If your organisation is looking for an email and collaboration service where your organisations data is stored on the public internet as opposed to private cloud servers or on premise servers or NAS, Microsoft 365 could be for you.
Key Mail Features
When you choose a Microsoft 365 licence with the Exchange option, you’ll benefit from the following services:
- Exchange Server – The Microsoft 365 mail server stores your mail and handles delivery of all inbound and outbound email.
- Email Clients – Compatible with most modern email clients and integrates the best with Microsoft Outlook.
- Calendaring – Schedule meetings, track attendance and collaborate with ease. Share calendars, make appointments and check a colleagues availability.
- Task Lists – Keep yourself organised with lists of one off or recurring tasks and to do lists, organise by date, priority, subject and assign to other users.
- Contacts – Keep track of your contacts just like you would on any other platform. Organise into groups, add contact pictures and setup your own distribution lists.
- Webmail – For when you are out of the office or have a problem with device – open a browser from anywhere and work from the webmail interface.
- Security – Benefit from highly configurable security options including 2FA, conditional access and more.
- Mobile – Automatically sync your mailbox with a mobile or tablet. Perform remote lock and wipe. Works with any modern device that supports ActiveSync.
- Undelete – Users are able to restore emails after they’ve been deleted for up to 30 days – even after the trash has been emptied.
It has these following global features included and configurable to your needs:
- Global Distribution Lists – Have a single email address deliver to multiple mailboxes, e.g. staff@
- Email Aliases – Have one mailbox receive email for multiple email addresses, e.g. bill@ billy@ william@
- Spam Detection – Enabled by default with configurable thresholds.
- Virus Detection – Blocks inbound emails with known viruses.
- Attachment Blocking – Blocks harmful types of inbound file attachments.
- Whitelists & Blacklists – Block or allow emails from specific senders or domains.
- Email Disclaimer – Set up a global email disclaimer that’s added to all outbound mail.
- Domain Aliases – Ideal if you have multiple domain names to be treated in the same way. e.g. @itnorwich.co.uk and @itnorwich.uk
- Spam & Virus Notifications – Send a notification to your users or an administrator when malicious email is blocked.
Key Applications & Services
Depending upon the license type you choose, Microsoft 365 includes the following applications:
- Desktop Applications – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access. There are often considered the “standard” set of applications, but note that these are now largely sold by Microsoft on a monthly subscription model. We can still source perpetual licences and there are now lots of alternatives. Note that Publisher is being discontinued in 2026 and Access has what we consider to be a rather sketchy roadmap.
- Web Applications – Web based versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint are available via browser and mobile app. These are available via a web browser and although have good functionality are not the same as the desktop applications, with a limited feature set.
- SharePoint – A web based document sharing and collaboration platform. Excellent for allowing your staff to share documents with whoever they want without any oversight from you. Do see our related article The Double-Edged Sword of Cloud First.
- Tight Windows Integration – When you use Microsoft 365 your Windows desktops can be configured to use a Microsoft Login rather than the traditional local or Active Directory.
Common Licence Types
Microsoft 365 includes dozens of licence types, here are the most common ones for smaller organisations:
| Licence Type | Typical Pricing 1 | OneDrive | Exchange Mail Server | Teams & SharePoint | Desktop Applications | Entra / InTune Defender / Purview | Co Pilot Addon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 365 Apps for Business | £ 9.72 | Included | Not Included | Not Included | Included | Not Included | Optional |
| 365 Business Basic | £ 5.52 | Included | Included | Included | Not Included | Not Included | Optional |
| 365 Business Standard | £ 11.52 | Included | Included | Included | Included | Not Included | Optional |
| 365 Business Premium | £ 20.28 | Included | Included | Included | Included | Included | Optional |
- This price is per user per month excluding VAT with a rolling monthly contract, but see the pricing notes below. ↩︎
Pricing Notes
Microsoft licences are charged in three different ways and these can be mixed and matched as required.
- Monthly / Monthly – Pay monthly, with a monthly contract term.
- Monthly / Annual – Pay monthly, but for a minimum of 12 months, but note that we are phasing this option out.
- Annual / Annual – Pay annually, the licence is yours for 12 months.
You can purchase your licences directly from Microsoft, the prices for licences are published at https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/business
If you prefer us to invoice you for the Microsoft licences, we will do so at cost price but will apply a licence management fee of £29 + VAT per month.
A Mailbox for Everyone
Whatever your users roles and needs, there’s a mailbox type that’s suitable:
- 365 Apps for Business – Does not include any email hosting features but allows licenced users to download and use desktop applications on up to five devices.
- 365 Business Basic – Includes email features and web based versions of selected applications, but NOT desktop applications.
- 365 Business Standard – The most popular mailbox type which includes both the email features and desktop applications.
- 365 Business Premium – All of the features of Business Standard with additional security and identity tools.
One Off Services
We also offer the following services for a fixed one off charge:
| Service | Commercial | Nonprofit |
|---|---|---|
| Mailbox Migration | £ 55.00 | £ 49.50 |
Ongoing Support Costs & Options
It’s important to note that unlike some services, Microsoft 365 requires ongoing support and management.
Although there is no maintenance involved (e.g. in terms of updates or patches on the server end) Microsoft 365 is a complex system that encompasses multiple interconnected applications and services, each with their own security settings, user permissions, and administrative requirements.
Organisations need someone knowledgeable to monitor compliance policies, manage user lifecycle changes, troubleshoot integration issues between apps like Teams and SharePoint, and stay current with Microsoft’s frequent feature updates and policy changes. Without such ongoing administration, businesses often find themselves with security vulnerabilities, inefficient workflows, or users who can’t fully leverage the platform’s capabilities, ultimately undermining the return on their investment.
As a result, we will not engage with any customer that has Microsoft 365 unless they also take up a Block Hours IT Support agreement. For further details, please see our IT Support & Maintenance Services page or get in touch.
Mail Assure Compatible
Our Zimbra Mailboxes are fully compatible with our optional but highly recommended N-Able Mail Assure service. This helps safeguard against phishing, spam, viruses, ransomware, and other email-borne threats. It blocks 99.90% of all malware and adds redundancy to inbound email that most providers simply don’t offer.
Our Experience with Microsoft 365
Although we don’t use Microsoft 365 ourselves (instead, we prefer perpetual licencing, on premise servers and Zimbra) we’re official Microsoft Partners and have supported Microsoft 365 (previously called Office 365) since 2011. We have multiple customers that use this as their primary email and data storage system while other customers use it in a hybrid environment alongside on premise servers or NAS. However you wish to use it, we can help.
A Bad Fit for Councils
Did you know that all councils in the UK should use the UK Technology Code of Practice in their decision making processes? Councils are obliged to try and “Be open and use open source” and “Make use of open standards”. As the Microsoft 365 system is closed source, councils should find a more suitable alternative.
No Private Cloud Option
Data stored in Microsoft 365 mailboxes is hosted transparently alongside hundreds of other organisations mailboxes, this is what is known as being in the “Public Cloud”. Unlike other solutions such as Zimbra and Nextcloud, Microsoft 365 is not available on private servers. Organisations that require private cloud deployments due to regulatory requirements, data sovereignty concerns, or other IT strategies should not choose Microsoft 365.
Alternative Email Servers & Collaboration Suites
Microsoft 365 is a feature rich collaboration suite best suited to organisations that wish to host their data in the public cloud but it can be expensive and – due to the complexity of the platform – requires an ongoing support commitment. If you’d like to look at alternatives, do check out Zimbra as an email server and Nextcloud, a truly ethical and open source platform for sharing , collaborating and communicating with internal and external users.
