Client context
A national consumer-facing organisation with a distributed workforce relied on Microsoft 365 for daily operations, customer data handling, and internal collaboration.
Rapid growth and decentralised management had led to inconsistent security controls across users, devices, and data.
The challenge
The organisation lacked a unified security baseline across its Microsoft 365 environment.
Key risks included:
- Inconsistent identity and access controls across business units
- Limited visibility into user risk and suspicious activity
- Exposure to phishing, account compromise, and data leakage
Security controls existed – but were fragmented, misconfigured, or not enforced consistently.
What we did
We delivered a structured Microsoft 365 security uplift focused on identity, access, and threat protection:
- Identity and access hardening
- Implemented conditional access, MFA enforcement, and risk-based access policies
- Threat protection optimisation
- Strengthened Microsoft Defender configurations for email, collaboration, and endpoint signals
- Security baseline standardisation
- Established consistent policies across all users, devices, and locations
- Visibility and monitoring uplift
- Enabled improved logging, alerting, and incident detection capability
- Control alignment to Microsoft best practice
- Ensured configurations aligned with Microsoft Secure Score and security benchmarks
How it was delivered
Delivered in a phased, low-disruption model:
- Rapid baseline assessment of current controls
- Prioritised remediation of high-risk gaps
- Controlled rollout of identity and security policies
- Continuous validation and tuning of controls
Outcome
- Consistent security controls enforced across the entire environment
- Reduced risk of account compromise and unauthorised access
- Improved detection and response capability for security events
- Clear visibility into security posture and control effectiveness
Business impact
- Strengthened protection of customer and operational data
- Reduced likelihood of high-impact security incidents
- Increased confidence at leadership level in security posture
- Established a scalable security foundation for future growth