Built for a city that works on the move
Atlanta teams are spread out. An associate drafts a brief on MARTA, a project manager joins a call from a client site in Atlantic Station, and half the staff work from home on Fridays. The technology that holds that together for most of our clients is Microsoft 365. Most businesses already pay for it. Very few have configured it to its potential.
What we set up and manage
- Email and calendars: Exchange Online with tuned spam and phishing filters, shared mailboxes for intake, billing or bookings, and DNS authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) so criminals can't easily send mail pretending to be you.
- Files and collaboration: SharePoint sites and Teams laid out by client, matter, project or department, and access granted by role instead of one wide-open share. OneDrive for each person's own files, synced and backed up.
- Login rules: two-step sign-in for all users, conditional access policies that refuse logins from foreign countries or personal devices, and legacy protocols disabled.
- Device management: Windows PCs, Macs, iPhones and Android phones enrolled in Intune. A new laptop can be shipped straight to a new hire's apartment and set itself up when they sign in. A phone left on a Beltline bench can be erased from our console.
- License cleanup: matching each user to Business Basic, Standard, Premium or E-series as needed. Paying top-tier prices for a receptionist, or lacking Defender features you thought were included, are both common.
- Teams and calling: channels and video meetings for everyone, with Teams Phone as an option if the aging PBX or a separate VoIP app is due for replacement.
Different industries, different setups
- Law and accounting firms: client and matter folders with clear access rules, retention settings that line up with your records policy, and integration with document management where you use it.
- Healthcare practices: Microsoft will sign a BAA covering Microsoft 365, yet none of the protections switch on by themselves. We set up encryption, access controls and audit logging and document them.
- Startups and tech firms: single sign-on to the SaaS tools you rely on, fast onboarding for a team that may double in a year, and the policies enterprise customers ask to see.
- Film and creative studios: Microsoft 365 is good for contracts, call sheets, schedules and email, and less suited to editing raw footage. For large media we design local or hybrid storage instead and keep the cloud for what it does well.
- Nonprofits: Microsoft offers donated and discounted plans to eligible nonprofits. We help you apply, move to the right licenses and avoid paying for the same thing twice.
Retiring the server in the closet
Many Atlanta offices still run a file server bought when the company was half its size. It sits in a shared closet or a hot corner of the suite, it is past warranty, and when the building does electrical work over a weekend it may not come back up cleanly. Moving files and logins to Microsoft 365 removes that single point of failure and makes your lease less tied to your IT.
Not every application can move. Certain practice management, accounting and production packages still expect a Windows server, whether in your suite or in a colocation facility. We go program by program, check requirements with each vendor, and propose a home for every workload. Cutovers are phased, mostly on evenings or weekends, and each has a way back if something breaks.
Your internet line becomes critical
When calls and documents run through Microsoft's data centers, a dead circuit stops the whole office. In a multi-tenant tower your carrier options depend on who is already wired into the building. In an older Westside or Castleberry Hill building there may be only one wired provider. We help you choose a primary connection, add a second carrier or a cellular backup where outages would hurt, and set up the firewall to switch over by itself.
Keeping it in good shape
New features and admin options appear in the tenant constantly. We follow the roadmap, check Secure Score and risky sign-in reports, onboard and offboard staff, and resize licensing whenever your team grows or shrinks. When someone new starts, their account, laptop and access are ready on day one.
Questions about microsoft 365 & cloud
Our company runs on Google Workspace. Is that a problem?
Not at all. We manage Google tenants as well. If your software or regulators point toward Microsoft, we'll lay out the reasons and migrate mail, calendars and Drive without dropping anything.
What's a realistic timeline to migrate?
An office of a few dozen people typically needs two to six weeks of prep, then a weekend switchover. Very large shared drives or tangled permissions stretch that.
