Microsoft 365 adoption: How Prism takes a data-driven approach to modern workplace success

A look at Prism+ Office 365, a unique business intelligence tool designed to improve your Microsoft 365 adoption and license position

Microsoft 365 has been an essential investment for many organisations this year, enabling business continuity alongside user connectivity, productivity and collaboration. That’s why daily active users continue to grow, even as some global workplaces go back on-premise.

While simplicity and user accessibility are at the heart of Microsoft 365, as with the adoption of any new technology or SaaS solution, there is always room for error and improvement. With the new year fast approaching, budgets being finalised and operational objectives set, now and early 2021 are a good time to re-evaluate your modern workplace investments.

The recently enhanced Prism, a unique business intelligence tool leveraging PowerBI, will proactively support decisions about Microsoft 365 data, licenses and adoption to help customers optimise usage and drive real value.

While Prism has been available to Trustmarque customers since last year, predominantly as an IT asset management (ITAM) tool, James Moran, Software Services – Technology Intelligence Solutions Architect at Trustmarque who designed the platform, believes it should be a valuable resource in your 2021 modern workplace toolkit.

“Coronavirus made everyone who could, become a remote worker overnight. Our customers rushed into buying products, that in many cases they have not used before and don’t know how best to deploy.” James Moran, Trustmarque

He explains: “Coronavirus made everyone who could, become a remote worker overnight. Our customers rushed into buying products, that in many cases they have not used before and don’t know how best to deploy. We know this has created problems both from an adoption point of view, but also in wasting licenses that aren’t needed.”

How to access a single view of your Microsoft 365 usage

A key component of the Prism platform is Prism+ Office 365 dashboards, which build on the rich source of data and analytics already available in Microsoft 365. These custom-made dashboards pull data from multiple sources in Microsoft 365 to provide insights on the usage and adoption of key applications.

Prism+ Office 365 dashboards can determine what has been rolled out in an organisation, how quickly it has been deployed and identify where there may be bottle necks in user-adoption. They can also be used to support predictions on future deployments and support renewal decisions.

“We want to take Prism to customers as a value-add, to see if they are adopting the tech correctly,” says James. “It is about optimisation and making sure your investment is used to fullest, not just purchasing licenses and getting on with it. We can quite easily identify where a customer is wasting money or purchasing the wrong type of licenses for their business and users.”

Through insights, including user profiling and adoption roadmaps, Prism can help you to better manage your costs and Microsoft 365 spend, now and in the future.

“There is a lot of valuable data in Office 365.  Through Prism, we are taking all those individual data sources and reports and combining them into a single dashboard that is simple and easy to use. ” James Moran, Trustmarque

“There is a lot of valuable data in Office 365.  Through Prism, we are taking all those individual data sources and reports and combining them into a single dashboard that is simple and easy to use. You don’t need knowledge and understanding of Office 365 analytics to use Prism, we can help create exec level dashboards that anyone can access.”

With many organisations fine-tuning plans for next year and reviewing recent investments in SaaS solutions like Microsoft 365, Prism can support key decision making. For example, James reveals that in his experience, the most common subscription error is when organisations purchase full E3 licenses with desktop 365 access, when even Microsoft will advise that the E1 web-based version will suffice for some users.

Microsoft 365 will continue to be a vital weapon in your hybrid working and remote working approach. By drawing on the power of Prism, Trustmarque aims to ensure you’re utilising the stack to its full potential.

We can help shape your modern workplace

Prism can be leveraged at any point in your Microsoft 365 and modern workplace journey. It is an adaptive solution that works around your current environment to help find efficiencies and cost savings.

To find out how Prism can support your organisation or to discuss your wider Microsoft 365 requirements, contact our team: [email protected] 

By Katherine Murphy, content enthusiast