Research: Organizational Security and Compliance Practices in Office 365

CollabTalk, in partnership with the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University, and with sponsorship from leading partners within the Office 365 community including Spanning, RecordPoint, tyGraph, Rencore, and Microsoft, have published a new research report outlining the major pain points for organizations when managing security and compliance for Microsoft Office 365.

A free copy of the report (Organizational Security & Compliance Practices in Office 365) is available through the Spanning website.

According to this research, which includes dozens of expert interviews that were completed in December 2018, a majority of respondents expressed confidence in their Office 365 security and compliance practices, and yet more than 30 percent of respondents indicated their overall security and compliance readiness as “poor,” with very few addressing glaring gaps that could leave their organizations at risk.

The report identifies a number of real-world issues facing most organizations, highlighting a number of gaps and recommended solutions.

“…most organizations…do not conduct proper [security] planning, and most do not utilize (or are even aware of) all of the features that are available and whether these unused capabilities would help them meet [security] requirements.”

“The biggest issue with a company’s security and compliance strategy is the lack of expertise. This space is moving fast. You need to be up to date on what’s possible, what works well, what doesn’t and what you should prioritize. Many customers just don’t have the right people focused on this, or don’t support them by modernizing technology faster and more effectively.”

As part of this research, IT professionals, CXOs, and compliance officers around the globe were surveyed and interviewed, resulting in more than 270 responses across 19 industries. The companies represented range from <50 employees to 10,000+, running environments that range from legacy hardware to cloud and hybrid. Eleven Microsoft Office 365 MVPs were invited to comment on the survey findings, with many noting significant gaps between the respondents’ perception — that their approach to Office 365 security was adequate — and the reality that those surveyed have missed addressing some risks.

Download your free copy of the report today: Organizational Security & Compliance Practices in Office 365