Saint-Georges
IT services in Saint-Georges: the right Microsoft 365 licence, and no dormant accounts
In plenty of small businesses, the Microsoft 365 subscription was set up once and nobody has opened it since. Everyone is on the same plan, and people who left are still on the bill. OKTO Solutions offers SMBs in Saint-Georges to put that subscription back in order, remotely, from Trois-Rivières, about 216 km away.
OKTO Solutions offers SMBs in Saint-Georges remote management of their Microsoft 365 licences: a plan chosen one workstation at a time, dormant licences released, and a single point of contact, a Microsoft partner, for subscriptions and support cases. OKTO’s office is in Trois-Rivières, about 216 km away. Nobody is stationed in Beauce.
Who manages Microsoft 365 licences for a business in Saint-Georges?
OKTO Solutions offers SMBs in Saint-Georges, in the Beauce area, management of their Microsoft 365 licences and subscriptions, done entirely remotely. OKTO’s office is in Trois-Rivières, about 216 km away: no technician is stationed in Saint-Georges and no visit is promised. The work starts from a statement of the licences in place. Each workstation is compared with what the person really does, then matched to Business Basic, Business Standard or Business Premium. Licences still attached to inactive accounts, duplicates and plans bought for a need that has gone away are identified, then released or removed from the subscription. OKTO Solutions is a Microsoft Partner: it can buy and adjust subscriptions, obtain delegated, revocable access to the environment, and open a case with Microsoft on the client’s behalf. Global administrator accounts and data stay in the client company’s name. Costs are presented on request, after the workstations have been inventoried.
The right plan
Does everyone need the same licence?
Almost never. A warehouse employee who reads three emails a week and a controller who takes her laptop home do not hold the same job. One subscription for both is too much for the first or too little for the second.
| Plan | Typical workstation | What the plan brings |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Business Basic | The administrative workstation where everything happens in the browser | Email, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive and the web versions of the apps. Desktop apps are not included. |
| Microsoft 365 Business Standard | The office workstation that has documents open from morning to night | Everything in Basic, with Word, Excel and the other apps installed on the machine. |
| Microsoft 365 Business Premium | Management, accounting, human resources, administrator accounts, laptops | Everything in Standard, with Intune, conditional access, advanced email protection and information encryption. |
These three plans are meant for organizations of up to 300 users. Copilot is a licence that sits on top of one of these plans and replaces none of them. More detail is on the Microsoft 365 services page.
What sits idle
Why does a business pay for licences nobody uses?
Because nothing flags them. A dormant licence costs exactly what a used one costs, and the invoice does not tell them apart. The person left in the spring, the account stayed, and the subscription renewed without anyone raising a hand.
Four cases keep turning up when a statement is read: licences tied to inactive accounts, duplicates, plans bought for a need that no longer exists, and features already paid for that nobody switched on.
The fix is a habit more than a tool. When someone leaves, the account is blocked that same day and sessions are revoked on every device. Mail is forwarded or turned into a shared mailbox, OneDrive files go to the manager, then the licence is released. It serves the next hire or it leaves the subscription. The plan is also revisited when a person changes roles.
An arrival, then a departure: the licence of the person who left goes back to the pool instead of staying on the bill.
The point of contact
What changes when a Microsoft partner is your point of contact?
Three practical things. The partner buys the subscriptions for you and adjusts them at every arrival and every departure, all on one invoice. It gets delegated access to your environment, which lets it work in the settings without a password being passed around. And when a problem goes beyond what it can fix, it opens the case with Microsoft on your behalf, through a channel reserved for partners.
What does not change matters just as much. Your global administrator accounts stay in your name, and so do the environment and the data. Delegated access can be revoked, and you can see who holds it. A provider that keeps the global account in your place is the first thing to sort out.
You are not tied down either. A subscription bought through a partner moves to another partner or returns to a direct purchase from Microsoft, without a single file moving.
OKTO Solutions is a Microsoft Partner. The status can be checked online, under the registered legal name of the company, and we encourage you to do it. The six questions to ask before handing your licences to anyone are on the Microsoft 365 partner in Quebec page.
A client record, the commitments of the agreement ticked one by one, a meeting booked: the relationship is written down, not assumed. The record shown is a fictitious example: the company does not exist, and our restore tests take place twice a year, under the Standard and Complet plans.
The method
How does a licence review work?
It is done read-only, with nothing cut off for employees. Six steps, in this order.
- You send your licence statement. The one Microsoft or your current provider gives you, along with your headcount.
- We compare it with the people who work for you. Inactive accounts, duplicates, licences of employees who left.
- We look at how each workstation is used. Browser only, installed apps, a laptop that leaves the office, financial data.
- We note what is paid for and never switched on. A feature included in the plan, never put to work.
- You get the answer. What sits idle, which plan would suit whom, and whether the current tier is the right one. If everything is fine, we say that too.
- You decide. What you fix yourself, and what you hand to us.
The ground
Saint-Georges, about 216 km from our office
Saint-Georges is the seat of the Beauce-Sartigan regional county municipality, in the Chaudière-Appalaches region. The city lies in the Chaudière River valley, and Autoroute 73, which links Beauce to Lévis and Québec City, ends there.
At that distance, we will not promise you a technician at the door. We have neither premises nor staff in Saint-Georges. Microsoft 365 licences, accounts and settings are managed entirely over the network, which is what makes the service possible from Trois-Rivières. For the licence itself, distance changes nothing: it is the same everywhere. What counts is who answers when you call, in which language and at what time.
Regular support is open on weekdays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For outages that stop the business, an emergency line is part of the Complet plan. The day hands are needed on site, to plug in a device for instance, distance has a cost, and we would rather tell you before you sign. What each level includes is written on the page for our plans, and the other cities we cover on the service areas page. A statement to have read? Use the contact page.
Questions and answers
Your questions about Microsoft 365 licences in Saint-Georges
Do you have a technician in Saint-Georges?
Another provider already handles our licences. Can they be moved?
Does everyone on staff need Business Premium?
What happens to the licence of someone who leaves the company?
Does Copilot replace the Microsoft 365 licence we already pay for?
How much does licence management cost?
Have your licence statement read
Send us the current statement and your headcount. We tell you what sits idle and which plan suits whom. And if nothing is off, you will know.
Reviewed by Antonio Pazzi, president of OKTO Solutions · updated