A guide for Microsoft Partners who want to grow their revenue and customer satisfaction with Microsoft E5, the ultimate cloud solution for modern work.

 

Microsoft E5 is the most comprehensive and secure cloud solution for modern businesses that want to stay ahead of the competition, innovate faster, and secure their digital assets. It offers a complete suite of products and services that enable customers to work smarter, faster, and safer. With Microsoft E5, customers can benefit from: 

  • Enhanced security: Microsoft E5 provides comprehensive protection against cyber threats, including advanced threat protection, identity and access management, information protection, and security management. 

  • Simplified compliance: Microsoft E5 helps customers meet their regulatory obligations, such as GDPR, NZISM, and ISO-27001, with tools that automate data governance, eDiscovery, auditing, and reporting. 

  • Unified communication: Microsoft E5 enables customers to connect and collaborate with anyone, anywhere, on any device, with features such as cloud PBX, PSTN conferencing and Teams. 

  • Powerful analytics: Microsoft E5 empowers customers to make data-driven decisions with solutions such as Power BI, MyAnalytics, and Delve, which provide insights into business performance, employee productivity, and customer behaviour. 

 

As a Microsoft Partner, you have a unique opportunity to help your customers transform their businesses with Microsoft E5. This blog will provide you with a comprehensive playbook to sell, implement and license Microsoft E5 to your customers. You will learn how to: 

  • Position Microsoft E5 as the best solution for your customers' needs 

  • Compare Microsoft E5 with Microsoft Business Premium and highlight the value proposition of Microsoft E5 

  • Identify the best prospects for Microsoft E5 and use a sales play to engage them 

  • Implement Microsoft E5 for your customers and ensure a smooth transition 

  • Leverage the Microsoft Partner Network resources and incentives to grow your Microsoft E5 business 

 

 

Positioning Microsoft E5 

Microsoft E5 is the ultimate cloud solution for modern businesses that want to stay ahead of the curve and secure their digital assets. It includes all the features of Microsoft Business Premium, plus advanced security, compliance, voice, and analytics capabilities. Microsoft E5 helps customers protect their data, devices, and users from cyber threats, meet regulatory requirements, communicate and collaborate effectively, and gain insights from data to drive business outcomes. 

When positioning Microsoft E5 to your customers, you should focus on the following key messages: 

  • Microsoft E5 is the most comprehensive and secure cloud solution for modern businesses 

  • Microsoft E5 helps customers reduce costs, complexity, and risks associated with managing multiple solutions from different vendors 

  • Microsoft E5 delivers value across the entire organization, from IT to business users, by enabling productivity, collaboration, security, compliance, and analytics 

  • Microsoft E5 is easy to deploy, manage, and use, with a consistent and intuitive user experience across devices and platforms 

  • Microsoft E5 is backed by Microsoft's trusted cloud, with industry-leading reliability, scalability, and support 

 

Comparing Microsoft E5 with Microsoft Business Premium 

Microsoft Business Premium is a cloud solution designed for small and medium-sized businesses that need the essential productivity and security features of Microsoft 365. It includes Microsoft 365 Apps, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft Intune, and Microsoft Azure Active Directory Premium Plan 1. 

Microsoft E5 is a cloud solution designed for customers that need the most advanced and comprehensive features of Microsoft 365. It includes all the features of Microsoft Business Premium, plus Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Cloud App Security, Azure Advanced Threat Protection, Microsoft Information Protection, Microsoft Compliance Manager, Microsoft eDiscovery, Microsoft Advanced Data Governance, Microsoft Teams Voice, Microsoft Phone System, Microsoft Audio Conferencing, Microsoft Calling Plan, Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Power Automate, Microsoft Power Apps, and Microsoft MyAnalytics. 

The table below summarizes the main differences between Microsoft E5 and Microsoft Business Premium: 

 

When comparing Microsoft E5 with Microsoft Business Premium, you should emphasise the following benefits of Microsoft E5: 

  • Microsoft E5 provides enhanced protection from advanced cyber threats, such as phishing, ransomware, malware, and zero-day attacks, with Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Cloud App Security, and Azure Advanced Threat Protection 

  • Microsoft E5 helps customers comply with regulatory and industry standards, such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and ISO 27001, with Microsoft Information Protection, Microsoft Compliance Manager, Microsoft eDiscovery, and Microsoft Advanced Data Governance 

  • Microsoft E5 enables customers to communicate and collaborate more effectively, with Microsoft Teams Voice, Microsoft Phone System, Microsoft Audio Conferencing, and Microsoft Calling Plan, which offer a unified and integrated voice solution that works across devices and platforms 

  • Microsoft E5 helps customers optimize their business processes and decisions, with Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Power Automate, Microsoft Power Apps, and Microsoft MyAnalytics, which offer powerful tools to create, automate, and analyze data-driven applications and workflows 

 

Identifying and engaging prospects for Microsoft E5 

Identifying and engaging the right prospects for Microsoft E5 is crucial for a successful sales process. You should target customers who have some of the following characteristics: 

  • They are enterprise customers with more than 300 users 
  • They have a compliance or regulatory requirement 
  • They provide a critical business and/or infrastructure 
  • They have a high demand for productivity, collaboration, security, compliance, and analytics solutions 
  • They have a complex IT environment with multiple solutions from different vendors 
  • They have a high level of digital maturity and innovation 
  • They have a strong relationship with Microsoft and trust in Microsoft's cloud 
  • They do not have adequate resource to implement the required/desired security posture 

 

To identify and engage these prospects, you should use the following sales play: 

Step 1: Identify the key decision makers and influencers in the customer organization, such as the CIO, CISO, CFO, COO, and business unit leaders 
Step 2: Conduct a discovery session with the customer to understand their business goals, challenges, pain points, and current IT solutions 
Step 3: Map the customer's needs and gaps to the features and benefits of Microsoft E5, and show how Microsoft E5 can help them achieve their desired outcomes 
Step 4: Drive immediacy using assessment and or Testing. What the customer thinks they have is usually very different to what they actual have. 
Step 5: Provide a demo of Microsoft E5 and showcase the user experience, functionality, and value proposition of Microsoft E5 
Step 6: Propose a trial or proof of concept of Microsoft E5 and help the customer set up and test Microsoft E5 in their environment 
Step 7: Follow up with the customer and address any questions, objections, or feedback they may have.

 

Implementing Microsoft E5 for customers 

Implementing Microsoft E5 for customers is a critical step to ensure a smooth transition and a high adoption rate. You should follow these best practices when implementing Microsoft E5 for customers: 

  • Plan and prepare: Before implementing Microsoft E5, you should conduct a thorough assessment of the customer's IT environment, identify any potential issues or risks, and create a detailed project plan and timeline 

  • Deploy and migrate: During the implementation phase, you should follow the Microsoft FastTrack guidance and use the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre and PowerShell tools to deploy and migrate Microsoft E5 for the customer 

  • Train and support: After the implementation phase, you should provide training and support to the customer's IT staff and end users, and leverage the Microsoft Adoption Framework and Microsoft Learn resources to help them learn and use Microsoft E5 effectively 

  • Monitor and optimise: After the training and support phase, you should monitor and optimize the performance and usage of Microsoft E5 for the customer, and use the Microsoft 365 Reports and Microsoft Secure Score tools to measure and improve the customer's security and compliance posture 

 

Leveraging the Microsoft Partner Network resources and incentives

As a Microsoft Partner, you have access to a variety of resources and incentives to help you grow your Microsoft E5 business. You should leverage the following resources and incentives: 

  • Microsoft Partner Network: The Microsoft Partner Network is a global community of partners that provides you with access to training, certification, marketing, sales, and technical support for Microsoft E5 and other Microsoft solutions 

  • Microsoft Partner Centre: The Microsoft Partner Centre is a portal that allows you to manage your Microsoft E5 customers, licenses, billing, and incentives, and also offers you tools and resources to market and sell Microsoft E5 more effectively 

  • Microsoft Incentives: Microsoft Incentives are programs that reward you for selling and driving adoption of Microsoft E5 and other Microsoft cloud solutions, with benefits such as rebates, co-op funds, and recognition 

 

Conclusion

Microsoft E5 is the ultimate cloud solution for modern businesses that want to stay ahead of the curve and secure their digital assets. It offers a complete suite of products and services that enable customers to work smarter, faster, and safer. As a Microsoft Partner, you can help your customers unlock the full potential of Microsoft E5 by following this playbook, which covers how to position, compare, identify, implement, and leverage Microsoft E5 for your customers. By following this playbook, you will be able to grow your revenue, increase your customer satisfaction, and strengthen your relationship with Microsoft. You will also position yourself as a trusted advisor and a leader in the cloud market.