforward answer without the tech-speak. 

IT that just works. So you can, too.