From Chaos to Clarity: How Microsoft 365 Copilot Helps SMBs Make Smarter Decisions
In today’s fast-paced business landscape, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) face a constant challenge: do more with less and do it faster. The pressure to innovate, respond to market shifts, and keep teams aligned is real. That’s why Microsoft 365 Copilot is more than just another productivity tool—it’s a strategic partner for SMBs looking to turn operational chaos into clarity.Microsoft 365 E5 Security is now available as an add-on to Microsoft 365 Business Premium
The threat landscape continues to evolve creating ongoing challenges for small and medium businesses (SMBs) that are faced with increased regulations and cyberinsurance requirements. Today, Microsoft 365 Business Premium delivers core security solutions to SMBs that help safeguard data, defend against cyberthreats, and manage access and devices. With the growing volume of attacks and increased sophistication of threats, there are SMBs that want enhanced cybersecurity protection for their business. We are pleased to announce that Business Premium customers are now able to purchase Microsoft 365 E5 Security as an add-on to further enhance their security. E5 Security brings new security value on top of Business Premium with Microsoft Entra ID Plan 2, Microsoft Defender for Identity, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 2, Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 2, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps. (ENHANCED) Identity and access controls Business Premium includes Microsoft Entra ID P1, which provides single sign-on, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and conditional access to help SMBs manage user identities and enable access to applications and resources from trusted users, devices, and locations. Microsoft Entra ID P2 offers advanced security and governance features including Microsoft Entra ID Protection and Microsoft Entra ID Governance. Microsoft Entra ID protection offers 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. It also enables SMBs to detect, investigate, and remediate potential identity-based risks using sophisticated machine learning and anomaly detection capabilities. With detailed reports and alerts, your business is notified of suspicious user activities and sign-in attempts, including scenarios like a password-spray where attackers try to gain unauthorized access to company employee accounts by trying a small number of commonly used passwords across many different accounts. ID Governance capabilities are also included to help automate workflows and processes that give users access to resources. For example, IT admins historically manage the onboarding process manually and generate repetitive user access requests for Managers to review which is time consuming and inefficient. With ID Governance capabilities, pre-configured workflows facilitate the automation of employee onboarding, user access, and lifecycle management throughout their employment, streamlining the process and reducing onboarding time. (NEW) Extended Detection and Response (XDR) Microsoft Defender XDR delivers a unified and efficient approach to incident-level visibility across the attack lifecycle. Together XDR and exposure management (XSPM) consolidate multiple siloed security solutions to provide best-of-breed capabilities across identities, endpoints, apps, and email. (NEW) Identity threat detection and response (ITDR) Identities are one of the most common attack vectors making identity-specific threat detection and response a critical element to secure your business. Microsoft Defender for Identity includes dedicated sensors and connectors for common identity elements that offer visibility into your unique identity landscape and provide detailed posture recommendations, robust detections and response actions. These powerful detections are then automatically enriched and correlated with data from other domains across Defender XDR for true incident-level visibility. (ENHANCED) Device security Microsoft Defender for Business (MDB) already brings enterprise-grade device protection capabilities to Business Premium customers across Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android devices. It includes vulnerability management, next-generation antivirus protection, AI-powered endpoint detection and response with automatic attack disruption, and automated investigation and remediation. With streaming APIs, customers and partners can build Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services with Defender for Business. For customers who need advanced hunting, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint P2 adds advanced hunting, and 6 months of data retention on the device, along with endpoint security for IoT devices. (ENHANCED) Email and Collaboration security Microsoft Defender for Office 365 P1 in Business Premium includes SafeLinks with time of click URL filtering, safe attachments with real-time attachment scanning in sandbox, and phishing and malware defense across email, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint. It also has AI-powered LLM-based threat protection with 99.995% attacker intent detection accuracy. With Defender for Office 365 P2, you gain access to cyber-attack simulation training, which provides SMBs with a safe and controlled environment to simulate real-world cyber-attacks, helping to train employees in recognizing phishing attempts. Additionally automated response capabilities and post-breach investigations help reduce the time and resources required to identify and remediate potential security breaches. Detailed reports are also available that capture information on employees’ URL clicks, internal and external email distribution, and more. (NEW) Software-as-a-service (SaaS) security Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is a comprehensive, AI-powered software-as-a-service (SaaS) security solution that enables IT teams to identify and manage shadow IT and ensure that only approved applications are used. It protects against sophisticated SaaS-based attacks, OAuth attacks, and risky interactions with GenAI apps by combing SaaS app discovery, security posture management, app-to-app protection, and integrated threat protection. IT teams can gain full visibility into their SaaS app landscape, understand the risks and set up controls to manage the apps. SaaS security posture management quickly identifies app misconfigurations and provides remediation actions to reduce the attack surface. E5 Security delivers added protection to meet the growing needs of SMBs in a package that is cost-effective. Purchasing E5 Security has 57% savings when compared to the cost of separately purchasing the individual products that are included. FAQ When will E5 Security be available for purchase? E5 Security is available for purchase as an add-on to Business Premium starting today, 3/6. How can I purchase E5 Security? You can purchase E5 Security as an add-on to Business Premium through Microsoft Security for SMBs website or through your Partner. Does Microsoft 365 Business Premium plus Microsoft 365 E5 Security allow mixed licensing for endpoint security solutions? Microsoft Defender for Business does not support mixed licensing so a tenant with Defender for Business (included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium) along with Defender for Endpoint Plan 2 (included in Microsoft 365 Security) will default to Defender for Business. For example, if you have 80 users licensed for Microsoft 365 Business Premium and you’ve added Microsoft 365 E5 Security for 30 of those users, the experience for all users will default to Defender for Business. If you would like to change that to the Defender for Endpoint Plan 2 experience, you should license all users for Defender for Endpoint Plan 2 (either through standalone or Microsoft 365 E5 Security) and then contact Microsoft Support to request the switch for your tenant. You can learn more here. What are the differences between Microsoft Defender for Business and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint P2? MDB includes many of the same features as MDE P2, including enterprise-grade device protection for Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android devices, vulnerability management, next-generation antivirus protection, AI-powered endpoint detection and response with automatic attack disruption, and automated investigation and remediation. MDE P2 adds endpoint security for IoT devices, threat hunting, and 6 months of data retention on the device. A detailed comparison is available here. As a Partner, how do I build Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services with MDB? For partners or customers looking to build their own security operations center (SOC) with MDR, Defender for Business supports the streaming of device events (device file, registry, network, logon events and more) to Azure Event Hub, Azure Storage, and Microsoft Sentinel to support advanced hunting and attack detection. If you are using the streaming API for the first time, you can find step-by-step instructions in the Microsoft 365 Streaming API Guide on configuring the Microsoft 365 Streaming API to stream events to your Azure Event Hubs or to your Azure Storage Account. To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions for SMBs you can visit our website. Partners can access training resources, customer decks and deployment checklists from our Business Premium Partner Playbook and find additional resources for Microsoft Security for Partners.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, 2024Unlocking the Power of AI: Transforming Business with Microsoft 365 Copilot and Clipchamp
AI is becoming a part of everyday life and it's changing the way we do business. For business owners, the benefits are clear. It saves time, reduces the need for extra resources, and directly improves the bottom line. As part of Microsoft 365 Copilot*, we recently introduced the Create module, a new feature designed to make producing visual materials fast and simple. You don’t need to be an AI expert or add complex and expensive design software to your tech stack to get the most out of it. Effortless content creation with Microsoft 365 Copilot The Create module helps users produce high-quality visual content quickly and easily—often better than they could on their own. Because it's built into Copilot and fully integrated with the Microsoft environment, there’s no need for separate design tools or additional creative software. That reduces complexity for users and eases the burden on IT teams who would otherwise have to support and manage extra solutions. At the same time, Create puts professional-grade design within reach for everyone. It opens up the creative process to employees at any skill level, making it easier to produce on-brand, polished visuals. This is especially valuable for small and mid-sized businesses where time and design resources are often limited. AI-Powered Content Creation: The Create module leverages AI to generate high-quality content. From documents and presentations to marketing materials like flyers and infographics, a few simple steps can generate stunning content. Customizable Templates: Access a variety of templates tailored to different business needs, so projects don’t have to start from scratch. These templates help maintain brand consistency and ensure professional quality output. Brand Kits: Even non-designers can set up brand kits to keep all content consistent and on-brand, making it easier to produce polished and cohesive materials that look professional and stand out. Businesses are now empowered to create professional and engaging content effortlessly, without the need to outsource to a marketing agency or hire creative professionals in-house. In the near future, you can look forward to even more features coming to the Create module, including compatibility with new content types like podcasts and surveys, so Copilot can even create those for you. Revolutionizing video editing with Microsoft Clipchamp Transform your video editing process from a daunting task into a seamless, enjoyable experience. With its latest updates, Microsoft Clipchamp enables even those with no prior editing experience to effortlessly create professional-quality videos. AI Editing Tools: Automatically detect and trim silent parts of audio or video files. This is particularly useful for editing podcasts, meetings, and interviews. Custom Templates: Quickly create new projects without starting from scratch using a collection of over 100 video templates, including YouTube intro videos, explainer videos, and sales video templates. This is especially useful for repetitive tasks like training videos, product demos, or marketing content. Templates also help ensure videos adhere to the same branding and style. Transcript-Based Editing: Allows users to edit videos by making changes to the transcript. Users can edit videos as if they were editing a text document—it's that intuitive and straightforward. For those who may not be familiar with video editing, which often requires experience, the old complex video editing tools of the past are no longer necessary. Clipchamp democratizes video editing so anyone can make changes with ease. See how Evergrowth uses Clipchamp to produce marketing communications Since 2015, Evergrowth, a sales software provider, has been helping customers optimize their sales, marketing, and enablement processes. Discover how they are using Clipchamp to produce impactful demo videos and elevate their social media marketing in this case study. “I have zero video editing experience, but with Clipchamp I put together a great-looking demo video very quickly. That product demo brought 300 people to a customer event we were organizing at the time. When that happened, I knew we were onto something.” - JB Daguené, CEO, Evergrowth Check out the Microsoft 365 Create module and Clipchamp In today's fast-paced business environment, leveraging AI tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot with its new Create module and Clipchamp can significantly enhance productivity and creativity. These innovations not only save time and resources but also democratize the creation process, making high-quality content accessible to everyone in your organization. Ready to transform your business with AI? Explore Microsoft 365 Copilot and Clipchamp today and see how these powerful tools can elevate your brand and streamline your operations. *Copilot is available as an additional subscription plan and requires a base Microsoft 365 plan, such as Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard, or Business Premium.Small 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.
