Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 is a cloud-based IT Management service that offers robust security, reliability, and user productivity. Microsoft 365 is the new way of managing your IT environment across desktop, and mobile, includes core security features and capabilities and can also include the full Office 365 productivity suite.
Features
- Flexible licensing and features to support organisation needs
- Desktop and mobile device control using InTune
- Azure AD P1 and P2 are available
- Cloud application security available in some versions
- Can include the full Office 365 productivity suite
- Can provide advanced threat monitoring and intelligence
- Can provide advanced threat protection for desktop and email
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/compare-all-microsoft-365-plans
Benefits
- Highly scalable, flexible cloud based IT Management platform
- Allows full system management capability from a central cloud repository
- Can remove the need for onsite servers and infrastructure
- Manage multiple devices per user from a single console
- Has the capability to provide advanced security analytics
- Increased security capability and insights
- Can fully integrate with other Microsoft cloud capabilities
- Can include the Office 365 productivity suite for best value
Pricing
£0.80 to £200 a person a month
- Education pricing available
- Free trial available
Service documents
Request an accessible format
Framework
G-Cloud 13
Service ID
7 4 9 6 8 9 9 6 3 2 7 9 8 7 1
Contact
Optimising IT Ltd
GCloud New Business
Telephone: 01242 388530
Email: contact@optimisingit.co.uk
Service scope
- Software add-on or extension
- No
- Cloud deployment model
- Public cloud
- Service constraints
-
There are multiple licensing options for flexibility, and not all services and features are available in every version. As an example, EMS P1 includes InTune and Azure Directory P1, but does not include any productivity applications. For full details, please visit - the following
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/compare-all-microsoft-365-plans
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/enterprise-mobility-security - System requirements
-
- A reliable internet connection
- See https://products.office.com/en-GB/office-system-requirements for details
- Compatible Operating system
User support
- Email or online ticketing support
- Email or online ticketing
- Support response times
- Microsoft 24/7 technical support.
- User can manage status and priority of support tickets
- Yes
- Online ticketing support accessibility
- None or don’t know
- Phone support
- Yes
- Phone support availability
- 24 hours, 7 days a week
- Web chat support
- No
- Onsite support
- Yes, at extra cost
- Support levels
-
Billing support is provided by Optimising IT from 08:30 AM–5:30 PM Monday–Friday.
Microsoft technical support is provided in English 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. - Support available to third parties
- No
Onboarding and offboarding
- Getting started
-
We offer a full implementation and migration service where required, as an additional and optional pricing option.
Services include service setup, user and data migration, integration with existing services such as user directories and where required, legacy system decommissioning.
We can also provide just software licensing as required to suit organisation requirements. - Service documentation
- Yes
- Documentation formats
-
- HTML
- End-of-contract data extraction
- Please see https://products.office.com/en-us/business/office-365-online-data-portability
- End-of-contract process
-
Upon expiration or termination of your Office 365 subscription or contract, Microsoft will provide you, by default, additional limited access for 90 days to export your data. As part of the Mircorosoft Online Service Terms we specify that customers always own their own data. Microsoft acts as Data Processor. For more information please visit https://products.office.com/en-gb/business/office-365-online-data-portability
Should an organisation wish to stop using Microsoft 365 IT Management features, a full transition service to the chosen new platform, based on a defined scope and day rates can be agreed.
Using the service
- Web browser interface
- Yes
- Supported browsers
-
- Microsoft Edge
- Firefox
- Chrome
- Safari
- Opera
- Application to install
- Yes
- Compatible operating systems
-
- Android
- IOS
- MacOS
- Windows
- Windows Phone
- Designed for use on mobile devices
- Yes
- Differences between the mobile and desktop service
-
Security feature availability varies between desktop operating systems and mobile operating systems.
Core functionality for mobile application versions includes, view, edit, and create documents with the familiar Office interface optimised for mobile phones and tablets. - Service interface
- No
- User support accessibility
- None or don’t know
- API
- Yes
- What users can and can't do using the API
-
You can create custom solutions that access and interact with all the richness of a user’s Office 365 data—and you can build those solutions across all mobile, web, and desktop platforms. The new Office 365 APIs enable you to provide access to Office 365 data, including their mail, calendars, contacts, files, and folders. All right from within your app itself.
Whether you're building web applications using .NET, PHP, Java, Python, or Ruby on Rails, or creating apps for Windows 8, Universal Apps, iOS, Android, or on another device platform. It's your choice. - API documentation
- Yes
- API documentation formats
-
- HTML
- API sandbox or test environment
- Yes
- Customisation available
- Yes
- Description of customisation
-
Admin - Customise the Office 365 theme for your organisation
Integration and automation with MS Flow and Power Apps
Users - Change your Office 365 start app, allow access to files from your OneDrive.
Full security feature customisation on Desktop and mobile devices can be provisioned to the capability available in the organisations selected and supported devices.
Further details can be found below https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dn788774.aspx
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/solution-guidance/modern-experience-customizations
Scaling
- Independence of resources
-
Microsoft provide a high level of tenant isolation, both for security and for performance. Microsoft data centres are massively scaled and offer dedicated performance. For more information, please review the latest information below:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/securitycompliance/office-365-tenant-isolation-overview
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/enterprise/performance-tuning-using-baselines-and-history
Analytics
- Service usage metrics
- Yes
- Metrics types
-
Please see the following link for details on current metrics
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/admin/activity-reports/activity-reports?view=o365-worldwide - Reporting types
-
- API access
- Real-time dashboards
Resellers
- Supplier type
- Reseller providing extra features and support
- Organisation whose services are being resold
- Microsoft
Staff security
- Staff security clearance
- Other security clearance
- Government security clearance
- Up to Developed Vetting (DV)
Asset protection
- Knowledge of data storage and processing locations
- Yes
- Data storage and processing locations
-
- United Kingdom
- European Economic Area (EEA)
- Other locations
- User control over data storage and processing locations
- Yes
- Datacentre security standards
- Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
- Penetration testing frequency
- At least once a year
- Penetration testing approach
- Another external penetration testing organisation
- Protecting data at rest
-
- Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
- Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
- Encryption of all physical media
- Scale, obfuscating techniques, or data storage sharding
- Other
- Other data at rest protection approach
-
Microsoft bitlocker is used to encrypt all data at rest in Microsoft data centre.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/securitycompliance/encryption - Data sanitisation process
- Yes
- Data sanitisation type
- Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
- Equipment disposal approach
- Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001
Data importing and exporting
- Data export approach
- Users can export their own data using microsoft tools, via data sync or by a chosen third party application or service. Should an organisation decide to move out of Office 365, we can also offer a managed service should this be required.
- Data export formats
-
- CSV
- Other
- Other data export formats
- The original document formats are fully exportable.
- Data import formats
-
- CSV
- Other
- Other data import formats
- All common file formats are supported
Data-in-transit protection
- Data protection between buyer and supplier networks
-
- TLS (version 1.2 or above)
- IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
- Legacy SSL and TLS (under version 1.2)
- Data protection within supplier network
-
- TLS (version 1.2 or above)
- IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
- Legacy SSL and TLS (under version 1.2)
Availability and resilience
- Guaranteed availability
-
Microsoft provide a financially backed uptime SLA. For details, please visit
https://products.office.com/en-gb/business/office-365-for-business-support-options?SilentAuth=1&wa=wsignin1.0 - Approach to resilience
- Microsoft offers a high level of resilience using multiple redundant data centres across the UK and potentially the EU if required. Further details can be found the on the following link - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/Office365/securitycompliance/office-365-data-resiliency-overview
- Outage reporting
-
A tenant specific 'Service Health' Dashboard is available in the Admin Centre. A public page is also available via the below link
https://status.office365.com/
Identity and authentication
- User authentication needed
- Yes
- User authentication
-
- 2-factor authentication
- Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
- Username or password
- Other
- Other user authentication
-
Conditional access is available as part of the Microsoft 365 security suite. This includes capability such as:
Login restriction by location
Logins only permitted by authorised devices
Login restriction by source IP address - Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels
-
All support can be carried out by specified administration accounts only as required. Only those with granted permissions can access the admin centre and command line operations.
Administration access can also be governed using MFA and conditional access as required. - Access restriction testing frequency
- At least every 6 months
- Management access authentication
-
- 2-factor authentication
- Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
- Username or password
Audit information for users
- Access to user activity audit information
- Users have access to real-time audit information
- How long user audit data is stored for
- At least 12 months
- Access to supplier activity audit information
- Users contact the support team to get audit information
- How long supplier audit data is stored for
- At least 12 months
- How long system logs are stored for
- Between 1 month and 6 months
Standards and certifications
- ISO/IEC 27001 certification
- Yes
- Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001
- BSI
- ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date
- 19/01/2019
- What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover
- https://servicetrust.microsoft.com/ViewPage/MSComplianceGuideV3?command=Download&downloadType=Document&downloadId=1e84a14a-2468-45ac-9412-5e53250d57ec&tab=7027ead0-3d6b-11e9-b9e1-290b1eb4cdeb&docTab=7027ead0-3d6b-11e9-b9e1-290b1eb4cdeb_ISO_Reports
- ISO 28000:2007 certification
- No
- CSA STAR certification
- No
- PCI certification
- No
- Cyber essentials
- Yes
- Cyber essentials plus
- Yes
- Other security certifications
- Yes
- Any other security certifications
- Multiple Certifications, for full details visit https://servicetrust.microsoft.com/
Security governance
- Named board-level person responsible for service security
- Yes
- Security governance certified
- Yes
- Security governance standards
- ISO/IEC 27001
- Information security policies and processes
- Optimising IT operate a fully certified ISMS to ISO27001:2013, which is externally audited and verified. Full details of the Microsoft compliance programs, including ISO27001, PCI DSS and more can be found in the trust centre https://servicetrust.microsoft.com/
Operational security
- Configuration and change management standard
- Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
- Configuration and change management approach
-
Office 365 has developed formal standard operating procedures (SOP's) governing the change management process. These SOP's cover both software development and hardware change and release management, and are consistent with established regulatory guidelines including ISO 27001, SOC 1/SOC 2, NIST 800-53, and others.
Microsoft also uses Operational Security Assurance (OSA), a framework that incorporates the knowledge gained through a variety of capabilities that are unique to Microsoft. OSA combines this knowledge with the experience of running hundreds of thousands of servers in datacentres around the world. - Vulnerability management type
- Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
- Vulnerability management approach
-
For specific information, please review the relevant Microsoft security statements for Office 365 for Gcloud users.
https://servicetrust.microsoft.com/ViewPage/UKComplianceResourcesV3?command=Download&downloadType=Document&downloadId=ec9219f0-a0ae-4690-b154-8b890cf5557b&tab=626aa9e0-3d7b-11e9-9157-b7b7eba45f26&docTab=626aa9e0-3d7b-11e9-9157-b7b7eba45f26_GRC_Assessment_Reports - Protective monitoring type
- Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
- Protective monitoring approach
-
For details in the Microsoft protective monitoring approach, please visit.
https://servicetrust.microsoft.com/ - Incident management type
- Conforms to a recognised standard, for example, CSA CCM v3.0 or ISO/IEC 27035:2011 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
- Incident management approach
-
For details on incident management for Microsoft, please visit,
https://servicetrust.microsoft.com/
Optimsing IT has pre-defined process based on ITIL for managing incidents, and our incident management process is certified to ISO27001:2013. User can report incidents direct to Microsoft in license only situations, or via our Service Desk using the agreed contact methods should a support contract be taken out.
Incident report provided by Microsoft can be found in the service dashboard. Optimising IT incident reports will be emailed to the customer representative by the assigned Account Manager.
Secure development
- Approach to secure software development best practice
- Independent review of processes (for example CESG CPA Build Standard, ISO/IEC 27034, ISO/IEC 27001 or CSA CCM v3.0)
Public sector networks
- Connection to public sector networks
- No
Social Value
- Fighting climate change
-
Fighting climate change
We offset all of our employee CO2e We also plant a large number of trees in a sustainable, manged and tracked program via our partner. Details can be found on our Ecologi page - https://ecologi.com/optimisingit We also offer a Climate Conscious IT service which can be used to offset your organisation CO2e, plant trees for future benefit, or both - https://optimisingit.co.uk/managed-it-services/climate-conscious-it/ - Covid-19 recovery
-
Covid-19 recovery
We work with organisations local to the office to offer non-service support including: Gloucester Rugby business club membership, Charity donations, Sponsorship of Cheltenham Town football club. We also run an apprenticeship program. - Equal opportunity
-
Equal opportunity
Optimising IT are fully committed to ensuring equal opportunities for all. - Wellbeing
-
Wellbeing
Optimising IT operate the following schemes: Staff wellbeing Staff recognition Staff benefits including employee assistance and private medical Allowing staff to purchase additional days off Cycle to work scheme
Pricing
- Price
- £0.80 to £200 a person a month
- Discount for educational organisations
- Yes
- Free trial available
- Yes
- Description of free trial
-
A free trial for Microsoft 365 is available.
It's fully featured, but limited to one month. - Link to free trial
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/try