Getting More Out of Microsoft Teams and Licensing with MicroAge Services

Or how an engineering firm came to appreciate Microsoft Teams as the ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of collaboration and realize that there actually is a better way to set up Microsoft licensing and service.

Have you ever had something and used it, not realizing that it was capable of so much more? (Think of using just the blade of a Swiss Army Knife for months before discovering the can opener or saw, and you’ll get the idea.)

That’s what struck MicroAge’s Mike Tazbier when he first spoke with the IT director of a nationwide engineering and construction firm. The organization was only leveraging a small portion of Microsoft Teams capabilities and missing out on significant productivity and collaboration benefits—unaware of the full functionality the software offers.

Security always comes first.

Mike’s conversation with this client began around cybersecurity. The IT director had recently lost most of his staff, and he needed help—starting with a comprehensive solution for the organization’s national, disparate locations.

Mike recommended Webroot cloud-based endpoint protection to guard their laptops, desktops, servers, and devices against ransomware, phishing, malware, and other cyberattacks.

Unleashing the full power of Microsoft Teams.

Reviewing his list of business goals and opportunities with Mike, the IT director turned his attention to communications and collaboration challenges. Could MicroAge help there too?

“They had recently installed a Teams instance, and they were using it just inside the four walls of each physical office,” said Mike. “Their prior video conferencing platform had spotty performance and dropped a lot of the time, but they were still paying for it and using it for remote employees because they didn’t know that they could use Teams to conference in other locations.”

Mike brought in MicroAge Director of Cloud Services Rick Trujillo for a video call with the IT director (via Teams, of course!). Rick called upon another of MicroAge’s Teams experts, Jason Lane, to discuss how MicroAge could help them realize the full functionality of Teams.

[Related Blog]: 4 Ways to Get More Out of Microsoft Teams and Help Your IT Team in the Process

“We discussed all of the features that Teams offers and the best way to roll it out,” said Rick. “Jason and I are both Modern Workplace Microsoft 365 Certified trainers and we told the IT director about our own Teams story. MicroAge migrated to Teams company-wide in early-March 2020—just before the COVID lockdowns.”

“We described our Teams journey at MicroAge,” said Mike. “We had been in the same situation as the client previously— using multiple conferencing and collaboration platforms across the organization.”

“We piloted Teams for several weeks before rolling it out to the whole MicroAge organization, and I happened to be on the pilot program,” Mike said. “Standardizing on Teams was the best business decision we could have made at exactly the right time, and we haven’t looked back.”

“It always helps to be able to provide a client with a real-world case study when they’re considering a new technology,” Mike adds. “And in this circumstance, we happened to have one of our own.”

Saving time and money on Microsoft licensing.

Next up was the matter of their Microsoft licensing for M365. The client had gone direct with Microsoft but was looking for more robust, hands-on support. Mike and Rick provided him with a proposal to bring their Microsoft Teams licensing and support to MicroAge, through the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program.

“By coming in as a CSP client with MicroAge, organizations can make financial gains while adding some big benefits,” said Mike.

Benefits of purchasing your M365 licensing from MicroAge include:

• Same licenses you purchase from Microsoft, at a discount
• Quick U.S.-based support; with MicroAge as your first point of contact (with higher-level support techs)
• No contracts; with the ability to scale up or down anytime
• Predictable monthly billing
• Client portal for licensing changes and management (including usage and available licenses)
• No delay with immediate license provisioning

After seeing the benefits of partnering with MicroAge, the IT director placed an order for Microsoft CSP and consolidated all licensing through MicroAge for management.

Jason Lane, and the MicroAge Services team has provided IT Pro Teams training, showing their IT department how to manage it and roll it out to users.

“We’ve tackled several other projects since these,” said Mike. “With his reduced staff, he loves that he can lean on MicroAge Services for help handling everything on his plate. He gives me his challenges, and I do the research and come back to him with solutions.”

Want a trusted adviser like Mike to uncover your Swiss Army Knife? Give us a call or connect with a MicroAge associate online now. We’re here for you, too.