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Industry · Professional services and media

Microsoft 365 for consulting, media and professional services firms

Small IT function or none. Consultants working from clients’ offices. Relocations, rebrands, and the occasional tenant created on the wrong domain. Where we are the IT department someone calls.

Typical size10–300 people
Typical triggerRelocation, rebrand, Google exit
Support modelHourly, no retainer
Invoiced inLocal currency per entity

Consulting firms, media companies, agencies and other professional services businesses share a shape: knowledgeable people, a thin or non-existent IT function, and a habit of accumulating tools — Slack, Box, Dropbox, Google Workspace — alongside a Microsoft 365 subscription that is paid for and half used.

The triggers for calling us are specific. A relocation to another country that means the tenant has to move too. A rebrand that changes every email address. A decision to leave Google Workspace after years of running out of storage. A tenant that was created on the wrong domain by whoever set it up first.

And once the project is done, the relationship usually becomes the IT department: someone who picks up when a partner cannot sign in, who sets up the new hire, who knows the estate. Billed by the hour, with no retainer, because a firm of forty people needs two hours some months and twenty in others.

What we see in this sector

The four patterns that decide the project

Not a list of features. The things that actually change scope, sequence and price when the client is in professional services and media.

No IT department, or one person

We are often the IT function. That means handouts before every change, plain-language answers, and someone reachable within four business hours who knows your tenant. Several clients describe it as having an IT department only when they need it.

Leaving Google Workspace

Gmail, Drive and shared drives to Microsoft 365, with the sharing model mapped deliberately — because Google’s per-file links and Microsoft’s sites and inheritance do not agree. Two of our clients tell that story in their own words.

Relocation or rebrand

Moving the business to another country moves the tenant and the invoicing entity. A rebrand changes every address. Both are scheduled cutover events: a domain can be attached to one tenant at a time, and we plan backwards from the date.

Consultants in clients’ offices

Devices on other people’s networks, sign-in from everywhere, and confidential client material on laptops. Intune and Conditional Access, sequenced so that nobody is locked out on a client site on a Monday morning.

Evidence

What we have actually done here

A film and media company, roughly 300 users, several terabytes of SharePoint: tenant created on the wrong domain, relocated to the United States, two months.
A restaurant group in the United States: Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 including phone systems, no downtime, delivered on the forecast date. Their system administrator’s account is on this site.
An apparel company, 60 staff across two companies: Gmail to Microsoft 365 after years of storage problems, then SharePoint, backup and multi-factor authentication. “Seven or eight system conversions in thirty years. This was by far the easiest.”
An IT consulting firm, six-year client: Intune provisioning, licensing management and support. “We are pretty savvy. But if anything is too technical for us, they are always there.”
A property management company that grew from five to thirty remote staff with us: migration, licensing, Intune, security reviews every other week.
Services

Where this work usually starts

Questions

Asked by professional services and media clients specifically

We are twelve people with no IT person. Is that too small for you?

No. A large share of our clients are between ten and a hundred people. The hourly model exists precisely for firms that need a few hours some months and none in others. Licensing starts at ten seats.

Can you move us off Slack and Box as well as Gmail?

Files, yes: Box, Dropbox and Google Drive into OneDrive and SharePoint is a well-trodden move. Slack is harder to leave if it is tied to Salesforce or a client workflow; we will tell you whether it is worth it. One client kept Slack and moved everything else.

We are relocating the business to another country. What moves?

The tenant’s country setting, potentially the domain, and definitely the invoicing entity — a company that moves from the UK to Germany is billed in euros by our EU entity afterwards. The migration itself is a scheduled cutover; we plan it backwards from the moving date.

What does ongoing support cost for a firm of forty?

€150 / £120 / $150 per hour, billed as used, no retainer and no minimum. A typical firm of that size uses a handful of hours a month; the onboarding review is where we tell you what to expect.

Our consultants work from clients’ sites. Can you manage their laptops?

Yes. Intune enrolment, compliance policy and Conditional Access, in that order, with break-glass accounts so nobody is locked out on a client’s network. The rollout is sequenced around when people are actually reachable.

Scoping costs nothing

Tell us the shape of it

Tenant count, rough headcount, which countries, and what is driving the date. You get back a sequence, an honest view of what will be slow, and a fixed price — usually within one business day.