Microsoft 365 Services & Support
Secure, manage and optimise Microsoft 365 with expert support from Secure Chain. From migration and governance to security and user adoption, we help organisations get more value from their Microsoft investment.
Most organisations use a fraction of what they're paying for.
Microsoft 365 is sold as a single product, but underneath it's dozens of separate services — Exchange, SharePoint, Teams, Intune, Defender, Purview — each with its own configuration decisions. Most tenants we review were set up quickly during an initial rollout or a forced move during the pandemic, with default settings left largely untouched since. The result is a licence spend that's often justified on paper but delivering a fraction of the available value in practice.
Security is usually the sharpest gap. Legacy authentication protocols that bypass modern multi-factor authentication are still enabled in a surprising number of tenants, conditional access policies are absent or too permissive, and mailbox forwarding rules set up by an attacker months ago sometimes go unnoticed until a client complains about a fraudulent invoice. None of this requires additional licensing to fix — it requires someone to actually go through the configuration properly.
Governance is the second recurring problem. Without clear rules for creating Teams and SharePoint sites, organisations end up with dozens of duplicate, orphaned or badly permissioned sites within a year or two, making it genuinely hard to find the right document and harder still to know who can see it. A 60-user professional services firm we've spoken with had over 40 SharePoint sites for 60 people, most created ad hoc and never decommissioned.
Then there's licensing cost. E5 seats assigned to people who only need email, add-on products purchased separately that duplicate features already included in the bundle, and leavers whose licences were never reassigned or removed are common findings. None of these problems are unusual, and none of them are difficult to fix once someone has actually looked.
- Legacy authentication protocols left enabled, bypassing MFA
- No conditional access policy governing risky sign-ins
- Sprawling, badly permissioned Teams and SharePoint sites
- Licence tiers mismatched to actual user needs, inflating cost
We review, harden and manage the tenant you already have.
We start with a tenant health review covering identity and access, mail flow and security, Teams and SharePoint governance, and licence allocation against actual usage. This gives us a factual baseline rather than an assumption, and gives you a plain-language report of what's working, what's exposed and what's being paid for but not used.
From there we prioritise security hardening first — enforcing MFA properly, disabling legacy authentication, configuring conditional access policies appropriate to your risk profile, and setting up Defender for Office 365 to catch phishing and malicious attachments before they reach a mailbox. This is usually the highest-impact, lowest-disruption work, and we sequence it so day-to-day operations aren't interrupted.
Where migration is needed — moving from an old tenant during an acquisition, consolidating multiple tenants after a merger, or moving off an on-premise Exchange server — we plan it in phases: pilot group, staged cutover, and a defined post-migration period to catch issues before we consider the job done. We keep users informed throughout rather than treating migration as a purely technical event.
Governance and adoption come last but matter just as much. We set sensible policies for who can create Teams and SharePoint sites, put naming and lifecycle rules in place, and run short training sessions so staff actually use the tools correctly rather than reverting to email attachments and shared spreadsheets out of habit.
- Tenant health review before any changes are made
- Security hardening sequenced to avoid disrupting operations
- Phased migration with a defined pilot and cutover plan
- Governance policies and short, role-specific user training
Everything in the engagement, set out up front.
Support scoped to what your organisation actually needs, from a single project to ongoing tenant management.
Tenant health review
A full audit of identity, security, mail flow, collaboration governance and licence utilisation, delivered as a plain-language report.
Security hardening
MFA enforcement, conditional access, legacy authentication removal and Defender for Office 365 configuration.
Migration and consolidation
Tenant-to-tenant or on-premise-to-cloud migration planned in phases with a defined pilot and cutover.
Licence optimisation
Usage analysis against assigned licences, with a recommended tier mix that reduces cost without losing capability.
Teams and SharePoint governance
Site creation policies, naming standards and lifecycle rules that stop sprawl before it starts.
User adoption support
Short, role-specific training and simple reference guides so licences purchased actually get used.
What you receive.
- Tenant health review report
- Prioritised security remediation plan
- Conditional access and MFA configuration
- Licence utilisation and cost optimisation summary
- Migration plan with pilot and cutover schedule
- Teams and SharePoint governance policy
- User training sessions and quick-reference guides
- Ongoing administration arrangement, if required
Built for organisations that need the work done properly.
Organisations that inherited a tenant
Businesses that took on their Microsoft 365 setup through growth, acquisition or a previous IT provider and have never had it properly reviewed.
Firms consolidating after a merger
Organisations needing two or more tenants merged or migrated without losing mail history, files or Teams structure.
SMEs without dedicated Microsoft expertise
Businesses whose internal IT resource is generalist rather than specialist, and who need Microsoft 365 configured properly rather than left on default.
Regulated businesses tightening controls
Legal, healthcare and financial services firms that need access control and audit logging to satisfy client due diligence or a compliance framework.
What changes once the work is done.
What changes once the tenant is reviewed, secured and properly governed.
Fewer account compromises
MFA enforcement and legacy authentication removal close the entry point behind most Microsoft 365 account takeovers.
Lower licence spend
Right-sized licence tiers and removed leaver accounts typically reduce annual Microsoft 365 cost without cutting capability.
Findable, well-governed content
A managed Teams and SharePoint structure means staff can find the right document without hunting through duplicate sites.
Stronger compliance position
Access control, MFA and audit logging map directly to Cyber Essentials, ISO 27001 and client due diligence requirements.
Smoother migrations
A phased approach with a genuine pilot avoids the mailbox and file loss that rushed cutovers commonly cause.
Better adoption of paid features
Short training and simple guidance mean features you're already licensed for actually get used day to day.
Why work with Secure Chain on Microsoft 365.
Microsoft 365 support sits at the intersection of IT administration and security, and treating it purely as one or the other tends to leave gaps. We approach every tenant with a security consultancy background first, which means conditional access, MFA and legacy authentication get fixed as a matter of course rather than as an optional extra bolted on afterwards.
We're not a Microsoft reseller pushing licence upgrades. Our recommendations are based on what a tenant actually needs, which sometimes means recommending a lower licence tier than the one currently assigned. That approach has occasionally cost us a larger initial project fee, but it's also why clients keep us on for ongoing work.
As a Microsoft security partner working across UK organisations in Chesterfield, Sheffield, Derby, Nottingham, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and London, we see the same handful of configuration gaps repeatedly across sectors — legal firms, healthcare suppliers, manufacturers and financial services businesses all inherit broadly similar Microsoft 365 setups, and broadly similar problems.
Whether you need a single focused project — a migration, a security review, a licence audit — or an ongoing arrangement where we handle day-to-day tenant administration, we scope the work to match, and we're straightforward about what will and won't move the needle for your organisation.
Questions we are asked most often.
Do you manage our existing Microsoft 365 tenant, or do we need to move providers first?
We work with the tenant you already have. There's no requirement to switch licensing reseller or move away from an existing IT provider before we start — we typically slot in alongside internal teams or an existing MSP, focused specifically on Microsoft 365 configuration, security and governance rather than general helpdesk support.
Can you help us reduce our Microsoft 365 licence spend?
Usually, yes. Licence audits regularly turn up unused E5 seats assigned to leavers, duplicate add-ons purchased separately when they're already included in a bundle, and users on premium tiers who only need the basics. We review actual usage against assigned licences and recommend a tier mix that matches what people genuinely do.
How long does a Microsoft 365 tenant-to-tenant migration take?
For a straightforward migration of 50-150 mailboxes with modest SharePoint content, four to eight weeks including planning, pilot migration, cutover and post-migration cleanup is typical. Complex Teams structures, large document libraries or multiple business units extend that timeline, and we scope it properly before quoting rather than guessing.
What's involved in Microsoft 365 security hardening?
Conditional access policies, multi-factor authentication enforcement, mailbox rule auditing, Defender for Office 365 configuration, and removing legacy authentication protocols that bypass MFA entirely. Most tenants we review have at least one of these gaps, often because default settings were never revisited after initial setup.
Do you provide ongoing support or just one-off projects?
Both. Some clients need a defined project — a migration, a security review, a Teams rollout — and then hand day-to-day administration back internally. Others prefer an ongoing managed arrangement where we handle tenant administration, security monitoring and change requests on a retained basis. We scope whichever fits.
Will Microsoft 365 support help with compliance requirements like Cyber Essentials or ISO 27001?
It contributes directly. Access control, MFA enforcement, patch and update management within the Microsoft ecosystem, and secure configuration all map to control areas assessed under Cyber Essentials and ISO 27001. We configure the tenant with those frameworks in mind where relevant, rather than treating security and compliance as separate exercises.
How do you handle user adoption, not just the technical setup?
Technical configuration without adoption support tends to leave expensive licences underused. We run short, role-specific training sessions, produce simple reference guides, and identify a handful of internal champions who can answer day-to-day questions once we've moved on, so the investment actually gets used.
Managed IT services
Day-to-day IT support and administration that complements a well-governed Microsoft 365 tenant.
Microsoft Copilot for Business
Deploy Copilot safely once your Microsoft 365 governance and data permissions are in order.
Managed security services
Ongoing monitoring and response that extends beyond the Microsoft 365 tenant to your wider estate.
Want an honest read on your current Microsoft 365 setup?
Book a free tenant health review and we'll tell you plainly what's exposed, what's underused, and what it would take to fix.
Book a free tenant health review