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The quickest way to get more return from your Microsoft 365 licences is to use the tools you are already paying for before buying anything new. Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 include an intranet platform, an employee communication network, workflow automation, low-code apps and a lot of security and compliance tooling, and in many organisations a fair amount of it is switched off or barely used.
How do I check which Microsoft 365 licences we have?
Start with the Microsoft 365 admin centre. Under Billing, Your products lists every subscription you hold and how many licences are assigned, and the Usage reports show which apps people actually use. Comparing the two is usually enough to show where you are paying for something that nobody has been shown how to use. If you are not an administrator, your IT team can pull this for you in a few minutes.
The rest of this article is aimed at organisations on Microsoft 365 E3 or E5. Business Standard and Business Premium include a lot of the same tools, with some differences in the security and compliance features.
Can we build an intranet with our existing Microsoft 365 licences?
Yes. SharePoint is included in E3 and E5, and it is a capable intranet platform in its own right, with communication sites, news, and hub sites to tie departments together. Viva Engage, which was previously called Yammer, is also included and gives you communities, announcements and leadership communication, and Viva Connections brings the intranet into Teams so people find it where they already work.
We see a lot of intranet projects held back on the assumption they need a large new budget. Our out of the box intranet is a pre-built SharePoint intranet that runs on the licences you already have, starting from £12,500 for up to 100 users. If your content is still on file shares or an older SharePoint version, our SharePoint migration services can move it across first.
Which Microsoft 365 tools help with files, content and work management?
These are included in E3 and E5 and are often underused:
- OneDrive for personal file storage and sharing, which also lets you retire old home drives
- SharePoint and Teams for team and project documents, with version history and co-authoring
- Stream for video, including recordings and transcripts from Teams meetings
- Planner and To Do for task management, from individual lists to team plans
- Forms for surveys, requests and quizzes
- Shifts in Teams for frontline scheduling
Is Power Platform included in Microsoft 365?
Partly. E3 and E5 include Power Apps and Power Automate for use within Microsoft 365, which covers apps and flows built on SharePoint lists and the standard connectors. That is enough for a lot of approval processes, request forms and notifications that would otherwise be done by email or spreadsheet. Premium connectors, Dataverse and connections to systems outside Microsoft 365 need additional Power Platform licences, so it is worth checking what a process needs before you build it.
Power BI Pro is included in E5. On E3 it is a separate licence. Our Power Platform team can help you work out which processes will run on what you already have.
What security and compliance tools come with E3 and E5?
Both include Microsoft Entra ID for identity and single sign-on, and Microsoft Intune for managing devices and apps. The differences between E3 and E5 are mostly in this area:
- Identity: E3 includes Entra ID P1, with Conditional Access and multifactor authentication. E5 adds Entra ID P2, with risk-based sign-in policies and Privileged Identity Management.
- Threat protection: E5 includes the Microsoft Defender XDR suite, covering Defender for Office 365, Endpoint, Identity and Cloud Apps.
- Information protection: E3 includes Microsoft Purview sensitivity labels and data loss prevention. E5 adds automatic labelling, Insider Risk Management and eDiscovery (Premium).
Organisations on E5 often have a lot of this licensed and not configured. Sensitivity labels and data loss prevention in particular are worth setting up, and they become more important if you plan to use Copilot.
Where does Microsoft 365 Copilot fit?
Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is available to Microsoft 365 users without an extra licence and is a good way to introduce AI to staff. The full Microsoft 365 Copilot licence is an add-on, and because it works across your emails, files and Teams chats, it gets more useful the better organised your SharePoint and OneDrive content is. Getting your intranet, permissions and labels in order with the tools you already own is the best preparation for it.
How do we get more value from licences we already pay for?
Licence value is mostly an adoption problem. The tools are there, but people have not been shown how they fit their own work. What we would suggest:
- compare assigned licences with usage reports and pick two or three tools that are paid for and unused
- tie each one to a real problem, such as replacing a spreadsheet process with Power Automate or moving a file share into SharePoint
- train people on that task rather than on the tool in general
- review licence assignments regularly, so leavers and people who only need a lighter licence are not on E5
You can see what this has looked like for other organisations in our case studies.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Office 365 and Microsoft 365?
Microsoft 365 is the current name for the suite. It includes the apps and services that were sold as Office 365, along with device management and security features, so if you hear Office 365 used today it usually means the same set of tools.
Do we need E5 to get value from Microsoft 365?
No. E3 includes SharePoint, Teams, Viva Engage, OneDrive, Power Apps and Power Automate for Microsoft 365, and the core security tools. E5 is worth it mainly when you need the advanced security, compliance or Power BI Pro features.
Is Yammer still part of Microsoft 365?
Yammer is now Viva Engage. It is included in Microsoft 365 and is available in Teams and on the web.
If you would like help working out what your licences already cover, get in touch with us.
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