Microsoft 365 set up for confidential client work

Firms that work everywhere

A Buckhead adviser might start the day at home, meet a client in Midtown, take calls from the car on GA-400 and finish in the office on Peachtree. A litigator may work from a courthouse, a hotel or opposing counsel's conference room. That only works when email, files and business applications are secure and reachable from anywhere, without a fragile VPN or client statements sent as plain attachments.

A tenant configured for client data

Out of the box, Microsoft 365 leaves too much open for a firm that holds account numbers, settlement statements or medical records. Our standard setup covers:

• Identity and access: multifactor sign-in, conditional access that checks the user, device and location, and legacy sign-in methods switched off.
• Managed devices: every laptop and phone enrolled in Intune, encrypted and kept up to date. New machines configure themselves for the user, and a lost phone can be wiped of firm data without touching personal photos.
• Files organized by client, matter or household: SharePoint and Teams sites built around how you work, with permissions that keep each team to its own clients.
• Secure sharing: encrypted email and expiring links for documents that leave the firm, so tax returns and statements aren't sitting in someone's personal inbox.
• Sensitivity labels and data loss prevention: rules that warn or block when someone tries to send Social Security or account numbers outside the firm.
• Email protection: filtering for phishing and impersonation, plus SPF, DKIM and DMARC on your domain.
• Licenses: each person on the plan that fits their role. Plenty of firms pay for features they never switched on, or lack the security features they assumed they had.

Archiving and record keeping

Investment advisers, broker-dealers and many law firms have record-keeping obligations that ordinary mailbox settings don't satisfy. Many use a third-party archiving service for email and Teams messages. We connect that service, confirm that messages are actually being captured and set retention in Microsoft 365 to match the schedule your compliance officer approves. When an examiner or opposing party asks for records, you can produce them without a scramble.

Retiring the server in the closet

Some Buckhead firms still keep a server in a cramped telecom closet, often sharing a wall with the building's riser. It holds files, an accounting database or an old document system, and it's usually out of warranty. Moving those workloads to Microsoft 365 or a hosted environment takes a single point of failure out of the suite and makes an office move far simpler.

Not every application belongs in SharePoint. Some practice management, portfolio accounting and agency systems run best as the vendor's own cloud service or on a hosted server. We review each one, talk to the vendor and move things in stages, usually after hours, with a tested way back if something misbehaves.

Connectivity in a tower

When files, email and phones all run from the cloud, the circuit into your suite becomes the one thing that must not fail. In multi-tenant buildings, carrier options depend on what the landlord has already brought into the building. We review what is available at your address, order a primary circuit and, where it's worth it, a second one from a different provider that takes a different path into the building, or a cellular backup.

Keeping it current

Microsoft adds and changes features every month. We follow those releases, watch your Secure Score and risky sign-in reports, onboard and offboard staff and right-size licensing as headcount changes. When a new associate starts, their laptop is ready with the right access on day one, and when someone leaves, access ends that afternoon.

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