How to boost your SMB customers' productivity and security with Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Copilot for Microsoft 365

As a Microsoft CSP Indirect Reseller partner, you know the challenges and opportunities that small and medium businesses (SMBs) face in today's hybrid work environment. You also know that Microsoft has a range of solutions that can help you meet their needs and grow your business. In this blog post, we will focus on two of them: Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Copilot for Microsoft 365. We will show you how these solutions can help you optimize your SMB customers' security and Copilot readiness, using a real-life example of an email marketing company and a partner such as yourself. We will also share some of the available programs and promos that can help you accelerate your sales and profits with these solutions.

What is Microsoft 365 Business Premium?

Microsoft 365 Business Premium is the most comprehensive offering for SMBs, which combines the power of office productivity tools with advanced security and management capabilities in a cost-effective package. It includes everything your customers need to run their business securely, from anywhere, with peace of mind. Some of the benefits of Microsoft 365 Business Premium are:

• One solution for productivity and security: It brings together your favorite productivity tools from Word, Excel, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams along with advanced remote access, security, and device management capabilities.
• Comprehensive and easy to use: It simplifies deployment and management with a cloud platform that gets you up and running quickly and eliminates the need for various point solutions.
• Enterprise-grade technology: It provides advanced security features that are trusted by enterprises, such as Microsoft Defender, Azure Virtual Desktop, and Entra ID, and leverages AI-powered threat intelligence.
• Cost-effective: It reduces your operational costs by lowering support helpdesk and maintenance costs while simplifying licensing. It is also more cost-competitive than third-party solutions that offer similar functionality.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium is also a prerequisite for Copilot for Microsoft 365, which we will discuss next.

What is Copilot for Microsoft 365?

Copilot for Microsoft 365 is an AI-powered language assistant that can help your customers write, summarize, and generate content across Microsoft 365 apps. It can also help them automate tasks, build workflows, and visualize data with other Microsoft solutions, such as Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI. Copilot for Microsoft 365 can help your customers:

• Boost their productivity: Copilot can offer suggestions and streamline their work, whether they are drafting a business proposal in Word, creating a presentation in PowerPoint, or analyzing data in Excel.
• Improve their communication: Copilot can help them write clear, concise, and engaging content, whether they are sending an email in Outlook, chatting in Teams, or taking notes in OneNote.
• Leverage their data: Copilot can help them access and use data from Microsoft Graph, such as files, emails, calendars, and contacts, to provide relevant and personalized responses.
• Customize their solutions: Copilot can help them create custom solutions that meet their specific business needs, by generating code snippets or providing guidance on implementing custom features.

Copilot for Microsoft 365 is available as an add-on to Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Business Standard, E3, and E5. It also comes with enterprise-grade data protection and security controls that ensure your customers' data is safe and compliant.

How to optimize security and Copilot readiness with Microsoft 365 Business Premium?

To help you optimize your SMB customers' security and Copilot readiness with Microsoft 365 Business Premium, we will use a real-life example of an email marketing company and a partner within our network. The email marketing company is a small business that wants to leverage AI tools like Copilot for Microsoft 365 to improve its productivity and creativity. The partner is a Microsoft CSP Indirect Reseller partner who wants to help the email marketing company achieve its goals and grow its business. Here are the steps that the partner followed to optimize the email marketing company's security and Copilot readiness with Microsoft 365 Business Premium:

• Step 1: Assess the customer's readiness for Copilot for Microsoft 365. The partner conducted a Copilot Optimization Assessment, which is a service that evaluates the customer's foundational productivity, data, and security readiness for Copilot for Microsoft 365. The assessment identified areas for improvement and provided recommendations on how to optimize the customer's environment and capabilities.
• Step 2: Upsell the customer to Microsoft 365 Business Premium. The partner explained the benefits of Microsoft 365 Business Premium to the email marketing company, and how it can help them run their business securely, from anywhere, with peace of mind. The partner also showed them how Microsoft 365 Business Premium is more cost-effective than third-party solutions that offer similar functionality. The partner leveraged the available programs and promos, such as the CSP margin and incentives, to offer the email marketing company a competitive price and value proposition. It is important to note here that a partner will not be able to earn incentives from Microsoft should they not have a verified Microsoft Solution Partner Designation, limiting your earnings to the margin (as well as the managed services – see next bullet)
• Step 3: Provide managed services for Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Copilot for Microsoft 365. The partner offered the email marketing company a full stack of managed services that included Teams Phone, Teams Meeting room, Endpoint MDR/SOC, NIST/CIS security frameworks standardization, risk assessment with secure score, onboarding services, device lifecycle management, and support. The partner also provided change management and user skilling on AI and Copilot for Microsoft 365, to help the email marketing company get the most out of the solution.

By following these steps, the partner was able to optimize the email marketing company's security and Copilot readiness with Microsoft 365 Business Premium and commence a long-term relationship with them. The partner also increased their revenue and profitability by upselling Microsoft 365 Business Premium and providing managed services.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Copilot for Microsoft 365 are two powerful solutions that can help you boost your SMB customers' productivity and security while growing your business and profits. By following the example of the email marketing company and the partner, you can optimize your customers' security and Copilot readiness with Microsoft 365 Business Premium, and create a flywheel of recurring, high-margin standardized managed services. You can also take advantage of the available programs and promos that can help you accelerate your sales and profits with these solutions. To learn more about Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Copilot for Microsoft 365 contact our team of Modern Work Microsoft SureStep Ambassadors at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. today!