Microsoft: Microsoft 365 for business (opens in a new tab)
Compare productivity, collaboration and security features across Microsoft's business plans. Use the overview to identify questions about your current licences and the way your team works.
Practical resources
Guides for better technology decisions.
Use these practical guides to prepare for a renewal, a business-system change or a secure AI project. They help you ask the right questions before you buy, change or hand over a service.
Start with our Business Central and Copilot guides.
Choose a guide on the relevant service page and send us a request for it.
- Business Central readiness assessment Identify process, data, ownership and governance questions before changing the finance and operations system. Learn more
- Scale business processes with Business Central Explore connected finance and operational processes, then map the parts relevant to your organisation. Learn more
- Microsoft 365 Copilot guide set Choose from the five selected guides covering AI maturity, Finance, Sales, security and data privacy, and the Copilot advantage. Learn more
Prepare for an IT review.
You do not need a complete technical inventory to start. Note the systems your people depend on, where work is being delayed and which decisions are approaching. Record what you know and leave unknowns visible: finding an owner or confirming a dependency may be part of the review.
- People and impact Who is affected, which tasks are held up and what happens if the problem continues? Include sites and working arrangements that matter.
- Systems and ownership List the main applications, devices and suppliers. Note who controls the accounts, renewals, support arrangements and recovery information.
- Priorities and timing Separate urgent repairs from planned improvements. Include renewal dates, office moves and changes that depend on another team.
- A useful next step Bring the list to a Business IT discussion. We can agree a focused assessment, project or ongoing arrangement. Learn more
Compare the whole renewal, not just the number.
Put the current renewal and the proposed alternative beside each other. A useful comparison explains what is covered, who performs the work and what it takes to change. Use the same quantities and term when you compare costs, and keep one-off transition work visible.
- What are you renewing? Record the product, edition, quantity, term, renewal date and notice requirements. Note which support or managed-service responsibilities are included.
- What does the proposal change? Ask about coverage, prerequisites, deployment, administration and incident responsibilities. Record exclusions as well as inclusions.
- What will the full commitment cost? Include currency, GST treatment, onboarding, migration and recurring charges. Confirm which assumptions could change the quote.
- Need an endpoint comparison? Bring your current product, approximate device count and renewal date to a Falcon Complete discussion, and expect an answer. Learn more
Map one transaction before connecting systems.
Pick an ordinary order, customer update or stock change and follow it from beginning to end. Write down who creates the record, which system owns it and what the next person needs to see. Then consider an incomplete record or failed transfer: the operating team needs a practical way to find and resolve it.
- Record ownership Agree identifiers, required fields and which system is allowed to change each value. Include the rule for conflicting updates.
- Acceptance examples Choose representative records and agree the expected result with the business owners. Include a repeat, a failure and a correction.
- Operating responsibility Identify who receives an error, who can retry it and how the two systems will be reconciled after recovery.
- Connecting Shopify and Business Central? Use our own built and tested connector as the starting point for the product, customer and transaction flows you need. Learn more
Plan a VM hardware compatibility change.
Before raising a virtual machine hardware version, check every host and recovery path the workload may need. Our current guide explains the decision, the evidence to gather and why the newest compatibility level is not automatically the safest choice.
- VMware virtual hardware versions Connect host compatibility, guest support, backup, recovery and application validation to one controlled change plan. Learn more
- Need the whole VCF environment reviewed? Move from one compatibility question to an assessment, lifecycle plan or migration decision. Learn more
Give an AI pilot a clear job.
Choose one task that your team understands and a result it can check. Describe how the work happens today before selecting a tool. A pilot is useful when it helps you decide whether to proceed, improve the design or stop; a polished demonstration alone does not answer those questions.
Task and evidence
State the current problem, the intended improvement and a representative set of examples.
Use the right information and human checks
Identify the information required, the access allowed and which actions need a person to approve them.
Operation and cost
Name the owner, the expected running costs and the route for investigating a failure.
Turn the idea into a useful first step
Bring the workflow and its constraints to an AI consulting conversation.
Bring the questions, even if you do not have the answers.
These checklists are starting points for a useful discussion. You can copy the questions into your own working notes, share this page with your team or use your browser to print it. Keep passwords, payment details and confidential records out of an initial website enquiry. We can agree a suitable way to exchange detailed material when the work is understood. Where a checklist turns into a request for actual work, what it costs depends on the systems, seats or hours involved, and we will quote it.
Explore the technology behind the service.
Use these vendor guides to understand the technology. Kritical can help you work out what it means for your environment and the decision in front of you.
Microsoft: the Shopify Connector (opens in a new tab)
Explore the catalogue, inventory, customer and order workflows described by Microsoft. The functions you use still need agreed mappings, ownership and testing in your connected environment.
Microsoft: getting started with Power Automate (opens in a new tab)
See how workflows connect applications and coordinate approvals, notifications and other tasks. Start with one repeated process, a clear owner and a result your team can check.
Microsoft: an introduction to Power BI (opens in a new tab)
Explore how Power BI connects data, reporting and sharing. Consider the measures, source records, refresh requirements and access your team needs to make a useful decision.
Microsoft: information management with Purview (opens in a new tab)
Read about capabilities for protecting information and managing its lifecycle. Your information owners, requirements and licensing determine which capabilities belong in the proposed implementation.
Microsoft: the Cloud Adoption Framework (opens in a new tab)
Explore guidance that connects business objectives with cloud planning, governance and operations. Use it to consider how a workload will be owned and managed after migration.
CrowdStrike: Falcon Complete MDR (opens in a new tab)
Read CrowdStrike's explanation of managed detection and response. Then compare the coverage, onboarding and responsibilities in your actual proposal before changing your endpoint service.
Start from who the decision affects.
Choose the path that best matches the people, systems and buying decision in front of you.
- Individuals, households, families & workplace buyers Whether you are buying as an individual, for a household or family, or for a business, tell us what you need to buy, replace or renew. Learn more
- Business owners & operations When computers, email, access, security and business software need attention at the same time, Kritical works out what to fix first, what to manage ongoing, and what it will cost — in writing, before you commit to anything. Learn more
- IT leaders & delivery teams When a hard problem crosses infrastructure, identity, applications, security and AI, Kritical aims to provide continuity through a consistent lead or delivery group where the agreed scope and service model support it. Learn more
Connect the technology to the work.
Find a familiar platform, understand the relevant services and choose a useful next step.
- Technology guides Browse workplace, cloud, security, recovery, infrastructure, business systems and commerce. Learn more
- Partners & sourcing Explore the relationships and supply routes supporting our services. Learn more
Related services
Technology consulting
Kritical helps organisations assess the current environment, compare options on the same basis and define the work needed to move forward.
Information governance
Make sensitive information easier to find, share and protect.
Power Platform
Give your team less repetitive work and a clearer view of the business.
Business Central
If finance, purchasing or inventory work is split across Business Central, spreadsheets and a handful of other systems that don't talk to each other, Kritical turns that mess into one tested configuration — with clear data, clear integration and a clear handover so you know who owns what once it's live.
AI & automation
Start with work that wastes time or creates avoidable rekeying.
Security readiness
Frameworks are useful when they help you decide what to protect, which gaps matter and what evidence should exist.
Trust & assurance
Before we start, you can see what is being supplied, who owns each task and what will be tested at handover.
Let’s define the next step.
Tell us what you want to achieve, what you have today and when it matters.