A seven-day trial should help you find out whether an M365 security service supports sound decisions in IT and helps management understand the company's security position. Here is a practical trial plan, with a shared evaluation template for IT and management.
Trying a new service can easily amount to a single login and a glance at a list of risks. IT has other work to do, and the CEO wants an answer at the end: is this service worth adopting?
A useful answer comes from a few real work situations. Did you learn something that matters? Did the service help you decide what to do? Were you able to check the effect of one action? Seven days can give you a sense of whether the service fits your company's day-to-day work. It does not prove that the whole environment is secure.
Choose someone in IT to lead the trial and someone from management to take part in the final review. If an IT partner makes changes to your systems, agree on their involvement too. Also make sure you can reach the person who understands the purpose of the content or application being reviewed.
Write down two or three questions you want to answer. For example: can we assess external file sharing, do we understand application permissions, and can we tell from a finding about a user what we should do next?
Schedule a kick-off, a couple of short working sessions and a final discussion together. A seven-day trial may include a weekend, so you do not need to spread the tasks over seven working days. Before starting, also check the trial terms and the access permissions you will need.
Follow the service's setup instructions. Establish what data it uses and which permissions it needs. Vahti offers a seven-day trial. Setup connects your Microsoft 365 environment to the service with read-only permissions.
Once information from your own environment is available, start with the overall picture. Which findings relate to the questions you chose in advance? Do the descriptions help you understand what the findings mean? Also note anything you need the service provider to explain.
Record the starting point in a shared document. A total risk count is not enough: note a couple of relevant findings and why they matter to your company. If setup takes longer than expected, include that in your evaluation. Avoid rushing to conclusions from an incomplete trial.
Choose a small set of findings. One might involve file sharing for a completed client project, another an external application and a third a user's sign-in. Choose cases that are present in your own environment.
Work through the same questions for each case: what was found, why does it need assessment, who understands the background and what action would be justified? External sharing may still be necessary, for example. A successful assessment does not necessarily lead to removing access.
At the same time, assess how clearly the service presents information. Can IT find the relevant detail? Does the project owner understand what information they need to provide? Do the instructions explain where to make a change and what to check afterwards? Briefly record what went smoothly and what needed more investigation.
If a situation you want to assess does not come up during the trial, you can explore it in the public demo. Record separately what you saw in the demo and what you verified in your own environment.
Where possible, choose one small change that you have assessed as necessary. Agree on who will make it and establish in advance how it will affect the user's work. One example is removing an unnecessary sharing link after the content owner has confirmed the situation.
Record the starting point, the change and the result of your check. Check the result in the service where the change was made. Confirm that the change took effect and the user can continue working. Then, once the data has updated, see how the security service reflects the new situation.
You do not need to resolve every finding during the trial. If there is no suitable change to make, document the assessment and decision for one case. The aim is to find out whether the service helps you assess a situation and choose the necessary action. You do not need to make changes just for the sake of the trial.
IT presents one or two of the cases it worked through: what was learned, what was decided and what remains to be done. Management does not need to go through the entire risk list. It needs to understand where staff time is needed and what kinds of decisions the service supports.
Also review the workload. How much time did setup, investigation and action take? How much was spent getting familiar with the service, and how much on tasks that would recur each week? The trial can help you estimate time savings, but you cannot yet treat annual savings as certain.
Finally, agree on the next steps, who will be responsible and a date for the first follow-up. If a question that matters to the buying decision remains unanswered, record what still needs to be established.
Copy these points into a shared document and complete them during the trial:
Vahti brings together Microsoft 365 risk findings, prioritises them and explains in plain language what they mean and how to address them. During the trial, assess how well it helps you move from a finding to practical action.
A high risk count or an empty risk list is not a measure of success. A more useful outcome is a reasoned decision: we understand this situation, we know who is responsible and we know what happens next. You will also learn whether the service fits the way responsibilities are shared in your company and whether you have time to use it.
Explore Vahti's interactive demo and choose a couple of situations as goals for your own trial. Learn more about Vahti and the seven-day trial.