
Purchasing, installing and configuring licences is usually a simple matter that IT departments in companies and institutions around the world deal with every day. However, it may be the case that an organisation’s infrastructure is more complex and, in short, unprepared to exploit the full potential of Microsoft 365 solutions. What then? Where can you find support?
Preferably with a trusted Microsoft partner who is well acquainted with the local constraints and problems of the IT environment and has experience of working with different cases.
Case study
Customer: https://www.simzachodniopomorskie.pl/
Baseline: A Social Housing Initiative from the West Pomeranian region came forward with problems in the operation, handling and use of Microsoft 365 products. We provided the client with two account managers – both commercial and technical – who guided them through the entire change process. Following the request for support, we began by investigating and analysing the client’s infrastructure.
What did we find? What problems did we detect?
- various Office packages incompatible with O365 were installed in the company;
- documents were scattered in various locations, there was no single, centralised location where they were stored;
- lack of proper tools and experience in use, resulted in notorious problems with e.g. OneDrive etc., it was not possible to work together on documents;
- poor configuration of OneDrive resulted in constant errors and problems with the programme;
- a misconfigured Microsoft Project application did not allow the use of the tool’s capabilities;
- inexperience of employees in the area of full use of the purchased licences (the potential of the tools was exploited to a very small extent).
Change process: following a baseline analysis, we carried out a change process at the client that helped to organise licence management and make the most of the opportunities provided by Microsoft solutions.
What did we do?
- We helped to organise documentation – all documents were in one centralised place on SharePoint, segregated on the site. What’s more, we assigned team members the right permissions, which increased the security of company data.
- Accounts, groups and synchronisation with OneDrive were fixed, so the client gained the ability to use shared functionality.
- We helped configure the SharePoint and Outlook applications on mobile devices (smartphones), giving the client a mobile experience.
- We migrated mailboxes to Exchange.
- And, most importantly, we trained the staff! The company can finally use the full capabilities of its packages, thanks to the knowledge it has gained – it benefited from our 'Online Services + Administration’ training. There are two training courses: for administrators and for Microsoft 365 users.
Choose a competent business partner!
Sometimes, solving problems around the proper implementation of Microsoft 365 solutions, may be beyond the capacity of a company’s IT department, or when there is no such department in the organisation. Proper configuration of Microsoft 365 tools and proper implementation are the starting point for effective use of all available tools. It is worth having support from an experienced Microsoft partner in case of difficulties.
Prior to working with Senetic, we were struggling with issues around Microsoft 365 solutions. Senetic cleaned up our infrastructure, configured our environment along with centralising documents and increasing security. In addition, we benefited from the training of both our IT department and the users themselves, which optimised the workflow. We are planning further steps to modernise our environment, and we also want to implement such standards with our subcontractors. Certainly, at this stage too, we will once again benefit from the help of Senetic experts. – says Ada Arendt-Koman, Assistant to the President of SIM.
The case described is a model example of the problems faced by small and medium-sized enterprises, where personnel resources in IT departments are limited or not competent enough. Thanks to an analysis of the environment and standard configuration work, we improved the functioning of the company – without these 'tidies-up’, the system would not have been able to achieve greater efficiency and the problems would have built up. Most often, simple solutions and the support of an experienced integrator help to eliminate basic errors and difficulties and access the full potential of the tools.
Feel free to contact us!
For more information on Microsoft solutions, visit: https://microsoft365.senetic.co.uk/