Paying for Tools You Don’t Use

Time and time again, I come across clients who have no idea about the full power of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. For many small and medium sized businesses (SMBs), the decision to purchase M365 licenses is made purely on technical grounds, often by internal IT teams or external providers looking to consolidate infrastructure and move away from on-premises or hosted email servers.

The justification is usually straightforward: “We need Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.” And that’s where the conversation ends.

But here’s the issue: these organizations are paying for far more than just email and office apps. They’ve invested in a full productivity platform, and they’re only using a fraction of it.

What’s Included in Microsoft 365?

Let’s break down what’s typically included in Microsoft 365 Business Standard and Premium licenses.

Beyond the familiar Office apps, you’re also getting:

• SharePoint Online: A centralized platform for document management, team collaboration, and internal communication. SharePoint can serve as your organization’s intranet a place to share news, policies, resources, and project updates across departments.
• OneDrive for Business: Personal cloud storage for individual employees. Ideal for storing private documents like performance reviews, PTO requests, or drafts before publishing to SharePoint. It’s not designed for team collaboration or external sharing.
• Microsoft Teams: A hub for chat, meetings, calls, and collaboration. It integrates with SharePoint, OneDrive, and Office apps to streamline communication.
• Planner & To Do: Lightweight tools for task and project management. Great for team coordination and personal productivity.
• Forms: Quick surveys, quizzes, and feedback collection useful for HR, customer service, internal check-ins and many other areas.
• Power Apps: A platform that allows you to build custom business applications tailored to your processes. Whether it’s a simple PTO request form, a customer intake tracker, or a mobile inspection checklist, Power Apps helps you digitize manual workflows and connect data across your environment.
• Power Automate: Workflow automation across apps and services. Helps reduce manual tasks and improve consistency and accuracy.
• OneNote, Bookings, Stream, Loop, Lists, Viva: Additional tools for scheduling, video, collaboration, and employee experience.
• Security & Compliance Features: Data loss prevention, multi factor authentication, conditional access, and many other capabilities.

These aren’t addons. They’re already included in your subscription. Yet in many cases, they’re sitting idle.

The Hidden Costs of Underuse

When organizations don’t fully understand what M365 includes, they often turn to other tools to fill perceived gaps. It’s not uncommon to see environments where:

• Dropbox is used for external sharing
• Box or GDrive stores legacy files
• Slack handles internal chat
• Trello or Asana manages tasks
• Zoom is used for meetings

Each of these tools adds cost, complexity, and risk. And in many cases, they duplicate functionality that M365 already provides.

We’ve seen comapnies spending $4,000 to $20,000 per year or more on third party tools all while holding licenses that include SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Planner, and more.

Why This Happens

There are a few consistent reasons:

• Licensing decisions are technical, not strategic IT teams focus on infrastructure, not business workflows. M365 is often seen as “email and Office” not a full productivity suite.
• Users don’t know what they have access to Most employees aren’t aware of tools like Planner, Forms, Power Automate, Loop or SharePoint.
• Assumptions about quality There’s a belief that “included” tools must be basic or inferior. That’s rarely true especially with Microsoft’s enterprise-grade offerings.
• Fragmented environments Legacy systems, shadow IT, and departmental preferences lead to tool sprawl. One team uses Dropbox, another uses GDrive, and IT still maintains a file server.
• Lack of enablement Even when tools are available, users aren’t trained or encouraged to adopt them.

What To Do

A well utilized Microsoft 365 environment typically includes:

• Centralized document storage and communication SharePoint becomes the backbone of your organization’s content and internal communications. It’s not just a file repository, it’s your intranet. You can publish company news, HR policies, onboarding guides, and team updates. It’s searchable, secure, and accessible from anywhere.
• Personal workspaces for employees OneDrive give each employee a private space to store drafts, personal notes, and sensitive documents. It’s ideal for individual work, not team collaboration.
• Unified communication Microsoft Teams replaces email chains, Slack threads, and Zoom links with a single platform for chat, meetings, and calls. It integrates with calendars, files, and tasks, reducing friction and improving responsiveness.
• Task and project tracking Planner and To Do help teams stay aligned. Assign tasks, set deadlines, and track progress all within the M365 ecosystem.
• Secure external collaboration SharePoint allows for controlled external sharing with clients, vendors, and partners. You can set permissions, expiration dates, and access levels all within your existing security framework.
• Consistent governance and compliance With everything under one roof, you can apply policies across the board. Whether it’s data retention, access control, or audit logging, M365 gives you the tools to stay compliant without adding complexity.
• Reduced reliance on third party apps By consolidating tools, you simplify your environment, reduce costs, and improve user experience. No more juggling logins, formats, or support contracts.
• Improved user adoption When tools are integrated and familiar, people use them. M365’s tight integration across apps makes it easier for teams to collaborate and get work done.

Common Pitfalls and Fixes

Here are five common mistakes and how to address them:

1. Only using Outlook and Office apps → Fix: Explore the M365 app launcher. You may be surprised by what is already available.
2. Using multiple tools for the same job → Fix: Audit your tech stack. Identify overlaps in storage, communication, and collaboration.
3. Assuming “included” means “inferior” → Fix: Test M365 tools before dismissing them. Many are enterprise grade and deeply integrated.
4. Letting IT drive the conversation alone → Fix: Business leaders should lead adoption. M365 is a business platform, not just a technical one.
5. Ignoring governance and security → Fix: Centralizing tools under M365 simplify compliance, access control, and data protection.

Start with What You Own

To be clear this isn’t about forcing everything into Microsoft 365 no matter what. It’s about starting with what you already have. If M365 tools meet your needs, great. If they don’t, then you can look at adding or integrating other solutions into your broader ecosystem.

The goal is to make informed decisions not reactive ones. By understanding what’s included in your license, you can avoid unnecessary spending, reduce complexity, and build a more cohesive digital workplace.

Key Takeaway

Microsoft 365 offers far more than most organizations realize, not just email and Office apps, but a full suite of tools for collaboration, communication, automation, and governance.

But this isn’t about moving everything into M365 for the sake of consolidation. It’s about starting with what’s already included in your license, understanding it, using it, and seeing where it fits.

If the platform meets your needs, you’ve maximized your investment. If it doesn’t, then you’re in a better position to identify what’s missing and integrate the right tools into your broader ecosystem.

Smart technology decisions start with clarity. Before you add another app, take stock of what’s already available. You may be surprised by how much you can do, and how much you can save, by simply using what you already own.