The dislocation caused by COVID-19 continues to influence companies’ physical workspaces — and prompt new choices for their IT.
Case in point: the current state of Office 365 tenants.
As IT departments review their operations to increase efficiencies created by a remote workforce, they should consider their licenses for Microsoft’s business SaaS tools. Do your clients need more licenses to keep up with demand by new employees — or have furloughs and layoffs reduced demand?
In either case, an operational review may reveal that they’re overpaying Microsoft for an oversize Office 365 tenant.
So what’s a smart marketer to do?
Help your customers make smart purchase decisions. Like a landlord of a rent-controlled apartment, Microsoft is very eager for new tenants so it can charge higher prices. Those costs may more than offset any extra licenses under your customer’s current tenant.
Help your customers understand the features they need. The assortment of Office 365 plans offers capabilities that may be superfluous to some clients, including desktop apps and eDiscovery compliance software for legal purposes. Help them take stock of their actual business requirements when sizing up their tenants.
Help your customers avoid complexity. Migrating between tenants can be a devilishly difficult task — and Microsoft doesn’t make it easy, especially for large or complex clients. Unless an acquisition or other big organizational event necessitates it, IT pros may want to cut themselves some slack during a period when they’re already coping with a whole set of novel challenges in a distributed workplace.
The changes to standard operating procedure represent a great opportunity for companies to tie up loose ends. But responsible vendor partners should ensure they’re not tying themselves in knots.
