Microsoft 365 rollout plan for a company: steps and cost
A Microsoft 365 rollout plan for a company covers the choice of plan, email and file migration and security. We also explain timelines and cost factors.
A Microsoft 365 rollout plan for a small or medium-sized company has six stages: analysis, preparing the environment (domain, accounts, licences), migrating email and files in the background, the switchover, security settings and user support after go-live.
We charge for the rollout per user, and you pay for Microsoft licences separately. The timeline depends on the number of mailboxes, the amount of data and the system you are moving from.
Which Microsoft 365 plan should you choose?
For companies with up to 300 people, Microsoft offers the Business family of plans. The main differences:
| Plan | What it includes, in short |
|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Business Basic | email, Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint, Office apps in the browser |
| Microsoft 365 Business Standard | everything in Basic, plus Office apps installed on the computer |
| Microsoft 365 Business Premium | everything in Standard, plus security and device management: Microsoft Entra ID P1 (Conditional Access), Intune, Defender for Business |
The 300 limit applies to the total number of licences across all Business plans in one organisation. Larger companies need Enterprise plans (Microsoft 365 plan options, as of 21 September 2026). Plans can be mixed: some people can have Business Basic and others Business Premium.
When choosing, we look at the licence price and at whether the company needs laptop management and Conditional Access. If it does, compare the cost of Business Premium with the cost of separate tools for those jobs.
How we move email to Microsoft 365
The migration method depends on where your email is today. Microsoft describes several methods (ways to migrate multiple email accounts):
| Current system | Migration method | What is moved |
|---|---|---|
| Email with a hosting provider (IMAP) | IMAP migration | messages only (contacts and calendars have to be moved separately) |
| Google Workspace | Google Workspace migration | email and, depending on the configuration, calendars and contacts |
| Exchange Server in the office | cutover or hybrid migration | email, calendars, contacts and tasks |
IMAP migration is the typical route for companies whose email comes with a hosting package. It does not move contacts and calendars, so this needs planning: either we move them separately, or users export them themselves following our instructions.
Before the switchover, we lower the TTL (time to live) of the MX records in DNS. Microsoft recommends setting it to 3,600 seconds or less, so that after the change email starts arriving in the new mailboxes sooner.
How we move files to OneDrive and SharePoint
Files are usually the harder part of the migration, because you have to decide where they should go:
- OneDrive holds one person’s files, which they sometimes share
- SharePoint and Teams libraries hold department or project files that the whole team can access
To move data from a file server, as well as from Google Drive, Dropbox or Box, Microsoft provides the Migration Manager tool in the SharePoint admin centre (migrating file shares). Permissions from the file server do not carry over one to one. Advanced NTFS permissions are removed, and access has to be designed from scratch. This is a good opportunity to sort out who has access to what.
A Microsoft 365 rollout step by step
- Analysis. We check the number of users and mailboxes, the amount of data, the current email system, the file server and devices (printers that scan to email, phones).
- Preparation. We verify the domain, create accounts, assign licences and set up the structure of SharePoint libraries and Teams.
- Background migration. We copy email and files while your staff keep working on the old system.
- Switchover. We change the DNS records, configure Outlook and phones, and run a final synchronisation.
- Security. We turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA), switch off legacy sign-in methods and set rules for sharing files externally.
- Support after go-live. We help users in the first days, when most questions come up.
If the company still has Windows 10 computers, include them in the plan. Microsoft 365 apps work on them with limitations, as we explain in our article on Windows 10 end of support and paid ESU updates.
How long does a Microsoft 365 rollout take?
We cannot give a single figure for the timeline. It depends on:
- the number of mailboxes and their size
- the number and size of files and whether they need tidying up before the move
- the migration method (IMAP, Google Workspace, Exchange)
- the bandwidth of the office internet connection
- the number of devices to reconfigure
Most of the work happens in the background. For your staff, the switchover day is the one they notice most. We schedule it so that it does not fall during month-end closing or at another important time for the company.
How much does a Microsoft 365 rollout cost?
We charge for the rollout per user. The price goes up when:
- we migrate a lot of data or from several sources
- there are many shared mailboxes, aliases and forwarding rules
- we configure extended security: Conditional Access, device management in Intune, Defender protection
We quote Microsoft 365 licences separately, at current list prices. We help you choose the plan and the number of licences, so you do not pay for features nobody uses. Our price for the rollout itself is on the Microsoft 365 implementation page.
After the migration: security and backups
Two things remain after the migration: securing accounts, at least with multi-factor authentication, and backing up the data held in Microsoft 365. We describe security and cloud data backups on our Microsoft 365 security page.
Tell us which system you are moving from and how many users you have, and we will prepare a migration plan and a quote for your Microsoft 365 rollout.
