If your Utah business runs Microsoft 365, you’re probably paying for a lot more than email and Word documents. Most M365 Business Premium licenses include tools that companies pay hundreds of dollars per month for separately — project management, workflow automation, business intelligence, appointment scheduling, and advanced security.

The problem is that most of it never gets set up. Here are the features worth your attention.

SharePoint: Your Intranet and Document Hub (Already Included)

Most businesses store files in a chaotic mix of shared drives, email attachments, and individual desktops. SharePoint gives you a centralized document library with version control, granular permissions, and full-text search across every file your company owns.

Set up a SharePoint site for each department or project. Use document libraries instead of shared network drives. Enable versioning so you can recover any previous version of any file. And use the built-in permissions model so people only see what they need to see — which also helps with compliance if you handle sensitive data.

The real power shows up when you combine SharePoint with Teams. Every Teams channel automatically gets a SharePoint folder behind it, so files shared in a conversation are organized and searchable without anyone having to think about it.

Power Automate: Kill the Repetitive Tasks

If your team spends time on repetitive workflows — routing approval requests, sending follow-up emails, copying data between systems, generating weekly reports — Power Automate can probably handle it automatically.

Some examples we set up for Utah businesses regularly:

• New form submission triggers an email to the sales team, creates a row in a tracking spreadsheet, and sends a confirmation to the customer — all automatically
• Invoice approval workflow: submitter uploads to SharePoint, manager gets a Teams notification with approve/reject buttons, approved invoices route to accounting
• Daily digest email that summarizes new tasks assigned to each team member across Planner boards
• Automatic archiving of files older than 90 days from active project folders to archive storage

Power Automate is included in most M365 Business plans. The visual flow builder doesn’t require coding — if you can draw a flowchart, you can build an automation.

Microsoft Bookings: Stop the Scheduling Back-and-Forth

If your business involves appointments, consultations, or meetings with external clients, Bookings gives you a self-service scheduling page that syncs with your Outlook calendar. Clients pick an available time, the meeting is automatically created, and both parties get confirmation emails.

We see this used heavily by Utah professional services firms — accountants, consultants, IT providers, and healthcare practices. It eliminates the “are you free Tuesday at 2?” email chain and reduces no-shows with automatic reminders.

Microsoft Planner: Project Management Without the Extra Subscription

Before paying for Asana, Monday.com, or Trello, check whether Planner does what you need. It provides kanban boards, task assignments, due dates, checklists, and progress charts. It integrates directly with Teams — you can add a Planner tab to any channel so tasks live alongside the conversations about them.

For small teams managing 5-15 concurrent projects, Planner covers the basics without adding another subscription to your stack.

Security Features You’re Paying For But Probably Haven’t Turned On

If you’re on Microsoft 365 Business Premium (which most businesses should be), you have access to security tools that many companies pay thousands for separately:

Conditional Access policies. Block logins from countries you don’t do business in. Require MFA when someone logs in from a new device. Force password changes when Microsoft detects a compromised credential. These policies are incredibly powerful and completely free with your existing license — but they have to be configured.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP). Automatically detect and block emails containing credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, or other sensitive data patterns. Essential for healthcare, financial services, and any business handling customer PII.

Microsoft Defender for Office 365. Advanced email filtering that catches sophisticated phishing and zero-day malware that basic Exchange Online Protection misses. Safe Links rewrites URLs in emails to check them at click time, blocking newly-created malicious sites.

Intune device management. Enforce security policies on employee devices — require encryption, set password requirements, remotely wipe a lost laptop. If your team uses personal devices for work (and they do), Intune lets you protect company data without controlling their entire phone.

Get More From What You’re Already Paying For

At Brivy IT, we help Utah businesses unlock the full value of their Microsoft 365 investment. Most of our clients are surprised by how much capability they already have — it just needs to be configured and rolled out properly. If your M365 environment feels like it’s just email and Office apps, reach out for a free M365 optimization review. We’ll show you exactly what you’re leaving on the table.