bcom ICT migrates, configures and supports Microsoft 365 for businesses across the Gold Coast and Australia-wide — email migration, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive — with security baselines and multi-factor authentication enabled during setup rather than afterwards. Tenancies are provisioned in Australian regions. bcom ICT is a Microsoft Partner. Call 07 3041 8993.
The four jobs businesses ask for
Migrating in
From an old mail server, a hosting provider, or Google Workspace. Mail, calendars and contacts come across and the cutover is staged so nobody is locked out on a Monday morning.
Setting it up properly
Shared mailboxes that behave, distribution groups, calendar permissions, and a SharePoint structure that reflects how your business actually works rather than how the wizard suggested.
Securing it
MFA enforced, legacy authentication closed, sharing settings tightened, and the admin accounts nobody had reviewed cleaned up. This is the part most tenancies are missing.
Keeping it tidy
Licences, accounts and permissions maintained as people join and leave. Cloud tenancies get messy fast when nobody owns them.
Two things new tenancies get wrong
Security is not on by default. A new Microsoft 365 tenancy ships with multi-factor authentication not fully enforced, legacy authentication paths open and sharing settings wide. That gap is precisely where account takeovers come from, and closing it is part of setup rather than an upsell.
Microsoft is not backing you up. Microsoft guarantees the platform stays available. It does not protect you from a deleted mailbox, ransomware encrypting files that sync to OneDrive, or a departing staff member emptying a SharePoint library. Retention windows are short and unforgiving. Separate Microsoft 365 backup is a genuine requirement.
How a move actually runs
1. Map it
Every mailbox, shared drive, licence and application, plus who uses what. Migrations fail on the folder nobody mentioned.
2. Plan the cutover
What moves first and how people keep working during it. Usually staged over a weekend.
3. Migrate and verify
Data comes across and is checked before the old system is switched off, not after.
4. Secure and hand over
MFA on, baselines applied, permissions tidied, documentation of what lives where given to you.
How much does a Microsoft 365 migration cost?
Indicative per user. Scoped properly first, then quoted as a fixed price.
Migration, per user
- Mailbox moved with mail, calendar and contacts intact
- Licence assigned and multi-factor authentication enforced
- Desktop, laptop and mobile set up and tested
- The old mail system decommissioned once you are satisfied
Migrations vary more than anything else we quote, so treat $150 per user as a starting point rather than a price. What moves it: how much mail history is coming across, whether shared mailboxes and public folders are involved, whether files are moving to SharePoint or OneDrive at the same time, and how cooperative the system being left behind turns out to be. We scope first and then quote a fixed price, because a migration billed by the hour is a quote that only ever moves in one direction.
The Microsoft 365 problems we are actually called to
Six issues. Two of them are costing money every month and two are exposure nobody has looked at.
“Outlook keeps asking for the password”
Usually a stored credential that has gone stale, or a mailbox where multi-factor authentication was enabled without the desktop client being reconnected.
What we do Clear the stored credential and reconnect properly rather than re-entering the password each morning. This is the single most reported Microsoft 365 fault and it is not the user doing anything wrong.
“Files are syncing to the wrong place”
Usually personal OneDrive and business storage both connected on the same machine, with work saving into whichever was set up first.
What we do Establish which locations should hold business data and set them up deliberately. Work sitting in a staff member’s personal OneDrive is outside the business entirely and leaves with them.
“A shared mailbox is licensed as a user”
Usually an account created as a person because that was the obvious way to do it. It works, and the business pays a full licence for a mailbox nobody signs into.
What we do Convert it to a shared mailbox, which requires no licence. Businesses routinely carry several of these, and each one is recurring spend for nothing.
“Someone left and their mailbox is still being paid for”
Usually an offboarding that removed the person and not the licence. The mailbox is retained sensibly and the licence was never reassigned or released.
What we do Convert departed users to shared mailboxes and release the licence. This preserves the mail history, which is usually the reason it was kept, without paying for it.
“Anyone with the link can open our files”
Usually the default sharing setting on a tenancy that was never configured. Links created years ago are still live and unrestricted.
What we do Change the default, audit what has been shared and expire what should not be open. This is one of the highest-value hours available in a Microsoft 365 tenancy.
“We’re on the wrong licence and nobody can explain the difference”
Usually plans chosen at sign-up and never revisited, frequently a mix across the business with no logic to who has what.
What we do Match the licence to what each person actually needs. Some staff are over-licensed and some are missing capability the business already pays for elsewhere.
What Microsoft 365 work actually looks like
Representative engagements, drawn from real work with identifying detail removed — we don’t name clients without written permission.
Eleven licences paid for people and things that were not people
The situation
A business of thirty-four staff asked us to review its Microsoft 365 tenancy before renewal. The bill had grown steadily and nobody could explain why.
What we found
Forty-five licences were being paid for. Six belonged to staff who had left, retained so their mail could still be reached and never released. Four were shared mailboxes — accounts, info, bookings and a mailbox for a business line the company had closed — each created as a user and each carrying a full licence unnecessarily. One belonged to a director who had two accounts from a rebrand years earlier and used only one.
What we did
Converted the departed users and the shared mailboxes to shared mailboxes, which retains every message and requires no licence, consolidated the duplicate account, and matched the remaining licences to what each person actually needs.
The outcome
Thirty-four licences for thirty-four people, with no mail lost and nothing anyone could notice. The overpayment had accumulated one reasonable decision at a time.
Four years of links that were still open
The situation
A business enabled a document search capability across its tenancy and immediately began surfacing material staff were surprised to be able to reach. Nothing had been misconfigured that week.
What we found
The tenancy had been set up with sharing defaulting to anyone with the link, which had never been changed. Four years of documents had been shared that way — to clients, to contractors, to suppliers — and every one of those links was still live and still unrestricted. Several pointed at material that had been commercially sensitive at the time and some of which still was.
What we did
Changed the default to require sign-in, audited every existing share, expired the links that should not have been open, and reissued the small number genuinely still needed with expiry dates attached.
The outcome
The exposure closed. Every one of those links had been created deliberately by someone doing their job with the tools they had been given, which is why nobody had ever thought to review them.
Questions Gold Coast businesses ask us
Who sets up Microsoft 365 for businesses on the Gold Coast?
bcom ICT migrates, configures and supports Microsoft 365 for Gold Coast businesses and for businesses across Australia, covering email migration, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive, with security baselines and multi-factor authentication enabled from day one. bcom ICT is a Microsoft Partner and provisions tenancies in Australian regions. Call 07 3041 8993.
Will we lose email during the migration?
No. Mail continues flowing throughout and nothing is switched off until we have verified everything came across. The old system stays available for a period afterwards as a safety net.
Where is our data stored?
Tenancies we provision are created in Australian regions, so mail and files sit in Australian data centres. Our data handling page sets out where everything lives, including backups and the vendor platforms that process telemetry outside Australia.
Do we need separate backup if we're on Microsoft 365?
Yes. This is the most common misunderstanding we encounter. Microsoft protects the platform from failing, not your data from being deleted, encrypted or lost. Separate backup of Microsoft 365 is a real requirement rather than an upsell.
Can you fix a tenancy someone else set up?
Frequently what we're asked to do. A tenancy review covers MFA coverage, legacy authentication, sharing settings, admin accounts and licensing you may be paying for and not using — that last one often pays for the work.
Should we use Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace?
Whichever fits how you already work. Microsoft 365 suits businesses heavy on Office documents, needing Teams calling, or with compliance requirements. Google Workspace suits businesses living in browsers and collaborating in real time. Migrating between them for its own sake is rarely worth the disruption.
Moving to Microsoft 365, or fixing what you've got?
Either way we'll map what you're running now and tell you what the move actually involves.