Insights

Microsoft 365 is one of Microsoft’s three major clouds (the other two being Azure and Dynamics 365). Perhaps Microsoft is one of the most familiar as it included Office 365, which is widely used by many organisations. As well as Office 365, it also includes Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS).

As Microsoft’s offerings have developed and new solutions and products have been launched, Microsoft 365 has evolved and now has many different licensing SKUs. The reason for this, is so that organisations can choose the most appropriate license for their requirements – so they pay for what they need rather than buying an all-encompassing licence that they only use elements of.

The key Microsoft 365 licences are Business, E3 and E5 and we have a whole guide on what’s included in the Microsoft 365 Enterprise offerings here. In this article, we want to look into detail at the add-ons – particularly around Compliance.

E5 Add-ons

Originally there were two main E5 add-ons that organisations could buy if they already had Microsoft 365 E3 – these gave additional functionality without the big price tag of Microsoft 365 E5. These were:

• Microsoft 365 E5 Security (£9.05) – which is a bundle of advanced security products (MDATP, Office 365 ATP, Azure ATP, MCAS, Azure AD Premium)
• Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance (£7.54) – which is a bundle of all the compliance products

Recently, new licences have been introduced, which further break down the E5 Compliance licence so that organisations can buy the individual components of E5 Compliance rather than the full bundle. These new licences are:

• New: Microsoft 365 E5 Information Protection & Governance (£5.28)
• New: Microsoft 365 E5 Insider Risk Management (£4.52)
• New: Microsoft 365 E5 eDiscovery and Audit (£4.52)

If an organisation wanted features from more than one of these licences then it would be more cost effective to buy the Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance licence.

Please note we have included current UK ERP pricing as guidance, but pricing is subject to change and is only correct at the time of writing. This is per user per month.

Microsoft 365 Compliance Licences and Features compared

Overall, Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance is focused around providing products and features that allow organisations to identify compliance risks and classify, protect and govern their data in order to comply with data and privacy regulations. As explained, Microsoft 365 E5 Compliance is the ‘top’ licence which includes the following three key areas – that can now be purchased as standalone licences.

Information Protection & Governance

Classify, protect and govern your sensitive wherever it resides with features such as Data Loss Prevention, Sensitivity Labels, Retention Labels & Policies and Records Management.

• Detect and classify sensitive and confidential data based on machine learning to ensure the right levels of protection
• Retain and delete records in a compliant manner to meet data regulations and reduce information sprawl
• Apply encryption, content marking, and rights management to documents that stay with the data wherever it travels to reduce risk

Insider Risk Management

Automatically identify and mitigate insider threats to reduce risk with features such as Insider Risk Management, Communication Compliance and Customer Lockbox.

• Detect, investigate and act upon malicious or inadvertent risks within your organisation with insider risk policies and alerts
• Uncover hidden patterns and risks to highlight suspicious or abnormal user behaviour that could pose a threat
• Ensure the relevant staff have necessary access to quickly take appropriate actions

eDiscovery & Audit

Quickly investigate queries and respond to data requests with Advanced eDiscovery, Content Search, Data Investigations and Audits.

• Easily fulfil Subject Access Requests (SAR) by finding customer data with intuitive search and discovery tools to adhere to GDPR regulations
• Fulfil eDiscovery requirements to search, identify and export electronic information for legal cases
• Benefit from unified auditing to simplify audit reporting and adherence to compliance obligations

Microsoft have also released an excellent licensing comparison that goes into very specific detail around each licence and compliance feature, which you can view here: Microsoft Compliance Licensing Comparison.

Watch our webinar

If you would like to learn more about Microsoft 365 Compliance, then watch our Microsoft 365 Compliance webinar now. This covers an overview of Microsoft 365 Compliance before diving into an overview of Information & Protection features.

If you would like any support or guidance around the compliance solutions within Microsoft 365, please contact us.