Highlighting the importance of securing your business during National Small Business Week
It is a common misconception that cyberattacks only threaten large corporations. In reality, 1 in 3 small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) have experienced a cyberattack (1), ranging from phishing schemes to ransomware attacks. The average cost of a cyberattack is over $250K up to $7M (2), which can be a significant financial loss for a small business. This National Small Business Week, we want to highlight product innovations, customer stories, and resources. To help you understand the importance of cybersecurity and discover ways to protect your small and medium business. Microsoft 365 Business Premium helps you run your business, securely. Many small businesses do not have a dedicated IT team to manage their security needs. As a result, they need a simple and affordable solution. Microsoft 365 Business Premium combines essential security and productivity capabilities in a solution that is easy to use and cost-effective. It provides layered protection across user identities, devices, email and collaboration apps, and data security. To meet the growing needs of small businesses, we announced AI-powered phishing protection in Defender for Office 365. This helps detect and filter business email compromise (BEC) with 99.5% accuracy. We integrate with some of the top managed detection and response (MDR) providers such as Huntress, Blackpoint Cyber, Chorus Cyber, and ConnectWise MDR. For partners, we introduced the SMB-Verified Solution Status within the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA). The status highlights purpose-built technology solutions for SMBs and MSPs. As your security needs grow, Microsoft 365 E5 Security is available as an add-on: As cyberthreats continue to grow, and as cyber insurance and regulatory requirements evolve, many small businesses are now looking for enterprise-level security. To support the growing security needs, Microsoft now offers Microsoft 365 E5 Security as an add-on for Business Premium. E5 Security brings enterprise-grade protection on top of Business Premium. It gives organizations access to Microsoft’s most sophisticated security technologies. The Microsoft 365 E5 Security suite is cost-effective, saving organizations up to 57% compared to buying each product individually. Microsoft 365 E5 Security adds additional enterprise-grade XDR capabilities to what is already available in Business Premium. Such as: Identity, access, and protection controls: Business Premium includes Microsoft Entra ID P1, providing single sign-on, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and device and IP location based conditional access helping SMBs manage user identities and enable access from anywhere. Entra ID P2, as part of Microsoft 365 E5 Security, has Entra ID Protection offering risk-based conditional access that helps block identity attacks in real time using behavioral analytics and signals from both user risk and sign-in risk. Entra ID P2 also includes ID Governance capabilities to help automate workflows and processes that give users access to resources. With Privileged Identity Management (PIM) companies can provide users with only the minimum privileges needed to accomplish the tasks they're authorized to perform. Microsoft 365 E5 Security has Microsoft Defender for Identity which identifies, detects, and investigates threats for on-premises identities. Email and Collaboration security: Business Premium includes Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P1, which provides anti-phishing and anti-malware defenses, including Safe Links and Safe Attachments for real-time scanning of URLs and files sent via email, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint. Microsoft 365 E5 Security includes Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P2, which enhances the protections in P1. Providing automated investigation and response capabilities, as well as cyber-attack simulation training for both email and Microsoft Teams. Defender for Office 365 now offers end-to-end protection in Microsoft Teams. Organizations can report suspicious Teams messages, leverage advanced threat hunting capabilities within Teams, and gain more control over external organizational communications. Device Security Business Premium includes Microsoft Defender for Business (MDB) which brings AI-powered endpoint detection and response with automatic attack disruption, automated investigation and remediation, across Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android devices. E5 Security includes Microsoft Defender for Endpoint P2 adds advanced hunting, access to threat experts, and 6 months of data retention on the device. E5 Security also includes Microsoft Defender for IoT, which helps protect connected devices such as network printers and cameras. Software-as-a- service (SaaS) security: Microsoft 365 E5 Security introduces Defender for Cloud Apps, which helps prevent breaches caused by SaaS app misconfigurations—a common attack vector. Defender for Cloud Apps enables automated and continuous monitoring of SaaS apps to reduce security vulnerabilities and increase compliance by detecting misconfigurations and providing remediation steps for risky configurations. Lean more about Microsoft 365 E5 Security. See Customers in Action: “It’s valuable that Microsoft 365 Business Premium provides all the native controls for us to implement security benchmarks in audits and dramatically reduce the attack surface area”- JJ Milner, Cloud Architect and Managing Director, Global Micro Solutions Acumen Group partnered with Global Micro Solutions, a Microsoft partner, to help implement Business Premium due to increasingly complex mobile device management and security requirements as they scaled. “As part of our Microsoft E5 license which provides security features such as data loss prevention (DLP) and information labeling, we get just about every app under the sun and the more we delve into it, the more we can use it”- Danielle Brautigan, General and Finance Manager, McGees Property McGees Property switched to Microsoft 365, moving from on-premises servers and services to the cloud after being hit by a ransomware attack. The attack locked McGee’s employees out of their files for more than four weeks, forcing them to work from personal email accounts. Resources: At Microsoft, we have created multiple resources to help highlight the importance of cybersecurity and how to get started with Microsoft 365 Business Premium. Are you a customer? Visit our website to learn more about Microsoft Security solutions for SMBs. Are you a partner? Check out our partner playbooks to get started on your SMB managed services journey,– Microsoft 365 Business Premium Partner Playbook and Microsoft 365 E5 Security deck. References: [1, 2] 7 cybersecurity trends and tips for small and medium businesses to stay protected, Scott Woodgate. October 31, 2024Small and Medium Business Track for the M365 Community Conference
The Microsoft 365 Community Conference is the ultimate Microsoft 365 community event—and the perfect place to expand your skills and knowledge in Microsoft 365 and AI. You’ll learn directly from over 160 Microsoft product leaders, and gain access to more than 200 sessions, including keynotes, workshops, breakouts, and hands-on demos. This year we’re bringing you all-new content and sessions to help you transform the way you work—and maximize your impact with the tools you use every day. Small and Medium Business Track Ready to transform business growth with insights from AI and industry experts? Learn practical tips for using Microsoft 365 and Microsoft 365 Copilot to grow your customer base, build your brand, and scale securely. Access tailored product information and demos for small and medium businesses and learn from other business owners using AI to compete with larger organizations. Speakers Brenna Robinson | General Manager, Microsoft SMB Jacky Magee | Head of Marketing, AI at Work for SMB | Microsoft Alexia Cambon | Senior Director, Research | Microsoft Nick Masci | Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder | Industrialized Construction Group (ICG) Karim R. Lakhani | Dorothy & Michael Hintze Professor of Business Administration | Harvard Business School Sessions Accelerating Growth with AI-First Strategies for Small and Medium Businesses with Brenna Robinson The Future of Work: How AI Will Transform Small and Medium Businesses with Alexia Cambon, Jacky Magee, Nick Masci, and Karim R. Lakhani Copilot Adoption and Best Practices for Small and Medium Businesses with Gabe Ho and Greg Otterstrom Expert Tips for a Successful Migration to Microsoft 365 for Small and Medium Businesses with Chris Boyd and Meg Garland Grow Your Small or Medium Business with New Tools from Microsoft Teams with Bindu Pillai and Angela Chin Scale with AI: How Small and Medium Business Can Leverage Copilot Agents to Orchestrate Their Business at Scale with Gabe Ho and Elif Algedik Learn more: Visit our SMB Track page.Is it time to upgrade from Microsoft Office? Everything you need to know.
As a leader of a small or medium-sized business, you may have invested in Microsoft Office years ago through a perpetual license or “on-premises” version to equip your team with essential productivity apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Over the years, these familiar tools have become ingrained in your daily operations—so much so that you can't imagine working without them. Yet, you may have started noticing limitations. Your apps are stuck on your desktop, limiting productivity anytime you're away from your office. You can't easily access your files or collaborate when working remotely or traveling, creating unnecessary friction for your team. Perhaps you’ve seen your company’s IT expenses creep upwards as you’ve added separate solutions for email, file storage, and virtual meetings. If these challenges sound familiar, you might be considering upgrading to Microsoft 365 Microsoft 365 is a cloud-based subscription service that combines best-in-class productivity apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint with powerful collaboration, security, and AI-driven tools. With Microsoft 365, you keep the familiar apps your team already relies on, enhanced with the simplicity, flexibility, and security of the cloud. Empower employees to work from anywhere, meet and chat easily using Microsoft Teams, and collaborate in real-time across documents and apps. Boost your team's productivity with Copilot, your AI-powered assistant for work. Simplify IT and lower costs by consolidating email, storage, and productivity tools into one integrated solution while safeguarding your company’s data. Now is the perfect time to move to Microsoft 365—and we’ve got the numbers to prove it To examine the potential return on investment (ROI) companies realize by implementing Microsoft 365, Microsoft commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a study on The Total Economic Impact™ Of Microsoft 365 For Business 1 . The study highlights a substantial 223% ROI over three years, with a payback period of less than six months, proving that the initial investment is quickly recovered. Even more compelling, the study quantified over $500,000 in benefits over three years, driven by: Collaboration time savings of 1.5 hours weekly per user thanks to advanced communication tools, business automation, and process improvements. Enhanced IT specialist productivity, saving 686 hours annually by reducing help desks tickets and minimizing time spent on system updates and patching. Significant cost reductions, with over $297,000 in savings from retiring outdated hardware and software, along with lower IT maintenance costs. The study also highlighted notable unquantified benefits, such as streamlined workflows through automation with Power Automate and improved decision-making with easy-to-use analytics in Power BI. These enhancements empower teams to reduce administrative overhead, focus on strategic tasks, and leverage data-driven insights, driving overall organizational efficiency and growth. Source: The Total Economic Impact™ Of Microsoft 365 For Business Get more out of the tools you use every day More flexibility. No longer are you limited to a single device; Microsoft 365 enables a user license to be used on up to five PCs, tablets, and mobile devices, empowering your team to stay productive wherever they work. Employees can even use their apps offline for up to 30 days, perfect for remote travel or locations with limited internet connectivity. More productivity. Always have the latest features in apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams—no need to buy new versions. Collaborate in real time with document sharing and coauthoring, while 1TB of OneDrive storage keeps files secure and accessible across devices. More security. Protect against phishing, malware, and spam with built-in security policies. Secure access with multi-factor authentication, single sign-on, and remote data wiping for lost or stolen devices. Safeguard business data while enabling AI-driven productivity with Microsoft Copilot. “I think the biggest value is collaboration capabilities. The ease of teams working and collaborating together has improved 100%. From a security standpoint, we have everything in the cloud, so it’s being backed up nightly. If we were unfortunately to get ransomware, we would have the capabilities to restore our information to the previous date. From a business continuity standpoint, it’s been good for us, and it will be good for us in the future.” –IT Director, Manufacturing and Materials interviewed for the Forrester study Time is running out for older versions of Office—here’s what you need to know If your business is still using Office 2016 or Office 2019, it is essential to plan your transition now. Support for these versions ends on October 14, 2025, after which Microsoft will no longer provide critical security updates or technical support. Continuing to use unsupported software can expose your organization to security vulnerabilities, compliance risks, and operational disruptions. Migrating to Microsoft 365 in advance will help safeguard your business, enhance productivity, and simplify IT management. Proactively upgrading now can help you transition seamlessly and mitigate potential risks—don't wait until the deadline approaches. Achieve more with Microsoft 365 Read The Total Economic Impact™ Of Microsoft 365 For Business and download the Infographic to explore the potential financial impact of Microsoft 365 on your business. To move to the cloud with Microsoft 365, purchase online or reach out to a Microsoft Cloud Solution Partner today. Footnote: 1. The Total Economic Impact™ Of Microsoft 365 for Business, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microsoft, February 2025. Results are over three years for a composite organization based on interview customers.Supercharge Your Business. Getting Small Businesses Ready for 2025 with Microsoft 365
How Microsoft 365 is Empowering Small Businesses In the ever-changing world of productivity and collaboration tools, Microsoft 365 continues to shine as a vital tool for small businesses. With a treasure trove of applications designed to boost efficiency, security, and innovation, Microsoft 365 rolled out some game-changing features in 2024, earning high praise from industry experts. Last year was a rollercoaster for business owners and their customers. They faced rising inflation, tighter budgets, and the AI revolution. Through it all, Microsoft 365 was the trusty partner that helped businesses run smoothly and operate productively. The suite introduced exciting new features, integrated smart AI capabilities, and laid out a promising roadmap to tackle current trends and challenges. Recapping An Exciting 2024 Here are some notable new features we released in Microsoft 365 -- starting with Teams and Teams Phone: We introduced the Queues App in the fall, a Teams-native solution designed to empower organizations to manage Teams Phone engagements directly from within Teams. With it, they can manage call queues, auto attendants, get real-time metrics, and see reporting – to ensure they’re conducting customer engagement efficiently. We introduced Shared Calling, which makes a single phone number and calling plan sharable by a group, so teams can better manage calls in coordination. We enhanced survivable calling with the Survivable Branch Appliance (SBA), a backup solution designed to keep your phone services running smoothly, even during network outages. It now supports call transfer, forwarding, and incoming calls during network outages. In Microsoft Excel, we added some powerful updates: The ability to automatically sync data from Forms to Excel for the web. In real-time, responses can be synced between the two apps, ensuring data is always up-to-date. There’s seamless integration so if you go to an active Form and the Responses page, you can click “Open results in Excel” to create an Excel worksheet in OneDrive to do deeper manipulation of your data. The addition of checkboxes that can drive and be driven by existing Excel functions. With Interactive Checkboxes, they automatically check or uncheck based on the value of another cell. And finally, we integrated Python into Excel for users to have the ability to manipulate data in the familiar Excel environment but now with access to powerful Python's libraries and plots to make even deeper analysis possible. We made generally available a brand new Outlook: It has an exciting, newly redesigned interface, new productivity features, and integration with Copilot. Small and medium-sized businesses currently on Microsoft 365 are already moving to it but the choice to keep using classic Outlook will still be available. To help small businesses conserve their marketing budget, we introduced Microsoft Clipchamp in the fall of 2023 and Microsoft Designer in the summer of 2024. Clipchamp is a user-friendly video editor for creating professional-quality videos without needing technical skills. In Clipchamp, we rolled out over 100 pre-built templates, transitions, noise-suppression, background removal, auto-compose, and text-to-speech – saving users tons of time in making videos that may have taken many hours to do before. Designer is a powerful, AI image-generating and graphic design tool that can help any small business create professional-quality visuals with ease – without needing technical skills. Key updates were: We integrated Designer into Word and PowerPoint so users can generate images and use those images within these apps. In addition, Designer will suggest design templates for your slides. A Microsoft 365 Copilot subscription is needed and unlocks the use of Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps. And lastly, in 2024, we empowered SMBs to see how AI could make them more productive by expanding Microsoft Copilot into our popular apps like Outlook, Word, Excel, and Teams. Users can now summarize emails, generate insights in Word and Excel, and unlock powerful meeting insights in Teams. Among many new AI-powered features, we introduced Intelligent Call Recap in Teams which serves up AI-powered insights and recaps for your VoIP and PSTN calls in Teams, helping you stay on top of important details. Microsoft’s Continued Recognitions With Analysts and Customers As a testament to our excellence, Microsoft was once again crowned a Leader in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications for the sixth year in a row! Here’s what Gartner called out: Microsoft Teams is the top pick for businesses, especially when using it for internal collaboration. With a super reliable 99.999% uptime, it has solid telephony services to keep you connected. Teams is perfect for global cloud telephony, offering flexible PSTN options. Plus, Gartner called out our Operator Connect feature, which allows businesses to connect their existing telephony services directly to Teams, is now available in over 96 countries, including India. Copilot in Teams and Teams Premium brings cutting-edge AI features to meetings, chats, and calls. Gartner said that for those seeking the latest in AI, Microsoft is rapidly innovating. Teams now has over 350 million monthly active users. This growth highlights the platform’s continued popularity and widespread adoption among businesses worldwide. If you haven’t tried running your meetings on Teams, there’s no better time to. And over on G2 Reviews, Microsoft 365 currently has 4.6 out of 5 stars. Users like its ease of use, seamless integrations, and the extensive suite of tools it offers. Small businesses have praised the platform’s ability to streamline workflows and supercharge productivity. TechRadar also recognized Microsoft 365 as “the original and best office productivity suite” in December 2024, giving it 4.5 out of 5 stars. We’re thrilled that they said: “What ensured that MS Office became a market leader is the comprehensive way data can be covered by different applications and moved between them, making working more efficient and hassle-free.” Transforming Operations: How ICG Build Scaled with Microsoft 365 ICG, a startup construction firm, has successfully leveraged Microsoft 365 to establish and streamline its entire operations from day one. By utilizing Excel for budgeting, Word and PowerPoint for creating branded templates, Outlook for managing emails, Power BI for data visualization, and Teams for communication and collaboration, ICG has been able to scale its business efficiently. Here are some insights from their experience: Nick Masci, Principal & Co-Founder at ICG, shares: “Having everything in Microsoft 365 makes finding information fast and easy. Microsoft 365 has been instrumental in setting up our entire operations, from budgeting in Excel to managing emails in Outlook.” Melissa McEwen, Principal & Co-founder at ICG, adds, “Using Microsoft 365, we’ve been able to create branded templates in Word and PowerPoint, which has streamlined our client presentations and enhanced our professional image.” These testimonials highlight the transformative impact of Microsoft 365 on ICG’s operational efficiency and client engagement. Navigating 2025 Together Small businesses are in for another exciting ride in 2025 as they face trends like the continued integration of AI into our lives, a shift to returning to the office, and the continued need to be as efficient as possible. Microsoft 365 is here to support you with tools that boost productivity like Copilot; Teams and Teams Phone to support all work models, and powerful features that come included in our core apps like Design Ideas in PowerPoint that gives you multiple layout and design options to help you get your new slide started. Curious to learn more? You can read more about how to choose the right plan here. Are you a small or medium business owner/decision maker currently using Microsoft 365? We'd like to hear from you! We invite you to apply to join the Microsoft 365 SMB Customer Advisory Board. Applications accepted until February 28th, 2025. See aka.ms/SMBCAB for more details.Announcing the Microsoft 365 SMB Customer Advisory Board
We are thrilled to announce the launch of the Microsoft 365 SMB Customer Advisory Board (CAB), an exclusive opportunity for small and medium business (SMB) leaders to connect directly with Microsoft. This initiative is designed to foster a direct line of communication, allowing SMBs to share their insights, challenges, and feedback with Microsoft, ultimately shaping the future of our products and services. Why Join the SMB Customer Advisory Board? The SMB CAB offers a unique platform for SMB leaders to engage in meaningful discussions with Microsoft executives and like-minded peers. Here are some of the key benefits of joining the CAB: Direct Communication: Gain a direct line of communication with Microsoft leaders, providing valuable feedback and insights that will influence product development and strategy. Networking Opportunities: Connect with other SMB leaders, share best practices, and discuss industry trends and challenges. Exclusive Insights: Access exclusive research and behind-the-scenes details from Microsoft, helping you stay ahead of the curve. Influence Product Development: Provide feedback on product strategy, messaging, training content, and pricing, to help align Microsoft solutions with the needs of SMBs. Complimentary Access: Receive a complimentary ticket to the Microsoft 365 Community Conference and exclusive swag. Eligibility Criteria To be eligible for the SMB CAB, applicants must meet the following criteria: Hold a strategic decision-maker role (C-Suite, Founder, Business or IT Leader). Represent a business with fewer than 1,000 employees. Be a current customer of Microsoft 365 products. Be based in Canada, LATAM, or the United States. Application Process We are accepting applications through February 28th, 2025. Interested SMB leaders can apply by visiting aka.ms/SMBCAB. The first meeting will kick off in person at the Microsoft 365 Community Conference from May 6-8 in Las Vegas, NV. While in-person attendance is encouraged, it is not required for membership acceptance. Join Us Today! Don't miss out on this exciting opportunity to shape the future of Microsoft 365 solutions for SMBs. Apply today to become a trusted advisor and make a meaningful impact on the products and services that drive your business forward. For more information and to apply, visit aka.ms/SMBCAB. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to the SMB CAB v-team at SMBCAB@Microsoft.com.Supercharge Your Business with Microsoft Tools: Create Stunning Documents and Presentations
Create Stunning Documents and Presentations In today’s competitive business landscape, building a strong brand is essential for standing out and gaining customer loyalty. Microsoft 365 offers a suite of tools that empower businesses to create professional and visually appealing materials, helping to establish and enhance your brand identity. With Microsoft PowerPoint and Word, businesses can produce polished presentations and documents that reflect your brand's professionalism and creativity. PowerPoint's pre-designed templates and themes make it easy to create visually appealing slides, while features like transitions, custom animations, and video embedding add a dynamic touch. Discover Powerpoint’s Secret Weapons PowerPoint remains a cornerstone of presentation software, trusted by millions worldwide. Its intuitive interface and easy-to-use features make it an ideal choice for small business owners. With a plethora of pre-designed templates and themes, creating visually appealing slides is straightforward. You can use a range of features to create stunning presentations like: Transitions to add smooth, dynamic transitions between slides. You can choose from nearly 50 different types from subtle, to exciting ones, and to really dynamic types with added effects. Custom Animations to add personality and emphasize specific slide elements. You can tune your animations with triggers and effects so that objects in slides appear only when you want them to. You can also embed videos from your device, or even online videos to make your presentation more engaging. This feature, like Transitions and Custom Animations, help make presentations appear more sophisticated and show off your company’s brand in the best light. You can even convert your presentation into a video for on-demand viewing with Export to Video. Your customers, prospects, or partners can then view important content at their convenience – perfect for you to convey follow-up materials after a sales presentation, for example. Speaking of sales presentations. With PowerPoint Live, you can present your slides directly within a Microsoft Teams meeting, so you don’t need to switch between different apps or share your entire screen. You can see your slides, notes, and the audience all in one view so you have full control while you’re presenting. Keeping an eye on the room while presenting is especially important for high-stakes presentations and with PowerPoint Live, everything happens seamlessly within Teams. Press the Designer 1 button in the ribbon to get additional design features: Automatic Design Suggestions to give you slide templates and designs that you choose from to fit your brand to achieve a polished, professional look. Designer works in the background to analyze the content and provide design suggestions like layout options, color schemes, and relevant images. With Smart Layouts, Designer can detect elements like pictures, charts, and tables, and suggest cohesive layouts that make your slides look their best. Visual Enhancements can transform text-heavy slides into engaging visuals using SmartArt, making your presentation pop with imagery. Designer can even recommend high-quality photos and icons from the Microsoft 365 library with the Contextual Images and Icons feature. Format Your Documents Like a Pro For small businesses, documents produced in Word makes you look more professional and grown up. Word provides a wide range of templates for various document types, including reports, proposals, and invoices, ensuring that your business documents always look professional. One of the most powerful features in Word is Real-time Co-authoring, which we first introduced in 2013. It allows multiple people to work on a document simultaneously, which is incredibly beneficial for small businesses and teams who want to work together while meeting short deadlines. Here’s how it works as it enables live collaboration while ensuring your company looks its best. When a document is stored in OneDrive or SharePoint, multiple users can open and edit it at the same time. Changes are visible in real-time, so you can see what others are working on as they do it. Word automatically saves versions of the document, so you can track changes and revert to previous versions if needed. Authors and Reviewers can make Comments and Chat with one another and discuss changes directly within the document. Best of all, Co-authoring works on Word for the web, desktop, and mobile apps. So team members can collaborate from anywhere, using any device and get work done much faster with Co-authoring. Other popular features that come with Word include: Themes, which provide a coordinated set of fonts, colors, and effects to apply to your entire document to make it look consistent and visually pleasing. Charts and Tables: you can insert and customize charts and tables to present data clearly. This is useful for reports and proposals. Watermarks: To enhance document security and branding, you can add text or image watermarks (like “Confidential” or your company logo) to the background of your document. Themes, Charts and Tables, and Watermarks can make your document stand out with very little effort from the author. Word makes it easy for your work to shine, and start building a beautiful company brand. Export to PDF: To ensure your document cannot be edited and stays as you intended, you can turn it into a PDF. Doing so is easy. Just go to the “File” menu and choose PDF under “Save As”. This process ensures that your document looks the same on any device and is easy to share or print. Your work stays the way you intended it to look. Just like in PowerPoint, press the Designer 2 button on the Ribbon to access more capabilities that can make your document more visually appealing and professionally-looking: Enhance the appearance and consistency of your document though Design Suggestions, which provides a variety of design themes and layout options that you can apply to your document to make it more visually appealing. Formatting Consistency, which automatically identifies and fixes formatting inconsistencies in your document, ensuring a uniform look throughout. Smart Recommendations: Based on the content of your document, Designer suggests relevant design elements, such as fonts, colors, and styles. Add Microsoft 365 Copilot And Do Even More If you already have a Microsoft 365 business or enterprise plan, you can add Copilot at an additional cost to unlock an AI-powered image generator in both PowerPoint and Word. With this powerful AI feature, you can match the capabilities of a creative agency designer instantly. Even without any design skills or experience, you can create images ready for internal or external use at the press of a button. For small businesses, this means saving valuable time and resources while achieving beautiful results without needing to hire a designer. Simply ask Copilot to generate images to your specifications, and you can enhance your slides or documents. Use it to create background images, hero images, or illustrations that better convey your points in a long document. AI image generation can help your Marketing and Branding, to create unique and engaging visuals for marketing campaigns, social media posts, and promotional materials. This can help SMBs stand out and attract more customers. Or use it for Customer Engagement, with personalized images for customer communications like newsletters and emails, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty. Lastly, you can use it for Product Ideation: whether it's to storyboard your customer experience or to strategize a new product launch, you can ask AI image generation to visually communicate your out-of-the box business ideas with ease. Get Started: Do Beautiful Work Today If you haven’t already, try the many free features in PowerPoint like Transitions, Animations, Embedded Video, and Icon Library in PowerPoint to amp up your slides. In Word, you can also access popular features like Themes, Charts & Tables, and Watermarks to make polished-looking documents. Copilot unlocks additional design tools in PowerPoint and Word to offer small business owners the professional tools they need to create stunning presentations and documents with the magic of AI. By leveraging AI image generation, you can make beautiful images for your clients and partners, while saving time and budget. Don’t let a lack of design skills or resources hold you back—try out these Microsoft tools and experience the difference they can make for your business. [1] Designer is only available in the online versions of PowerPoint and Word. [2] Designer is only available in the online versions of PowerPoint and Word.Clean up Inactive users with Microsoft 365 Lighthouse
Microsoft 365 Lighthouse makes it faster and easier than ever before for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to manage users across customer tenants. You can search for any user across all your customers’ tenants to make changes to that user account, look at which users have been flagged for risky sign-in behavior, identify users yet to register MFA and more. Today, Lighthouse offers another capacity in this space- managing inactive users. What or Who are Inactive Users? If you've ever dealt with managing user accounts, you've probably encountered inactive users already. Inactive users are those user accounts that have had no activity for a long time. You don’t expect to see these accounts in the directory, but they still exist for reasons such as: An employee of one of your customers left the company, but their account was never offboarded. Interns or other seasonal employees whose accounts weren’t deactivated when their time at the company ended. Test accounts that were never removed after the testing was complete. Why do Inactive Users matter? Inactive user accounts can complicate the already challenging task of managing users across all of your customer tenants. For example, when you're trying to make sure every user has registered for MFA, these inactive accounts will prevent you from "managing to zero". Cleaning up inactive users will not only remove this noise, but also help with the following: Security- It's possible some of these inactive user accounts need to be protected with MFA, as there’s no real user behind the account to register a second factor for authentication. This means these accounts may only have a single factor - a password - as the only layer of defense, which is an easy target for hackers. Licenses- If there are licenses assigned to these inactive user accounts, it means your customers are still being billed and paying for more than they need to. Your SMB customers may appreciate a drop in their monthly invoices, however small, once you've reclaimed the unused license from these accounts. Hygiene- Maintaining better hygiene with your user inventory will reduce overhead and increase efficiency in your day-to-day user management tasks. How do I identify and clean up these Inactive user accounts? Some MSPs already have a process for handling inactive user accounts today. This is usually a manual process of looking at the sign-in activity of user accounts in Azure Active Directory or maintaining PowerShell scripts that look for accounts without any recent sign-in activity. While these methods get the job done, they are only sometimes scalable and require additional overhead and maintenance. Other MSPs don’t have any process in place to manage these accounts. This is where Lighthouse comes in. You can now easily see all the inactive user accounts across your customer tenants on a single pane of glass! Once you have visibility into inactive user accounts, the next step is to ensure these accounts are properly offboarded. Your offboarding process may involve a checklist of items like blocking the sign-in of the account, removing any licenses still assigned to the user, delegating access to their Mailbox and OneDrive to other users in the company, etc. But the minimum action we recommend you do immediately is to block these accounts from signing in. You can perform this action in bulk right from the Inactive users report in Lighthouse. Once blocked, these accounts will be removed from all other reports, allowing you to focus on the actual users that need attention. Next step How many inactive users do your customers have? Log in or Sign up for Lighthouse today to find out!
