Microsoft 365 for European businesses: what's included, where it excels, and what to know about data

Microsoft 365 is the most widely deployed business productivity suite in the world, and there are real, substantive reasons why. This guide covers what you actually get, where it genuinely excels — including features that alternatives don't replicate easily — what European businesses should understand about data and jurisdiction, and when alternatives are worth a serious look. We manage Microsoft 365 for clients and we also deploy European alternatives. That means we can give you an honest read either way.

What Microsoft 365 includes

• Exchange Online — professional email, shared calendars, contacts and free shared mailboxes
• Microsoft Teams — persistent team chat, calls, video conferencing and collaborative file editing in one application
• SharePoint — document libraries, team sites, intranet pages and permissions management
• OneDrive — individual cloud file storage (1 TB to unlimited depending on plan)
• Microsoft 365 Apps — full desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote on up to 5 devices (Business Standard and above)
• Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) — identity management, single sign-on and conditional access
• Microsoft 365 Admin Centre — user lifecycle, licence assignment, security configuration and usage reporting

Free shared mailboxes — a genuine structural advantage

Every Microsoft 365 Business and Enterprise plan includes shared mailboxes at no additional per-user cost. A shared mailbox — info@, support@, invoicing@, accounts@ — can hold up to 50 GB and be accessed by as many team members as needed, all without requiring a separate licence for the mailbox itself. Distribution lists, Microsoft 365 Groups and shared calendars work the same way.

For businesses that run several team addresses across departments — which covers most businesses — this is a meaningful cost advantage. It's not a workaround; it's a first-class feature and one of the areas where Microsoft 365 consistently outperforms simpler alternatives.

SharePoint: document management and intranet that actually scales

SharePoint is included in all Business and Enterprise plans and is substantially more capable than most teams use it for. Document libraries with full version history, co-authoring, metadata tagging and fine-grained permissions. Team sites and intranet pages for internal communications and project hubs. Tight integration with Teams — every Teams channel is backed by a SharePoint document library, so files and conversations stay together. Light automation via Power Automate for approvals, notifications and data sync.

For organisations that need a real document management system — version-controlled, searchable, permissions-mapped, integrated with the rest of the collaboration stack — SharePoint is the most capable option included in a standard productivity licence. This is an area where Microsoft 365 has a genuine lead over most alternatives.

Microsoft 365 business plans

• Business Basic (€5.60/user/month): Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive 1 TB, web and mobile Office apps only
• Business Standard (€11.70/user/month): adds full desktop Office apps on 5 devices, video webinars, Bookings
• Business Premium (€19.10/user/month): adds Microsoft Defender, Intune device management, Entra ID P1 — the full enterprise security layer

Enterprise plans (E1, E3, E5) apply above 300 users or when you need eDiscovery, litigation hold, advanced data loss prevention and threat protection. If those terms mean something specific to your sector, you likely already know which tier applies.

Where Microsoft 365 particularly excels

• Windows-heavy environments and organisations running Active Directory or Entra ID for identity
• Teams as a single hub: chat, calls, video, file sharing, tasks and meeting recordings in one place
• Organisations that need SharePoint for structured document management or a real intranet
• Regulated sectors needing eDiscovery, litigation hold and DLP (available from E3/E5)
• Businesses running Microsoft line-of-business software integrations (Dynamics 365, Power Platform)
• Teams that rely on advanced desktop Office — complex Excel models, extensive Word document production

What European businesses should understand about data

Microsoft is a US-headquartered company. Since 2023, Microsoft has operated the EU Data Boundary programme, which stores and processes EU and EEA customer data within the EU. For most European businesses — including many in regulated sectors — this is a substantive commitment that meets compliance requirements. Exchange email, SharePoint files, Teams messages and OneDrive data all remain within EU datacentres under this programme.

What it does not change: Microsoft remains subject to US jurisdiction, including the CLOUD Act. The practical implications of this for EU businesses are the subject of ongoing legal development, and Microsoft challenges overbroad data requests. For most businesses, Microsoft 365 with the EU Data Boundary is an acceptable and practical choice. The exception is organisations in sectors where any theoretical potential for US government access would constitute a compliance failure — certain financial market infrastructure, defence contracting, some public administration, professionally privileged legal or medical contexts. For those, Swiss hosting (outside both EU membership and US CLOUD Act reach in practice) is worth understanding. We can walk through what that means for your specific context.

Solvetus manages Microsoft 365 for you

We handle Microsoft 365 administration as a managed service: user lifecycle management, licence optimisation, Conditional Access and MFA rollout, SharePoint permissions architecture, Teams governance, Exchange configuration, and security hardening. We also run migrations to Microsoft 365 from on-premises Exchange or Google Workspace, and security reviews of existing Microsoft 365 tenants — which regularly surface misconfigured policies and unused licences.