Microsoft 365 for Business: The Complete Guide

As of 2026, Microsoft 365 Business plans in Australia are priced at approximately AUD $8.20 per user per month (Basic), $17.20 (Standard), and $30.20 (Premium), billed annually and excluding GST. Monthly billing is available but typically costs around 16% more than annual commitment — for a 15-user business, that is roughly $700–$1,200 extra per year depending on the plan mix. Microsoft updates pricing periodically, so we confirm current rates at the start of every engagement. Netcomp also helps you optimise licence mix — mixing Basic, Standard and Premium across different roles often saves 20% without weakening security on the accounts that matter most.

Standard includes desktop Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) on up to 5 devices per user, plus Teams, Outlook email, OneDrive, and SharePoint. Premium adds Microsoft Defender for Business (advanced threat protection), Intune for device management, Azure Information Protection, and more — making it the right choice for businesses prioritising security.

Yes — you keep every email address you have today, on every domain. We verify each domain inside the new Microsoft 365 tenant, pre-stage the MX and autodiscover DNS records, then switch the mail flow at a chosen cutover point. Done correctly, mail delivery continues without a gap — new messages arrive in the new mailbox, and any in-flight mail is either queued and retried or routed through co-existence. We also migrate historical mail, contacts, calendars and shared mailbox permissions so the new inbox looks identical to the old one on day one. Users simply sign in, see their familiar mail, and keep working.

We recommend buying through our Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partnership. CSP pricing is often the same as or lower than direct, we handle licence management for you, and we can add/remove licences as your team grows or shrinks without annual commitments.

Yes. Microsoft 365 tenant data for Australian customers can be hosted in Australian data centres. Microsoft is certified for Australian government ISM compliance and aligns with Privacy Act requirements. We configure your tenant for Australian data residency and compliance from day one.

For most businesses, yes. SharePoint and OneDrive replace file shares with better permissions, version history, and remote access. We plan and execute the migration — including retraining users on the new file structure. For specialist workloads (large CAD files, certain industry software) we may recommend a hybrid approach.

Yes. We provide rollout training for new deployments, on-demand training materials, and targeted training for specific tools (Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Excel). Training is included in our managed IT packages and available as a stand-alone service.

Very common. We offer Microsoft 365 health checks that audit your current configuration, identify gaps, and propose fixes — from improving email deliverability to hardening security to optimising licence mix. Many customers find they’re either overpaying or under-secured.

Office 2021 is a one-off purchase that gives you Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook installed locally — nothing more. Microsoft 365 is a subscription that includes the desktop apps plus Exchange email hosting, Teams, OneDrive (1 TB per user), SharePoint, and — on higher tiers — Defender for Business, Intune device management, and Information Protection. Office 2021 also stops receiving feature updates, while Microsoft 365 updates continuously. For almost every Australian SMB, Microsoft 365 delivers far more value per dollar.

For a typical Brisbane SMB of 10–50 users migrating from another mail provider, we plan a one-to-two-week engagement: discovery and tenant setup, a pilot migration with 5–10 mailboxes to verify every flow, then the full cutover plus OneDrive and SharePoint rollout. Larger businesses (50+ users) with complex shared mailboxes, public folders, on-prem Exchange or multiple domains generally need three to four weeks and include a cutover-rehearsal weekend. We run the final cutover after-hours — usually Friday evening into Saturday morning — so your team opens Outlook Monday already on Microsoft 365 with zero in-hours disruption. Users typically experience a few hours of mail-routing changeover, not days of downtime.

Microsoft 365 — configured well — gives Australian SMBs a stronger security posture than most on-premises setups ever had. The key word is configured. Out of the box, Microsoft 365 still allows legacy auth, weak passwords, unmanaged devices, and oversharing. On every tenant we manage we enforce MFA, block legacy authentication, deploy Conditional Access, enable Defender for Business on Business Premium, apply sensible DLP rules, and add tested backup for Exchange, SharePoint and OneDrive. That combination maps to Essential Eight Maturity Level 1–2 for most businesses.

Yes — and most organisations should. Frontline staff may only need Business Basic or an F1/F3 licence, office staff typically need Business Standard, and executives, finance and IT admins should be on Business Premium for the security features. Mixing licences within one tenant is fully supported and is a legitimate way to control cost without reducing security on the accounts that matter most. We review licence mix quarterly and right-size as roles change.

Microsoft gives you 30 days of read-only access to your data after a subscription lapses, then another 60 days (total 90) where a tenant admin can reactivate. After that, Microsoft permanently deletes tenant data. Before any cancellation we do a full export: PSTs for mailboxes, archive copies of OneDrive and SharePoint, and a tenant-configuration export. We also recommend keeping a third-party backup running during the cancellation period as an independent safety net.