The AvePoint Solution
At the suggestion of their partner, Ingram Micro, leaders at Business Refinery identified AvePoint’s Policies & Insights (or “PI”) to deliver critical, automated intelligence to customers.
PI is designed to analyze risk and access sensitive documents by proactively monitoring and remediating policy violations in Microsoft 365. It also provides actionable security dashboards to highlight and track exposure (anonymous links, external user access) over time.
Receiving near-real-time updates via PI that prioritize the most widely shared sensitive data allows users to set ownership and sharing restrictions that support safe, collaboration.
“When we started looking at what was already on the market, PI was the perfect fit,” Bennett said.
By offering PI as a 30-day free trial for existing clients, Business Refinery immediately uncovered widespread — and serious — concerns in Microsoft Teams that proved the solution’s value.
“One client had more than 30,000 anonymous shared links across their company — and they only had about 40 users,” Bennett said, adding that the findings helped them implement tenant-wide policies and robust user training across the entire organization.
“We’ve had others realize that they have duplicate Teams with different people granted access for each one, so they’re able to do a bit of a cleanup.”
By using PI to assess risks, Business Refinery has seen an 80% time savings that is critical to its bottom line and bandwidth. “The reduction in manual data capture enables us to spend more quality time with the customer,” Bennett said.
Business Refinery now offers PI as a recurring monthly subscription to 8 clients, and the solution is featured in every sales pitch.
“It has become part of our onboarding for new customers by telling them there is risk, and that Policies & Insights gives them the exposure to observe it for themselves without being included in every single transaction,” Bennett said.
For MSPs helping multiple customers, the AvePoint Elements portal offers a simple way to keep tabs and field questions in one place.
“What’s great for MSPs is that you can equip leadership teams with the tools to observe and remedy the risks without needing to grant them admin access in Microsoft 365, which reduces risk — especially from user error,” Bennett said.