Regional insurance agency · ~70 staff
Two Microsoft accounts, one renewal, and Copilot waiting.
An acquisition arrived with its own Microsoft account: 18 mailboxes, three years of files no one had permission-checked, and a renewal date nine weeks out. Sales wanted Copilot, the license list did not match the staff list, and a second account was quietly doubling the admin work.
Representative profile. Figures are illustrative.
The work
What we did, and why
An acquisition brings more than customers. It brings a second Microsoft account, a second license list, and a second set of file permissions no one has ever read. This agency had all three, and the sales team had already asked for Copilot. That is the wrong order. An assistant reads whatever the signed-in person can already open, including three years of files that were shared with the widest possible audience and never narrowed.
The licensing review went first because the renewal was nine weeks out. Sixty-eight licenses were being paid for against fifty-one active users. One separate add-on duplicated something the higher plan already included, and the acquired company carried a license bill of its own. Right behind it, the Microsoft 365 tenant review ranked what mattered more than cost. Five top-level admin accounts, old password-only sign-in still on for two applications, and fourteen live anyone-with-the-link sharing links came top. Nine apps had been approved by staff who did not know what they were granting, which is where unapproved AI tools usually hide.
The fixes ran alongside the IT firm rather than replacing it. Admin accounts came down to two, password-only sign-in was blocked once the two applications were updated, and links and approvals were closed out one at a time. Day-to-day administration stayed where it belongs. The fix order went into the migration plan. Sign-ins, mail, files, and Teams moved into one account with permissions reviewed on the way through instead of copied wholesale. Copilot came after that, as a twelve-person pilot with sensitive files labeled first and use measured against cost per active user. The monthly watch is what keeps it honest: license and usage reporting, Microsoft's security score trend, the renewal calendar, sharing changes, and every app waiting on a decision. Reporting and oversight, not a help desk.
Where they stand
The outcome
One Microsoft account, one renewal, and a license bill that matches active use. The monthly watch reports the account in the same place as the AI dashboard reporting, so the next renewal arrives with the decision already written.
For leadership
What changed
The principal stopped paying for a second account and 17 licenses no one was using. Sales got Copilot nine weeks later than they asked, on an account whose permissions had been read first.
This is a representative profile, drawn from the kinds of companies we work with. Figures are illustrative. We publish named results only with a client's written permission.
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