How Does Microsoft 365 Make IT Administration Easier?
As a cloud-based business solution, Microsoft 365 can make many aspects of a company’s IT infrastructure more streamlined.
IT administration has become a progressively bigger part of business, as the reliance that businesses place on technology has grown. With all the different hardware and software solutions that average business uses nowadays, IT admin can take up quite a bit of time – therefore, anything that can help streamline and simplify admin will be welcome in most businesses. We spoke with TechQuarters, a London-based managed service provider (MSP) who also happens to be a Microsoft Solutions Partner. They described to us how Microsoft 365 can help businesses simplify a large chunk of their IT administration. Having provided IT support for Construction, as well as many other sectors, TechQuarters has much experience in not only implementing M365, but helping clients setup admin within it.
Microsoft 365 Cloud-based Solutions
Microsoft 365 includes a great many products and services, which are designed to fulfil virtually all of a business’ everyday work requirements – from storage, to productivity, communications, etc. As all of these functionalities are contained into a single suite, this makes admin for these different areas of the business much easier to manage. Furthermore, companies like TechQuarters can provide Microsoft 365 consulting services remotely, by accessing clients’ M365 environment remotely. This is because M365 is cloud-based, and all the tools and resources that are required for administration can be access from the cloud whenever they are needed (and from anywhere with internet connection).
Microsoft 365 Admin Center
All of the administration tools and resources for Microsoft 365 are contained within the Microsoft 365 Admin Center – a web-based platform. The M365 admin center is divided into several different areas and categories that cover different aspects of IT administration.
Groups – The Groups section manages any groups of Microsoft 365 users in the company’s environment. This includes shared mailboxes in Microsoft Exchange, distribution lists, teams in Microsoft Teams, business groups, security groups, and more.
Resources – The Resources section is typically used to create SharePoint site collections. A collection describes any series of business assets that are grouped together. These assets are typically files and other media, and they have specific permissions and navigation settings assigned to them.
Billing – The Billing section is dedicated to managing M365 subscriptions. For example, IT admins can view current subscriptions; they can cancel existing subscriptions, and they can purchase new subscriptions. A typical activity that IT admins might perform in this section is an audit of assigned M365 licenses.
Settings – The Settings section in the admin center allows IT admins to enforce settings for the entirety of the company’s Microsoft 365 environment. For example, IT admins can use the Settings section to set password policies, manage Domain names, and edit business profiles.
Reports – The Reports section in the admin center displays activity across all the apps and services in M365. Admins might use the Reports section to view which licenses have consistent activity, which allows them to ascertain whether there are any active licenses that are not being used (and therefore costing the organisation money).
Health – The Health section in the admin center is dedicated to monitoring service health. This refers to the general performance of all the different apps and services in M365. This is a particularly useful part of the admin center, because it enables IT admins to monitor for, and identify, any potential software problems the company may be experiencing.
Admin Centers – Every app and service in M365 has its own dedicated admin center, and this section of the web portal is how IT admins can access them individually. Based on their experience providing small business IT support London companies use, TechQuarters claimed that this area of the admin center is one of the main ways that it simplifies IT admin for business.
