Nicolas Charritton

Sr. Product Marketing Manager – Microsoft 365
Microsoft Australia

We have recently announced the addition of advanced security features in Microsoft 365 Business to further protect your SMB customers from cyber threats and to safeguard sensitive information. These new features along with the inclusion of Microsoft Intune as part of the suite and the ability to deploy the solution in a hybrid environment are unlocking opportunities for many of our customers and partners.

Protect employees from phishing and ransomware

To help bolster SMB customers’ defences against phishing, malware, and viruses, Microsoft 365 Business now includes advanced threat protection features, including:

• Attachment scanning and machine learning to detect and discard dangerous messages
• Automatic checks of links in emails to assess if they’re part of a phishing scheme and to prevent users from accessing unsafe websites
• Device protection to prevent devices from interacting with ransomware and other malicious web locations

Prevent the unintentional leak of business data

To help protect sensitive customer business data, the following capabilities have been added to Microsoft 365 Business:

• Data loss prevention policies to identify, monitor, and protect sensitive information like social security and credit card numbers
• Information protection in Outlook that lets customer employees manage access to sensitive data in emails
• Email archiving and preservation policies to help ensure data is properly retained through continuous data backup and compliance
• The ability to enforce BitLocker device encryption on all Windows devices to help protect against data theft or exposure if a protected device is lost or stolen

The advanced threat protection, archiving, and information protection features are available now to new Microsoft 365 Business customers, and will be rolling out to current customers over the next few weeks. Data loss prevention and support for features dependent on the Office desktop applications will roll out in the coming months.

We have also published guidance on how to set up Hybrid Active Directory implementation for those customers who have on premise infrastructure (link)

Opportunities for your practice

Grow with managed services. The need for security is ongoing. With a shortage of skilled security and compliance professionals, customers rely you to provide the security services they need to help reduce risks.

Differentiate your offerings. Offer more holistic solutions to increase mindshare and strengthen customer relationships. By adding security services to your portfolio, you can solve a broader range of customer challenges.

Increase deal size. Security is about end-to-end protection for all users, helping to keep the entire organization safe. With new Microsoft 365 Business value, you’re in a great position to increase deal size. Pivotal events like GDPR also provide new growth opportunities for your practice.

FY18 Partner Incentives

8% Rebate on CSP cloud billed revenue*
5% Global Accelerator for Microsoft 365 SKUs*
5% Local Accelerator for Microsoft 365 SKUs*
Microsoft 365 Business Campaign (Until 30 June) - aka.ms/m365bincentive

• AU$60 per seat of Microsoft 365 Business
• FREE data migration with Skykick and BitTitan
• FREE 45-day post sales training for your customers

* Only for eligible partners with Silver/Gold MPN membership and relevant competency. For more info and T&Cs, please check https://partner.microsoft.com/membership/partner-incentives or contact [email protected]

Next steps

• Read the complete Microsoft 365 Business security features blog post.
• Review the Microsoft 365 Business Partner FAQ.
• Use Microsoft Demos to show the new security product value proposition to your customers.
• Share the updated Microsoft 365 Business Pitch Deck with your customers.
• Find more assets at aka.ms/nico.
• Send your feedback (good/bad) or suggestions to [email protected].
• Watch the presentation (PPT available at https://aka.ms/nico).