The Situation
Chrysalis Supplies came to us at the point of launch. There was no email, no file storage, no accounts, no devices set up — nothing, which is a genuinely unusual and rather freeing starting point.
Two pressures pulled in opposite directions. The business needed to be able to take orders and answer email almost immediately. But the founders also did not want to spend the first three years unpicking shortcuts taken in the first three days — a pattern they had seen elsewhere.
They were also not technical, and had no interest in becoming so. What they wanted was someone to make sensible decisions on their behalf and explain them in plain terms.
What Was at Stake
A new business that sets up email on a personal account, shares files from someone's laptop and skips security has not saved money. It has taken a loan against its own future, and the interest is paid in the migration that becomes necessary a few years later.
The immediate risk was simpler: no email means no orders. A launch that stalls because nobody can be contacted is an expensive way to begin.
There was one advantage worth naming. With nothing to migrate and no legacy decisions to respect, doing it properly was actually the cheapest option available — which is rarely true.
What We Did
We split the work deliberately. The minimum needed to operate went in immediately; everything else followed in a sequence that did not hold up the launch. Crucially, the fast part was still built on the right foundations, so nothing had to be redone.
Domain, identity, mailboxes and the essentials for taking orders. Set up on the platform they were going to keep, not a temporary arrangement that would need replacing.
A five-person business does not need the architecture of a fifty-person one. We deliberately left out capability they had no use for yet, on the basis that it can be added the day it is needed and costs nothing to leave off.
Multi-factor authentication, managed devices and sensible access control configured at the start — when it is a five-minute decision, rather than retrofitted later when it becomes a project with a business case.
Every machine enrolled, configured and encrypted the same way, so the sixth person to join gets the same build as the first without anyone having to remember how it was done.
Independent backup of their Microsoft 365 data configured as part of the build. A business with three weeks of history has little to lose, which is exactly why it costs nothing to start protecting it then.
The founders are not technical and did not want to be. Every decision was put to them in plain terms, with a recommendation attached rather than a menu of options to research.
Core systems live within 48 hours of starting. The complete environment — security, devices, backup and licensing — finished inside three weeks, while the business was already operating.
Very little, deliberately. Decisions on names and addresses, a conversation about how they intended to work, and sign-in on their devices. They were launching a business; IT was not the thing that needed their attention.
The Outcome
“He made the right calls, avoided overcomplicating things, and focused on getting us operational as quickly as possible.”
Microsoft 365 for identity, mail and files, with Entra for sign-in control, Intune for device management and Defender for protection. Veeam for independent backup of their Microsoft 365 data.
This engagement touched all three pillars — Consult to design and build it, Software for the licensing, and Support to run it since. The environment is documented, so growth is administration rather than archaeology.
Published with written consent from Chrysalis Supplies, covering the company name, the description of the work, the timescales quoted and the quote as it appears above.
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Learn MoreThree named studies and one anonymised summary, filterable by situation.
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Doing it properly at the start costs less than fixing it in three years, and it is the one moment when that is straightforwardly true. Tell us what you are launching.
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