Unlocking the power of Microsoft 365 management: A toolkit for MSP success

As hybrid and remote work models become the standard, managed service providers (MSPs) are being asked to support secure, productive, and flexible environments while reducing complexity and risk. The key to keeping up? Embracing Modern Work. 

Modern Work is a comprehensive approach to using tools such as Microsoft 365 to manage collaboration, security, and productivity across devices and locations. But many MSPs are only tapping into a fraction of what’s possible. If you’re only leveraging Microsoft 365 for email, you’re leaving efficiency and revenue on the table. 

This article outlines the critical components of a Modern Work toolkit and how MSPs can use automation, standardization, and centralized management to grow their cloud practice and deliver better outcomes for their clients. 

Why Modern Work matters 

Modern Work is about more than cloud-based collaboration. It’s a unified framework for managing identity, devices, data, and communication from anywhere. Microsoft 365 is the backbone of this shift, offering tools such as: 

• SharePoint and OneDrive for document management. 

• Entra ID for identity and access control. 

• Intune for device compliance and management. 

• Exchange Online for communication. 

The challenge? Most MSPs don’t use the full range of Microsoft 365 capabilities. Instead of navigating dozens of admin portals, Microsoft 365 management tools make it possible to centralize and streamline all of this, saving time, improving security, and scaling client service. 

5 features that help MSPs get the most from Microsoft 365 

MSPs need to go beyond simply adopting Microsoft 365. They need to be managing it in a way that’s scalable, secure, and efficient, which is where Nerdio Manager for MSP comes in. By centralizing core management tasks and offering powerful automation and policy tools, Nerdio empowers MSPs to get the most from every Microsoft 365 license. 

Here are five essential Nerdio Manager features that can help you streamline operations, reduce manual effort, and deliver more value to your clients. 

1. Solution Baselines: Start with consistency 

Every successful deployment begins with a reliable foundation, and for MSPs managing Microsoft 365 environments, that foundation is built with Solution Baselines. 

Solution Baselines allow you to define and deploy your own “gold standard” configuration for Microsoft 365 services, including Microsoft Defender, Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive, Entra ID, and more. Instead of reinventing the wheel with each new client, you can create preconfigured templates that reflect your ideal security, productivity, and compliance settings, then replicate them across your customer base. 

With Solution Baselines, you can: 

• Standardize deployments across clients to maintain consistent configurations and reduce support overhead. 

• Reduce onboarding errors by eliminating manual steps and enforcing proven best practices from the start. 

• Manage policies proactively, not reactively, by staying in control of settings rather than responding to issues post-deployment. 

• Customize when needed, cloning and adjusting baselines for unique client needs without starting from scratch. 

• Accelerate rollout timelines, freeing up your team to focus on strategic initiatives rather than repetitive setup tasks. 

By streamlining this initial setup phase, Solution Baselines help you deliver faster, more secure, and more predictable deployments, all while building trust and value with every client. 

2. Intune Baselines: Automate device and policy management 

Managing devices manually across multiple clients isn’t just tedious—it’s a drain on your team’s time, energy, and resources. Intune baselines offer a smarter way forward by allowing MSPs to automate device configuration and policy enforcement at scale. 

With Intune Baselines in Nerdio Manager, you can define a set of device compliance and configuration policies once, then roll them out across multiple tenants with just a few clicks. This eliminates the need to recreate settings from scratch for every client and ensures that your standards are applied consistently. 

Here’s what Intune baselines help you achieve: 

• Build and assign policy templates across tenants to enforce uniform security and compliance settings. 

• Monitor configuration drift in real time with alerts that flag when a tenant’s actual state deviates from your defined standard. 

• Reduce manual workloads by removing the need for repetitive configuration tasks and lowering the chance of human error. 

• Ensure long-term consistency, even as your clients scale or evolve their device fleets. 

• Save time for your techs, allowing them to focus on higher-value work instead of jumping between admin portals. 

Whether you’re managing 50 devices or 5,000, Intune Baselines dramatically simplify the lifecycle of endpoint management, helping you deliver faster service, reduce risk, and keep your clients’ environments secure and standardized. 

3. Exchange Online Baselines: Mailbox management made simple 

Microsoft 365 may come with default mailbox settings, but those defaults aren’t always aligned with your MSP’s security standards or your clients’ operational needs. Exchange Online Baselines give you the ability to take control of mailbox management across your customer base with efficiency and precision. 

Instead of configuring each mailbox manually or accepting the out-of-the-box settings, you can use Nerdio to define and apply your own standard templates. This lets you deliver more consistent service while reducing the risk of misconfigurations and oversights. 

With Exchange Online Baselines, you can: 

• Apply uniform mailbox settings and permissions to ensure secure, reliable communication across all tenants. 

• Enforce compliance standards by monitoring deviations and aligning settings with your organization’s best practices. 

• Manage user mailboxes from a centralized interface, eliminating the need to bounce between multiple admin portals. 

• Streamline user provisioning and updates, whether you’re adjusting forwarding rules, managing access, or setting up shared mailboxes. 

No more tenant-by-tenant toggling or time-consuming manual updates. With Exchange Online baselines, you can scale mailbox management alongside your business while improving oversight, security, and client satisfaction. 

4. Tenant Monitoring: See issues before they become problems 

In the world of Modern Work, visibility isn’t optional—it’s essential. With so many moving parts across Microsoft 365 environments, MSPs need more than just tools for deployment. They need the ability to monitor, measure, and respond to changes in real time. 

Tenant Monitoring in Nerdio Manager equips you with the insights needed to stay one step ahead. By running automated compliance checks against your defined baselines, you can instantly see where a tenant is drifting from your desired configuration before it becomes a problem for your client. 

With tenant monitoring, you can: 

• Generate health and compliance reports that give you a clear snapshot of each tenant’s security posture and policy alignment. 

• Spot misconfigurations and policy drift across clients quickly, so you can fix small issues before they cause major disruptions. 

• Offer proactive support backed by real-time data, giving you the ability to recommend improvements and show exactly what you’re doing to protect client environments. 

• Deliver transparency and build trust using reports as a way to show value and justify your services during client reviews. 

This isn’t just a reporting feature—it’s a strategic advantage. With tenant monitoring, you turn data into action and service into measurable impact. 

5. CIS Baselines: Built-in security and compliance 

Robust security and compliance standards are expected from MSPs. But building and maintaining policy frameworks that align with industry standards can be time-consuming, especially when those benchmarks are always evolving. 

That’s why Nerdio partnered directly with the Center for Internet Security (CIS)—a widely recognized authority on security best practices—to bring pre-built, CIS-aligned Intune policy templates right into the Nerdio Manager platform. 

With CIS Baselines, you can: 

• Deploy CIS-aligned security templates instantly without having to research and configure each policy from scratch. 

• Stay current with auto-syncing policy updates, so when CIS revises its Benchmarks, your clients’ environments can stay aligned automatically. 

• Simplify audits, insurance documentation, and compliance workflows by generating proof of policy enforcement and risk mitigation. 

• Ensure consistent, standards-based security across verticals such as healthcare, finance, and legal—no manual heavy lifting required. 

Whether you’re preparing for a cyber liability insurance review or simply want peace of mind, CIS Baselines help you deliver top-tier security with minimal overhead. You don’t need to be a compliance expert—Nerdio makes enterprise-grade security accessible, scalable, and easy to manage. 

Why now? Modern Work is more than a nice-to-have 

Today’s MSPs are operating in a high-demand, high-expectation environment. Clients need flexible access, airtight security, seamless collaboration, and compliance at every turn. And they expect you to deliver speed, efficiency, and scalability. 

That kind of pressure can stretch even the most experienced teams thin. Without the right tools, managing Microsoft 365 environments across multiple tenants becomes a constant juggling act, full of manual tasks, disconnected admin portals, and time-consuming troubleshooting. 

That’s where Microsoft 365 management changes the game. 

By investing in a centralized, automated approach to managing Microsoft 365 through standardized templates, real-time monitoring, and built-in security, you’re not just improving operations. You’re building a business model that’s more resilient, more secure, and more profitable. 

This isn’t about adding layers of complexity. It’s about removing the roadblocks that slow your team down, waste resources, and limit scalability. It’s about unlocking the full value of the Microsoft 365 licenses your clients are already paying for and turning that value into a competitive advantage for your MSP. 

Ready to modernize your M365 management? 

Nerdio Manager for MSP is purpose-built to help providers manage Modern Work environments with ease. It’s flexible, secure, and designed to grow with you. 

Want to dive deeper into these capabilities? Watch our on-demand session to explore how these tools work in practice. 

Or, if you’re ready to take the next step, get in touch for a personalized demo.