Should You Get Tested?

If we are talking about your Microsoft 365 environment, absolutely! But what sort of test? We recommend an evaluation of where you stand relative to your business goals using industry-proven benchmarks. Is your business healthy? Are you positive? Are you negative? What does that even mean? Remember, you don’t know what you don’t know!

FMT Consultants performs tests, or assessments, to help you measure your current Microsoft 365 profile. We split Microsoft’s cloud services into security and infrastructure components. Together, we identify gaps in your company’s security posture, help you map out the next steps along the path of your digital transformation journey, and – if needed—walk you through a plan of action to improve your results. (Trust me. It’s needed).

It’s a big world out there full of Microsoft technologies, applications, and solutions. Large or small, your business has plenty to build with! In order to prioritize and address the complexities, FMT breaks down the Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Governance ecosystem:

In order to better understand how FMT evaluates a client’s profile, let’s look at a very simple excerpt from a recent assessment. This example is regarding the ‘Self Service Password Reset’ block above:

Step 1 – What the building block means:
Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR) is an Azure Active Directory (AD) feature that enables employees to reset their passwords without contacting IT staff for help. Employees can quickly unblock themselves and continue working no matter where they are or time of day. By allowing employees to unblock themselves, your organization can reduce non-productive time and high support costs for most common password-related issues.

Step 2 – Your current state or posture:
Contoso Incorporated does not have self-service password reset setup through Azure Active Directory:

Step 3 – What does FMT recommend?
Self-service password reset should be setup so that users can help resolve their own associated login challenges, helping free up IT resources for more complex tasks. Self Service Password Reset with Active Directory sync or writeback is a feature of Azure Active Directory Premium Plan 1 (aka AADP1 which is also included in many Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 license bundles).

During the investigation it was noted that Azure AD Connect is outdated (this tool provides identity and password sync with on-premises Active Directory) and it is recommended to update to the latest version to patch security holes, avoid sync issues, and remain supported. This tool is what makes password resets possible from the cloud to on-premises domain controllers, keeping the end user’s experience seamless.

Version 1.5.30.0 was released on May 7th, 2020, while the latest version of is 2.0.28.0.

While the above may seem like a very simple building block, the client did not know their current state or posture. The assessment helped them understand what they could do to improve their IT services, increase efficiency for the business, and uncovered/resolved a security gap created by running an outdated version of an essential cloud/on-premises integration service.

The result: 45 password reset tickets a month reduced to just one or two when Self Service Password Reset was turned on and rolled out! Now, the IT department has gained additional time to move the business further in other priority areas. A+!

Our assessment uncovers everything from Self Service Password Reset to advanced email security, identity protections, and more complex security, compliance, and governance services and features that Microsoft offers. Let’s work together to help you and your team take better advantage of the tools and technologies you already have available. We are confident that you will see more than just password reset recommendations when we do an assessment for you!

Get your M365 environment tested! Know where you stand. Know where you need to go. Know FMT can help.