Microsoft 365 and Email Management in Newmarket

What Microsoft 365 Management Actually Means

Microsoft 365 is not a product you buy once and forget. It is a live platform that needs configuring correctly, kept up to date and managed as your business changes. For small businesses and offices in Newmarket, that means making sure email flows reliably, users have the right access, security settings are switched on and tools like Teams and SharePoint are actually working for you rather than causing confusion.

We set up, migrate and manage Microsoft 365 for businesses running Windows PCs and laptops. We handle the technical side so your team can get on with their work.

Warning Signs Your Microsoft 365 Setup Has Problems

Most businesses do not realise their setup is wrong until something breaks. By then, email may have been undelivered for days, or a member of staff has left and their account was never properly closed. Here are the signs worth acting on before they become bigger problems.

• Email goes missing or lands in spam. This points to DNS records - specifically SPF, DKIM and DMARC - that are missing or misconfigured. These records tell the internet that your domain is authorised to send email. Without them, your messages may be silently rejected by recipients' mail servers.
• Staff share files by emailing attachments. If your team is not using SharePoint or Teams for file sharing, either those tools have not been set up or nobody has been shown how to use them. This matters because emailed attachments create version confusion and are harder to secure.
• You are paying for licences nobody uses. A common problem is licences assigned to people who have left, or plans purchased that are more expensive than needed. Microsoft 365 offers several licence tiers and choosing the wrong one wastes money every month.
• Passwords are the only protection on accounts. If multi-factor authentication is not switched on, a single stolen password gives an attacker full access to your email, files and contacts. This is one of the most frequent causes of business email compromise.
• You have no idea what is in your Microsoft 365 tenant. If nobody in your business knows which users have admin rights, where your data is stored or whether backups exist, that is a governance problem that needs fixing before it matters.
• Teams meetings or calls keep failing. This can be down to incorrect licences, network issues or misconfigured settings. It does not fix itself.
• You migrated from an old email system and things still feel wrong. Migrations done quickly or without proper planning often leave mailboxes with missing folders, broken calendars or shared mailboxes that nobody can access correctly.

What Causes These Problems

The root cause is almost always one of three things: the initial setup was done in a hurry, the business has grown since it was set up and nobody has kept pace, or licences were bought directly from Microsoft without anyone configuring the platform properly.

Microsoft 365 is designed to be self-service, which means it is easy to get an account working at a basic level. But basic is not the same as correct. SPF records need to be added to your domain registrar. Shared mailboxes need proper delegation. SharePoint needs a folder structure and permissions that match how your business actually works. None of that happens automatically.

A further cause is staff turnover. When someone leaves and their account is just deleted rather than properly offboarded, the business can lose access to their emails, their OneDrive files and any Teams channels they owned. A proper offboarding process preserves that data and removes the security risk.

What We Do to Put It Right

We start by looking at what you have. That means checking your current licences, DNS records, user accounts, sharing settings, security configurations and any connected services. From that, we can tell you what is wrong and what needs to change.

If you are moving from an older email system - whether that is a local Exchange server, a previous hosted provider or something like Google Workspace - we handle the migration. That includes moving mailboxes, calendars and contacts across without losing data, and making sure email continues to flow during the changeover.

Once everything is set up correctly, ongoing management means we keep an eye on your Microsoft 365 environment, handle new user setups and leavers, manage licence changes, deal with problems and make sure security settings stay current. You do not need to think about it.

Support Contracts and Pricing

Our support is priced per computer per month, not per user. All prices exclude VAT.

Business Essentials covers unlimited remote and phone support during office hours, with updates, backups and security monitoring included. On-site visits are charged separately at a £60 call-out fee plus labour. Pricing: 1 computer £36/month, 2-3 computers £31.20 each, 4-9 computers £25.20 each, 10-17 computers £22.20 each, 18 or more £21.60 each.

Business Premium pricing: 1 computer £54/month, 2-3 computers £42 each, 4-6 computers £38.60 each, 7-9 computers £33.80 each, 10-12 computers £31.20 each, 13-15 computers £28.40 each, 16-19 computers £25.40 each, 20 or more £24.40 each.

If a monthly contract does not suit you, we offer pre-paid time blocks: 4 hours for £312, 8 hours for £592 or 16 hours for £1,123.

A managed email service is also available, priced on request. If your main need is reliable business email rather than full Microsoft 365 management, ask us about that separately.

What to Ask Any IT Provider Before You Sign Up

Whether you use us or someone else, these are the questions worth asking. Will DNS records be configured correctly from the start? Who holds the admin credentials for your Microsoft 365 tenant - you or them? What happens to data when a user leaves? Are Microsoft 365 backups included, or is that a separate cost? (Microsoft does not back up your data by default - that is a fact many businesses discover too late.) And are licences billed at Microsoft's published price, or is there a markup?

We work with businesses in Newmarket and the surrounding area, including Bury St Edmunds, Cambridge, Ely and Haverhill. Call us to talk through what your current setup looks like and what it would take to get it working properly.