Microsoft 365 · Northern Ireland
Microsoft 365 Licensing, Copilot and Business Communications
Licensing, provisioning and day-to-day management of the Microsoft tools your team actually works in.
3PS provisions and manages Microsoft 365 licensing for businesses across Northern Ireland - whether you buy your licences through us or you already own them and need them managed properly. We match plans to roles, advise on specialist licensing such as Power BI and Copilot, and support the phone system your team relies on.
Where to start
Most Businesses Arrive Here One of Two Ways
Whichever applies to you, the questions are the same: what does each person actually need, what should you be paying for it, and who keeps it right once it is set up.
You already use Microsoft 365
But nobody has reviewed it
It was set up years ago, staff have come and gone, and the bill has crept up without anyone checking why. You suspect you are paying for more than you use, or missing something you should have, but nobody has sat down and worked it out.
You are starting from scratch
New business, nothing set up
New company, or one that has outgrown personal email addresses and a shared drive. You need email on your own domain, somewhere sensible to keep files, and the right licences from the start rather than something to unpick in two years.
Step one - the right foundation
The Right Licence for Each Person
Most businesses are either paying for features nobody uses, or missing ones they need. The Microsoft 365 Business plans cover organisations up to 300 users and suit the majority of SMEs. We review what each role actually does and match it to the right plan - and if you outgrow 300 users, we move you onto Enterprise licensing.
Included
Business Basic
Business Standard
Business Premium
Email, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive
Yes
Yes
Yes
Office apps in the browser
Yes
Yes
Yes
Installed desktop Office apps
-
Yes
Yes
Work offline without an internet connection
-
Yes
Yes
Intune device management
-
-
Yes
Conditional access and advanced identity controls
-
-
Yes
Advanced email and threat protection
-
-
Yes
Typically suits
Shared and frontline staff
Office-based staff
Security-conscious businesses
Step two - using what you own
SharePoint and Teams People Actually Use
Buying the licence is the easy part. SharePoint and Teams come included in every plan above, yet most businesses still run on shared drives, email attachments and folder structures nobody can navigate. Until that is sorted, you are paying for tools you are not really using - and nothing built on top of them will work properly either.
Structure before migration
Document libraries designed around your business rather than lifted wholesale from the old file server, with permissions reviewed as part of the move.
See our cloud migration services
Teams that match your teams
Channels and sites set up per department or project, so files live where the conversation happens instead of in someone's inbox.
Support through the change
The technical move is the easy part. We help staff through the habits that change, because a rollout nobody adopts is money spent for nothing.
Step three - going further
Copilot and Power BI, Explained Properly
With the foundations in place, two Microsoft add-ons come up in nearly every conversation - and they are two of the most misunderstood. Here is what each actually does for a business your size, and what to know before paying for either.
Microsoft Copilot
AI inside the apps you already use
An assistant built into the apps your team already works in. It drafts and rewrites in Word, pulls a summary out of a long email chain, catches you up on a Teams meeting you missed, and answers questions about your own documents - so nobody spends twenty minutes hunting for what was agreed last March.
It sits on top of a qualifying licence
Microsoft 365 Copilot is a per-user add-on that requires an eligible base plan underneath it. Buying Copilot without checking the base licence is the most common mistake we see.
Your permissions become your exposure
Copilot can surface anything a user already has access to. If SharePoint permissions are loose or historic, Copilot will find what people were never meant to see. Tidying permissions first is not optional.
Start narrow, then widen
We would rather licence a handful of people who will genuinely use it, measure what changes, and expand from there than roll it out to everyone on day one.
Power BI
Your numbers in one place
Turns numbers scattered across your systems into dashboards people actually look at. Rather than someone rebuilding the same spreadsheet every month, your sales, job and finance figures land on one screen that updates itself - and everyone is looking at the same version.
Pro is the everyday licence
Power BI Pro is what people need to publish and share reports, and it is already included in Microsoft 365 E5. Worth checking before you buy it separately.
Viewers usually need licensing too
People who only read reports still need a licence, unless the workspace runs on dedicated capacity. This catches businesses out when a report goes company-wide.
Capacity changes the maths
Above a certain number of report consumers, capacity-based licensing works out cheaper than per-user and lifts limits on model size and refresh frequency. We will tell you where that line falls for you.
Beyond Microsoft - VoIP
VoIP Phone Systems
Teams handles a lot, but customers still ring the office. VoIP replaces a traditional phone system with one that runs over your internet connection - so handsets, call routing and voicemail are all managed as software rather than a box on the wall. A trusted local partner supplies the VoIP phones and platform, and 3PS provides the ongoing support for both the phones and the network they depend on.
The partner supplies the phones
Handsets, the VoIP platform and the call plan come from a local partner we have worked with for years. We scope what you need with them - call routing, hunt groups, out-of-hours handling and the right handsets or softphones for each role.
We support the phones
Day to day, phone problems come to our helpdesk alongside your Microsoft 365, devices and security. You are not managing a separate support relationship for the phone system.
And the network underneath
VoIP runs over your internet connection, so call quality is usually a network problem rather than a phone problem. We already manage the connectivity, switching and firewall, which means we can find the fault instead of ruling things out.
Who we support
Licensing sits quietly in the background until it goes wrong - a starter with no mailbox on their first morning, a leaver still being billed months later, an add-on nobody can actually use.
We work with SMEs of 10 to 250 employees, handling Microsoft 365 provisioning and management without the cost of a dedicated in-house IT team.
Based in Northern Ireland, 3PS supports organisations across the UK and Republic of Ireland.
Employees — our typical client size
Headquartered in Northern Ireland
Client coverage across both regions
We are privileged to support these valued customers
Why Businesses Choose 3PS for Microsoft 365
Licensing advice is only worth having from someone who also has to live with the consequences. We support the environments we licence, so getting the plan wrong lands back on our own helpdesk.
Twenty years of Microsoft
As a Microsoft Partner we supply licences directly and escalate through Microsoft when needed. We've more than two decades of experience supplying and managing Microsoft.
We have done this already
Copilot needs the right base licence and tidy permissions before it is worth paying for. We know where it delivers, where it does not, and what to fix first.
Licences, devices and phones
More than twenty years of Microsoft licensing, from on-premise servers to whatever this quarter's plan names happen to be.
Not Sure What You Are Already Paying For?
Most licence reviews turn something up - unassigned licences still billing, staff on plans well above what their role needs, or add-ons bought against the wrong base plan. We will go through your tenant and tell you what we find, whether or not you buy your licences through us.
Productivity FAQ's
Let's get through them together.
Yes, you can usually keep your existing phone number when switching to VoIP. This process is called number porting and is offered by most VoIP service providers. Learn more >
Yes, e-learning can be customised for your employees' needs. By conducting a gap analysis, you can identify skill gaps and tailor training content to address them. This ensures that the training is relevant, effective, and aligned with your business goals.
SharePoint allows team members to share documents, work on them simultaneously, and keep track of changes, all in one place. This improves communication and productivity. Learn more >
Both are options. We're a Microsoft Partner and can supply and bill your licences directly, which keeps everything on one invoice. If your licences already sit on your own tenant, we can manage them there instead - you keep the billing relationship with Microsoft and we handle the administration.
Most businesses don't know until someone checks. A licence review compares what each person actually does day to day against what they are licensed for. It commonly turns up unassigned licences still being billed, staff on plans well above what their role needs, and add-ons sitting on the wrong base plan.
No, and we would usually advise against it. Copilot is a per-user add-on that sits on top of a qualifying licence, so the cost adds up quickly. We would rather start with a handful of people who will genuinely use it, see what changes, and expand from there. It is also worth reviewing your SharePoint permissions first, because Copilot can surface anything a user already has access to.
Usually yes. People who only read reports still need a licence, unless the workspace runs on dedicated capacity. This catches businesses out when a report that started with two or three people goes company-wide. Above a certain number of viewers, capacity-based licensing works out cheaper than paying per user.
Still have questions?
Learn more about some of the common IT questions we get, read our latest learning centre articles or contact us for more information on how we can help you find solutions for your business needs.
Ready to transform your business?
Contact us today and let's take the next step together.