Microsoft 365 Setup, Configuration & Support for East London Businesses

From full Microsoft 365 tenant deployment and Exchange email migration to Outlook configuration, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive and ongoing licence management — New Perspective Design handles the complete Microsoft 365 environment for small and medium businesses in East London and across South Africa. We configure it correctly from day one so your team can work without interruption and your business data stays secure.

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How Your Microsoft 365 Environment Connects to Your Website, Marketing Platforms and Business Systems

Microsoft 365 is not simply an email and document platform. For most South African SMEs, it is the central authentication layer that every other digital system either depends on or connects into. When it is correctly configured, it becomes the operational backbone of the business. When it is not, the failures that follow are rarely traceable back to Microsoft 365 directly — they surface as broken integrations, undelivered emails, inaccessible marketing data, and automation workflows that stop working without explanation.

Domain verification inside your Microsoft 365 tenant is a direct dependency for Google’s suite of business tools. To verify ownership of your domain inside Google Search Console — which is the platform that tells you how your website is performing in organic search, which pages Google has indexed, and where technical issues exist — you need to add a TXT record to your DNS. That same DNS zone also contains your MX records routing email into Microsoft 365, your SPF and DKIM records authenticating outbound mail, and your CNAME records pointing to various connected services. If your Microsoft 365 deployment was not set up with a clean, well-structured DNS configuration, adding Google Search Console verification, connecting Google Ads conversion tracking, or authenticating a new third-party platform later becomes a troubleshooting exercise rather than a straightforward task.

The connection between Microsoft 365 and your website runs deeper than DNS. SharePoint document libraries are increasingly used as the back-end storage layer for client-facing portals built on WordPress — document download pages, contract repositories, and secure file sharing areas that surface SharePoint content through a WordPress interface. These integrations authenticate through Microsoft Graph API using credentials tied to your Microsoft 365 tenant. An incorrectly provisioned service account, an expired OAuth token, or a conditional access policy that blocks API authentication will silently break the integration between your website and your SharePoint environment, often with no visible error on the WordPress front end.

Teams and Outlook connect into CRM platforms in the same way. Zoho CRM’s Microsoft 365 integration — which logs emails, syncs contacts, and pushes calendar events between Outlook and your CRM pipeline — depends on a correctly configured Microsoft 365 environment with the right user permissions and OAuth consent granted at the tenant level. If your Microsoft 365 deployment did not include proper admin consent configuration, those CRM integrations either fail to authenticate or operate with reduced functionality, meaning sales activity tracked in Outlook is not reflected in your CRM and follow-up sequences triggered by CRM events do not appear in your team’s calendars.

Accounting software integrations follow the same pattern. QuickBooks Online, Xero, and Sage Business Cloud all support Microsoft 365 SMTP relay for sending authenticated invoices, statements, and payment reminders from your business domain. For this to work, your Microsoft 365 tenant needs a correctly configured SMTP relay connector, and your SPF record needs to include the Microsoft 365 sending infrastructure as an authorised source. Without this, invoices sent from QuickBooks using your business email address either land in your client’s spam folder or fail delivery entirely — not because of a QuickBooks problem, but because the Microsoft 365 environment was not configured to support it.

At New Perspective Design, every Microsoft 365 deployment is scoped with these downstream dependencies in mind. DNS is structured to support not just email, but domain verification across Google Search Console, Meta Business Suite, and any third-party platform your business uses. User accounts and service principals are provisioned with the permissions required for CRM, accounting, and WordPress integrations to authenticate correctly. Security policies including MFA and conditional access are configured in a way that protects the environment without blocking the legitimate API connections your business systems depend on.

For businesses in East London and across South Africa, this means your Microsoft 365 environment works as the foundation it was designed to be — not as another isolated tool that your team works around.

Welcome to New Perspective Design – South Africa’s Foremost Web Design Expert

When creating this web design page dedicated to our website design services in South Africa, we thought: what can we, as a website design company, write on this page that will be most helpful to our clients and users in general?
And so, we came to our first point to address: education.

Educating clients on website design is integrally important. After all, they need to know what they are buying—whether it is a website design package, a standard brochure website, or an e-commerce online store website. Educating clients on the different websites available to them, their pros and cons, and how to manage their website has always been a part of our process when working with clients.

What is a website?

A website is a collection of web pages hosted on a server and accessible through the internet, typically via a domain name. It can serve many purposes—sharing information, selling products, offering services, or providing entertainment. Websites can be static (showing fixed information) or dynamic (interactive and regularly updated). In today’s world, a website is often the main point of contact between a business and its audience.

Is a website important for business in South Africa?

The numbers would say yes:

Approximately 237,400 websites in South Africa are currently powered by WordPress

As of 2025, there are approximately 18,626 live Shopify stores in South Africa

Having a website isn’t just a nice extra anymore—it’s essential. When someone hears about your business, the first thing they’ll do is look you up online. And what they find really counts. If your site feels outdated, takes forever to load, or isn’t mobile-friendly, you might be losing potential customers without even realizing it.

A well-designed site builds trust with visitors. On the flip side, a poorly designed one can send leads running away. It really is that straightforward.

If your website frustrates users, they’ll just click away. If they can’t quickly find what they’re after, they’ll go elsewhere. And if it looks shady or cheap, they won’t reach out to you. That can hit your bottom line, whether you rely on ads or word of mouth.

A solid website does three things well:

Establishes credibility: Clean, organized, professional-looking sites tell visitors you’re serious.
Boosts search visibility: Fast, mobile-friendly sites with good layout help you rank higher on Google.
Guides visitors effectively: Every page should serve a purpose—whether it’s getting a quote, booking, or contact info.

If your site isn’t doing these, you’re not just missing out on sales—you could be actively losing them.

The role of web hosting in website design

Think about the website that we design as a flashy sports car—your hosting is the tires of that car. It’s where the website will live on the internet, how fast your website serves to visitors, how secure it is—and it’s all greatly determined by your hosting.

It doesn’t help getting a flashy car and putting on trashy old tires; it won’t perform. The same can be said for a website. If you have a CPU-intensive or memory-intensive e-commerce website, we can implement better coding and some caching, but ultimately your server needs a good amount of RAM, a great TTFB, CPU, and a solid base to work from.

What is a CMS and which is the best to pick in South Africa?

A CMS (Content Management System) is software that allows you to create, manage, and modify content on a website without needing extensive coding knowledge. There are hundreds—if not thousands—of CMS platforms in the world.

In South Africa, a few CMS systems are particularly popular.

WordPress websites

WordPress usage in South Africa (WooCommerce/WordPress) → 46%

WordPress is incredibly flexible when it comes to website design and development. Originally a blog platform, WordPress as a CMS can now be altered to create simple business websites, RFQ websites, and, with WooCommerce, is incredibly popular for e-commerce.

The advantage of WordPress is its flexibility and cost. You can do pretty much anything you want on WordPress with a massive developer community behind it and thousands of plugins for just about anything you need your website to do. It is by far the most flexible option.

The massive amount of documentation available online on WordPress development and its API make it developer-friendly and allow all this flexibility. However, WordPress has a bit of a steeper learning curve, requires more website maintenance than other CMSs, and, if not looked after, can become unsecure.

Wix websites

Wix runs about 11% of South Africa’s websites.

Wix is another CMS platform. It’s great if you want to get a basic website up quickly, need a drag-and-drop builder, and want a company to handle hosting for you. However, if you intend on scaling your website as your business grows, you will soon hit the limitations of the platform.

Vendor locking with Wix is also a problem—your site is on their platform, and if you want to move it, you’ll need to rebuild it completely. Being another highly controlled environment, Wix websites are generally safe and pretty fast, but this comes at a cost—you can’t tweak everything to perfection like you can on WordPress.

Shopify websites

Shopify is a CMS on a platform. Shopify runs about 30% of the e-commerce web in South Africa.

Shopify is an e-commerce platform only. It has a strict environment that doesn’t allow for too much flexibility, but this ensures that their sites remain secure and fast. Secure and fast means user-friendly, and generally, Shopify sites are clean and come with hosting integrated.

Shopify can be customized with developers and also has an app store similar to the WordPress plugin repository. The cost of Shopify, especially for South Africans, can be a bit of an issue as you will pay in dollars. Almost every plugin and every function will be another add-on subscription, which can amount to thousands of dollars very quickly—an incredible amount in South African rands.

The last thing about Shopify is that the website you create on their platform is not yours—it’s theirs. They have the right to terminate it whenever they feel like it, and you cannot move it away, so beware of vendor lock-in here.

In South Africa’s e-commerce sector, WordPress (via WooCommerce) powers nearly half of all online stores, with Shopify holding about a third, and Wix just over a tenth.

What is the cost of a website in South Africa?

The cost of a website can depend on various factors. These include the number of pages, the functionality of the site, the language it’s written in, and the platform it’s designed on.

In South Africa, most websites are HTML, WordPress, Wix, or Shopify, and most website designers or web design companies generally sell websites at between R5,000 – R50,000 once-off. The average website designer in South Africa charges R275 per hour for work.

Of course, some of these platforms and agencies have monthly fees instead of once-off websites. Other considerations also include third-party tools often needed with websites, hosting and maintenance, and lastly, digital marketing.

What are considered affordable website design packages in South Africa?

Now that you know what website design is and the different types of websites that there are, you will find these are often bundled in packages with features commonly required by businesses.

You might get a 5-page basic package with basic SEO and hosting, or an online store website design package. There are also custom packages when businesses require more complex functionality such as listing websites.

In South Africa, you can look at the following averages for website design packages:

A typical small-business 5-page site runs between R6,000 and R16,000.
A business website (typically 8–16 pages) averages R14,000, ranging from R7,500 to R20,000.
An e-commerce site costs between R13,000 and R25,000, averaging R19,000.

Patent web design process

Step 1: Consultations

Our web design process always starts with a consultation. We take the time to understand your business and, more importantly, what you require your website to do and how it fits into the bigger picture of your business.

Step 2: Scoping

After the consult, we create a scope of the project. This makes sure our team and yours are aligned in terms of what is required and when it should be delivered.

Step 3: Drafting your website

We issue a content requirements folder in which you place all your website content. If you have made use of our website copywriting services, we will write the content for you. Images and media provided will be prepped by our graphic design team, and we will design the draft of your website.

Once complete, this draft website will be deployed on one of our test servers where it will wait for your review.

Step 4: Review website

This is where you get to see the full working prototype of your website from your own devices. We will meet and discuss any revisions that are required. While we do in-house testing, we often find that when clients run through their website on their own devices, a broader set of testing helps us iron out all the wrinkles.

Step 5: Go live

This is where we deploy your site on its live web hosting server. We also perform all the other tasks that can only be done once a website is on its live server, such as:

Setting up web application firewalls
Submitting your site to Google
Setting up mail SMTP and forms
Implementing caching
Connecting any APIs that your website requires

You are then also provided with a basic training video on how to use, edit, and work with your website. Lastly, we hand over your web server credentials and any other logins that you will require.

Step 6: Post web launch support

New Perspective Design is unique in that, even if you don’t have a website maintenance or SEO package with us, we provide support for 30 days post-launch. We create websites that we want to see around for a long time, and so we are just as invested in their success as you are.

And if a year down the line you find yourself in need of some new features or SEO work, feel free to get hold of us. We love working with clients we have worked with before and establishing long-lasting relationships.

Our web design recognition & awards

We have industry recognition for our work in the web design space in South Africa and abroad:

TechBehemoths Top South African Web Designers – Winner 2024

TechBehemoths Top South African Web Developers – 2024

TechBehemoths Top South African WordPress Developers – Winner 2024

98 five-star reviews on Google My Business

How we prepare websites for the future

At New Perspective Design, we take a proactive approach in our design and development work.

As enthusiasts of everything happening on the internet, we keep a keen eye on developments in the web space, SEO world, and even Google. We do this by reading and regularly contributing in community forums and discussions on social media. While no one can predict the future, we have a pretty good idea of where things are heading, and we often share these thoughts in our blog.

How long does it take to build a website?

This would depend on what type of website it is, and there are factors that also weigh into how long it takes—such as whether you have your content ready or if we need to produce it.

Most website drafts are completed 7–21 days after content has been finalised. We then also allow for 7 days of testing and revision, so most websites are completed in 28 days.

What types of websites do you design and develop?

New Perspective Design develops most types of websites for most industries. Some of the industries we’ve worked for—whether by doing SEO, creating new websites, or rebranding old ones—are:

Home Services Website Design
Agriculture & Farming Website Design
Nonprofits, Foundations & Church Website Design
Fitness & Gyms Website Design
Event Planning & Entertainment Website Design
Restaurants & Food Service Website Design
Professional Services Website Design
Manufacturing & Industrial Website Design
Tech & Software Website Design
Beauty & Wellness Website Design
Education & E-Learning Website Design
Automotive & Car Dealership Website Design
Real Estate & Property Website Design
Construction & Contractor Website Design
Financial Services Website Design
Hospitality & Travel Website Design
Medical & Healthcare Website Design

When we talk about types of websites, we develop basic brochure business sites, e-commerce websites, booking sites, CRM websites, landing page websites, directory or listing websites, personal blog websites, and of course custom-developed websites tailored to client needs, which may involve marketplace websites and API integrations.

Who are the top website design companies in South Africa?

South Africa has become a pretty competitive hub for web design firms—and that’s actually a good thing for clients. It pushes the quality of websites up, making sure you get better results. As they say, a little competition never hurts.

Here’s a look at some of the best website design companies you’ll find in South Africa:

Websites 360

From the company:

“At Websites 360, we craft custom & template-based web designs tailored to your brand and audience. Our designs are visually stunning, user-friendly, and SEO-optimized to boost your online visibility and engagement.”

Address: 1000 Timbavati Street, Pretoria, 0181, South Africa

Pros:

Additional services besides website design, such as video production

Cons:

Lack of reviews

Verdict:
Websites 360 is a young, mid-range web design company in Johannesburg/Pretoria. With limited experience, they’re suited for starter sites with a bit of customization.

SA Website Designer

Address: 11 23rd St, Menlo Park, Pretoria, 0102

Pros:

SA Website Designer has a lot of great Google reviews
Their websites are on the more affordable side compared to other companies in Johannesburg

Cons:

Small team, run by a single website designer named Stephan
Limited capacity and slower turnaround times
Portfolio shows many templated designs that don’t stand out

Verdict:
Great if you’re looking for extremely affordable, quick websites that don’t require custom development or graphic design.

StarBright

Address: 80 Sovereign Dr, Route 21 Business Park, Pretoria, 0157

From the company:

“Our team of website designers, fueled by caffeine and motivated by praise from our long list of satisfied clients, are top-notch experts in their field. With over 70 years of combined experience, we’re highly skilled in multiple programming languages and web technologies, ensuring proficiency and excellence in every project we undertake.”

Pros:

Very good average rating from 97 clients on Google
Quick turnaround times
Additional services like hosting and SEO

Cons:

Portfolio leans heavily on templated designs
Pricing is higher compared to other web design companies in Pretoria

Verdict:
If you’re looking for something that’s been vetted and offers more than just website design, StarBright is a safe go-to in Pretoria.

Web Devine

From the company:

“Sick of automated and AI-powered responses received from large companies? At Web Devine, you collaborate with real people—passionate professionals who genuinely care about you and your business.
In an era where digital expertise is essential, we are the trusted online advertising partner you’ve been searching for.”

Address: 354 Braam Pretorius Street, Magalieskruin, Pretoria (H/O)

Pros:

82 reviews on Google with a 4.9 average
Offers graphic design, website design, SEO, and hosting

Cons:

Expensive: R11,500 for a 5-page website; e-commerce starts at R14,850 for 3 pages
Hosting costs R240 for a 5GB server with 8 email accounts—on the higher side

Verdict:
Great design work, and if you want to be sure you get quality, this Pretoria website design company delivers. But you will be overcharged.

Full M365 Deployment

Azure Tenant setup, domain verification, DNS configuration, user accounts and mailboxes — deployed correctly from day one.

Exchange & Email Migration

POP3, IMAP, legacy Exchange and tenant-to-tenant migrations — email history, contacts and calendars preserved throughout.

Outlook, Teams & SharePoint

The full Microsoft 365 suite configured for how your team actually works — not just Outlook out of the box.

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M365 Security & MFA

Multi-factor authentication, conditional access, Safe Links and Secure Score — your environment properly protected.

Licence Management

Ongoing user provisioning, licence optimisation and Microsoft 365 admin console management on your behalf.

Ongoing M365 Support

Monthly support plans covering Outlook troubleshooting, Teams, SharePoint, user changes and proactive reviews.

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Full Microsoft 365 Deployment — Tenant Setup, Domain Verification & Mailbox Configuration

A Microsoft 365 deployment that is rushed or self-configured creates problems that surface weeks or months later — email that fails authentication checks and lands in spam, shared mailboxes that nobody can access, licences assigned to accounts that were never properly set up, and DNS records that are incomplete or conflicting. Getting the foundation right from the start is not optional if you want a Microsoft 365 environment that your team can rely on day to day.

New Perspective Design manages the complete Microsoft 365 deployment process for businesses in East London and across South Africa. This covers tenant creation, website domain verification and ownership confirmation, DNS record configuration including MX, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, user account provisioning, mailbox creation, and licence assignment. We configure shared mailboxes, distribution groups, mail aliases, and resource calendars where required, and we test email flow, calendar sync, and application access across all user accounts before handover.

For businesses operating hybrid environments — with some infrastructure remaining on-premise alongside Microsoft 365 cloud services — we manage the Azure AD Connect configuration and synchronisation setup so that your on-premise Active Directory and Microsoft 365 tenant stay in sync. Every deployment is documented and handed over with clear guidance for your team so ongoing management is straightforward from day one.

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Exchange & Email Migration — POP3, IMAP, Legacy Exchange and Tenant-to-Tenant Migrations

Email migration is where Microsoft 365 deployments most commonly go wrong. Businesses that attempt to migrate without proper planning lose emails in transit, end up with mailboxes that are partially synced, or experience periods where incoming mail is delivered to the old server while the DNS has already been cut over to the new platform. The consequences range from minor inconvenience to significant business disruption — and in some cases, permanently lost email history.

We manage the full email migration process for businesses moving from POP3 or IMAP hosting accounts, on-premise Exchange Server environments, Google Workspace, or existing Microsoft 365 tenants. Migration is scoped and planned before any work begins — mailbox sizes are audited, migration batches are structured to manage load, and DNS cutover timing is coordinated to ensure continuous email delivery throughout the process. Historical email, calendar data, and contacts are migrated and verified before the old platform is decommissioned.

For businesses with large mailboxes, shared calendars, or complex permission structures, we run pre-migration audits to identify and resolve issues before they become problems mid-migration. For tenant-to-tenant migrations — where a business is moving from one Microsoft 365 organisation to another — we manage the cross-tenant process including mailbox migration, Teams data, and SharePoint content where required.

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Outlook, Teams, SharePoint & OneDrive — The Full Microsoft 365 Suite Configured for Your Team

Most businesses that move to Microsoft 365 use Outlook and nothing else. The rest of the suite — Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, and the full Microsoft 365 application stack — sits unused because nobody configured it properly during setup, and nobody on the team knows what it can do. This is one of the most common and most expensive forms of wasted software spend in South African SMEs — paying for a full Microsoft 365 Business subscription and using approximately 20% of its capability.

We configure the full Microsoft 365 environment to match how your team actually works. Teams is set up with a channel structure that reflects your business divisions or project types, with guest access policies, meeting room configurations, and Outlook calendar integration. SharePoint document libraries are structured to replace shared drives — with folder hierarchies, permission groups, and access controls that ensure the right people can access the right files without exposing sensitive information to the entire organisation. OneDrive is configured for automatic folder backup from each user’s device, protecting business data without requiring staff to remember to save files to a shared location manually.

For businesses that need to collaborate with clients or external partners, we configure secure external sharing policies across Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive — giving you control over what external users can access and for how long, without opening your environment unnecessarily.

Lets see what we can do for you.

Microsoft 365 Security — MFA, Conditional Access, Secure Score & Business Email Compromise Protection

Business email compromise is the single most financially damaging cyber threat facing South African SMEs right now. It works by gaining access to a Microsoft 365 account — usually through a phishing attack, a weak password, or a credential exposed in a data breach — and then using that access to intercept payment communications, impersonate staff, or extract sensitive client data. The vast majority of successful attacks target accounts that have no multi-factor authentication enabled, are using default Microsoft 365 security settings, or have never had their sign-in logs reviewed.

We configure Microsoft 365 security across four layers. First, multi-factor authentication is enabled and enforced across all user accounts — not just administrators — so that a compromised password alone is not sufficient to access the account. Second, conditional access policies are configured to block or challenge sign-in attempts from untrusted locations, unmanaged devices, or high-risk IP addresses. Third, Microsoft Defender for Microsoft 365 features including Safe Links, Safe Attachments, and anti-phishing policies are enabled and configured to protect users from malicious email content. Fourth, we review your tenant’s Microsoft Secure Score and work through the highest-impact recommendations to improve your overall security posture without disrupting normal business operations.

For businesses that handle sensitive client data, process payments, or operate in industries with data protection obligations, we provide a written security review and recommendation report alongside the technical configuration — so you have a documented record of what is in place and why.

Business Technology Solutions

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Microsoft 365 Licence Management, Admin Console & Ongoing Support for East London Businesses

A Microsoft 365 environment is not a set-and-forget system. Licences need to be actively managed — new staff members need accounts created and applications assigned, departing staff need accounts disabled and data preserved or transferred, and unused licences need to be identified and removed before the next billing cycle. Without someone actively managing the Microsoft 365 admin console, businesses routinely pay for more licences than they have active users, run with orphaned accounts that still have access to company data, and accumulate configuration drift as individual users make changes that conflict with the intended setup.

New Perspective Design provides ongoing Microsoft 365 management and support for businesses in East London and across South Africa. This covers user provisioning and deprovisioning, licence assignment and optimisation, shared mailbox and distribution group management, Outlook and email troubleshooting, Teams and SharePoint administration, OneDrive access issues, and proactive security reviews. For clients on a monthly IT support retainer, Microsoft 365 management is integrated into the support agreement — giving you a single point of contact for your entire Microsoft environment rather than logging support requests with Microsoft directly and navigating their enterprise support process as a small business.

We also manage Microsoft 365 licence renewals, plan upgrades, and migrations between Microsoft 365 subscription tiers where a change in your team size or requirements means your current plan is no longer the right fit.

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Our Client Stories

Helping our clients suceed

New Perspective Design | Websites | Marketing | Graphics | Branding

1 Salisbury Rd, Berea, KuGompo City

4.9 107 reviews

Luvo Tembani ★★★★★ a month ago
Excellent service from Juan and the team. They handled the development and deployment … More of our website professionally. The site was delivered smoothly, security measures were implemented and everything was tested before going live.I would gladly recommend their services to anyone looking for reliable website development and hosting support.Thank you again for the great work.
Shital Naik ★★★★★ a month ago
Needed an urgent logo to be designed. Aimee and team were able to understand the … More requirements only via email and had the logo finalized within 1 business day. Super efficient and reasonably priced.
Coastal refrigeration ★★★★★ 2 months ago
A big thank you to Juan at New Perspective Studio for the great, friendly service. … More He made the whole process super easy for us, and we really appreciated his positive attitude and professionalism. Highly recommended.
Liza-Marie Loubser ★★★★★ 2 months ago
New Perspective Design is a highly recommended company if you need any assistance … More with websites/marketing. They are professional and offer quick and fast services. Juan and his team designed our school's website "Wysneusie kleuterskool" which we are very proud of. They are very thorough and helpfull with step by step instructions of what is needed from the client.
claudine hauke ★★★★★ 3 months ago
I work since 8 years with New Perspective Design. Their Design and service is always … More excellent. Thank you.
Moloko Semenya ★★★★★ 4 months ago
I reached out to NPD looking for a clean, professional and grounding website. I was … More extremely overwhelmed due to the Vision I had, and the amount of work we needed to put into the Website.Juan is exceptional and gifted at what he does! He listens, advises, recommends, and he has a great attention to detail!He went over and above to deliver an absolute beautiful Website !!! And his sense of humor is EVERYTHING! We are looking forward to a long working relationship with NPD and I would definitely recommend him for Website designs.Everything works. Paystack, Bookings, and and the Website flows seamlessly.Working with you has been a breath of fresh air, Juan and thank you for your patience.I will never thank you enough.The Aura & Growth Learning Hub Website is Officially Live!
Nusreen Vawda ★★★★★ 5 months ago
Outstanding professionalism and exceptional technical skill. He delivered exactly … More what I envisioned with precision and clarity. Highly recommended
andrew maraidza ★★★★★ 7 months ago
I had the pleasure of working with Aimee at New Perspective Design, and I am extremely … More impressed with the service I received. She designed my flyers and business cards with a professional and modern look that perfectly matched my business needs. Aimee was attentive, creative, and efficient throughout the process, and she ensured that I was completely satisfied with the final designs. I highly recommend New Perspective to anyone looking for quality design services and excellent customer support.
Laila Kramer - Hamman ★★★★★ 9 months ago
If you ever need a developer who won’t fire you for creating scope creep… speak to … More Juan from New Perspective Studio.Juan’s been helping me build my coaching website, integrate Paystack payments, connect calendars, and set up Google Ads — all while I keep changing my mind, asking for “just one more thing”, and missing my own deadlines.He keeps on showing up with patience, professionalism and a very dry sense of humour that I’ve come to appreciate almost as much as his technical skill.If you’re looking for someone who can handle the full stack and your executive functioning chaos — Juan’s your guy. Grateful for the partnership and very happy to recommend him.Cannot sing his praises enough!
Emile Vermaas ★★★★★ 10 months ago
100% impressed with their work! The team delivered a sleek, professional website … More and went above and beyond to help with every detail. Their eagerness to make everything perfect was top-notch.
Tristan Cockerill ★★★★★ a year ago
I would most definitely recommend them. They are such an amazing company. If I had … More to put it in any way I would say it way less for way more. They are so fairly priced and you get so much!!! Definitely do business with them. Did our vertical graphics website.
Jonanda Opperman ★★★★★ a year ago
Aimee Behrens was extremely helpful throughout the entire design process. She understood … More my requirements and the product that was delivered was beyond my expectation. I am extremely thankful and very happy with the designs. Thank you to Aimee and the NPD team for your professional service.
Jonathan Lovegrove ★★★★★ a year ago
Aimee from New Perspective Design helped us with our Company Logo design and company … More stationary on more than one occasion.The designs were always exactly what we wanted! Great Service.
Daniel Solomon Kyambadde ★★★★★ a year ago
If I could, I would give 6 stars.Great final product service, and great customer … More care. Going the extra mile to meet and exceed our desires and request with the website design. Highly and gladly recommend New Perspective Design, and a special gratitude to Juan and Aimee.
Jacques ★★★★★ a year ago
Juan built the daisa.co.za website for me. From the start he was very professional … More and open. he kept to the time line he gave me and I never had to doubt his ability to do what I expected. After the website was built, I required minor changes and I got more than what I expected. I will recommend New Perspective Design any time to any Company that needs a website. My site is now running for four years now and I never had an issue that caused my site to broke down.Thank you Juan for grate service and especially after sales service.
Gareth ★★★★★ a year ago
New Perspective Design has hosted my website for a few years now, and I have received … More excellent service and outstanding results, from their suggestions and advice. They tailor make to your requirements as you grow.
Nathi Mpisana ★★★★★ a year ago
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Microsoft 365 FAQ

Setup & Deployment

What does a full Microsoft 365 setup actually involve?

A proper Microsoft 365 deployment goes well beyond creating accounts and handing out passwords. It covers tenant creation, domain verification, DNS record configuration including MX, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, user account provisioning, mailbox creation, licence assignment, and Outlook configuration across all devices.

We also configure shared mailboxes, distribution groups, mail aliases, and resource calendars where required. Every deployment is tested before handover to confirm email flow, calendar sync, and application access are working correctly across the full team.

The scope varies based on team size, existing infrastructure, and how many other systems need to connect to the Microsoft 365 environment. We scope before quoting.

We already have Microsoft 365 — can you fix what's been set up incorrectly?

Yes. This is one of the most common requests we receive. Businesses that self-configured Microsoft 365 or had it set up without proper DNS authentication, security policies, or Outlook configuration often experience ongoing issues — emails landing in spam, accounts being compromised, licences assigned incorrectly, or Teams and SharePoint that nobody uses because they were never configured.

We audit your existing Microsoft 365 tenant, identify what is misconfigured or missing, and remediate it. This is usually faster and less disruptive than a full rebuild.

Which Microsoft 365 plan does my business need?

The right plan depends on what your team needs access to. The most common options for South African SMEs are:

Microsoft 365 Business Basic — web-based Office apps, Exchange email, Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive. No desktop Office installation included.
Microsoft 365 Business Standard — everything in Basic plus desktop-installed Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Publisher.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium — everything in Standard plus advanced security features including Microsoft Defender, Intune device management, and Azure AD Premium.

We advise on the right plan during scoping based on your team's actual usage and security requirements — not all businesses need Premium, and not all can afford to run on Basic.

Do you configure Outlook on our computers and phones as part of the setup?

Yes. Outlook profile configuration across your team's desktops, laptops, and mobile devices is included as part of our Microsoft 365 setup service. We configure the full Outlook desktop application on Windows and Mac, and set up email, calendar, and contacts on iOS and Android devices.

We do not hand over a Microsoft 365 environment and leave your team to figure out how to connect their devices — the setup is not complete until everyone can send and receive email and access their calendar correctly.

Email Migration

Can you migrate our existing emails to Microsoft 365 without losing anything?

Yes. We manage the complete email migration process including historical emails, contacts, and calendar data. Migration is planned before any work begins — mailbox sizes are audited, migration batches are structured, and DNS cutover timing is coordinated to ensure incoming email continues to flow throughout the process.

We verify the migration is complete and accurate before decommissioning the old platform. For businesses with large mailboxes or complex setups, we run a pre-migration audit to identify and resolve issues before the cutover rather than discovering them during it.

The time required depends on mailbox size, the number of users, and the source platform. We provide a realistic estimate during scoping.

What types of email migration do you handle?

We handle migrations from a range of source platforms, including:

POP3 or IMAP hosting-based email accounts
On-premise Microsoft Exchange Server
Google Workspace / Gmail
Tenant-to-tenant Microsoft 365 migrations
Other Microsoft 365 or hosted Exchange environments

Each migration type has a different technical process. We select the right migration method based on your source platform, mailbox volume, and business continuity requirements.

Will our email go down during the migration?

In most cases, no. We structure migrations so that email continues to flow throughout the transition. The mailbox data is migrated in the background before DNS records are switched over, which means there is no gap between the old platform stopping and the new platform starting.

DNS changes do take time to propagate globally — typically between 15 minutes and a few hours depending on your DNS provider and TTL settings. During this period, some email may still arrive at the old server, which is why we keep the old platform active for a period after cutover to catch any stragglers.

For businesses where email continuity is business-critical, we plan the migration window carefully and can schedule cutover for off-peak hours.

Our emails keep going to spam — is that a Microsoft 365 setup problem?

Usually, yes — and it is almost always a DNS authentication issue. Outbound emails that land in spam are typically missing correctly configured SPF, DKIM, or DMARC records on the domain. These records tell receiving mail servers that your email is legitimately sent from your domain and authorised by you. Without them, your email is treated as a potential impersonation attempt and filtered accordingly.

We audit your DNS records, identify what is missing or misconfigured, and implement the correct authentication records. This resolves the majority of spam delivery issues for businesses on Microsoft 365.

Email deliverability is also influenced by the content of your emails and the reputation of Microsoft's sending infrastructure, which are factors outside DNS alone — but DNS is almost always the starting point.

Teams, SharePoint & OneDrive

We only use Outlook — should we be using Teams and SharePoint too?

If you are on a Microsoft 365 Business plan, you are already paying for Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive — whether you use them or not. Most South African SMEs that only use Outlook are paying for a full Microsoft 365 subscription and using less than 20% of what they have access to.

Teams replaces most of the need for internal email threads, provides video conferencing without a separate platform, and integrates directly with your Outlook calendar. SharePoint replaces shared drives — with proper permissions management and version control. OneDrive provides automatic cloud backup of each user's files without requiring anyone to manually move data to a server.

Whether these tools are right for your business depends on your team size and how you work. We advise on this during a consultation rather than pushing tools that won't be used.

Can SharePoint replace our shared drive or file server?

Yes — and for most SMEs it does a better job than a physical shared drive or file server. SharePoint provides cloud-based document storage with version history, access from any device, granular permission controls, and integration with the rest of the Microsoft 365 suite.

We structure SharePoint document libraries to mirror the folder logic your team is already familiar with, which reduces the adoption friction significantly. Permissions are configured so that departments or individuals only see what they need to, without complex group policy management.

Migrating from an existing file server to SharePoint requires planning to preserve folder structure and permissions. We handle this as part of the SharePoint configuration scope.

Do you set up Power Automate workflows within Microsoft 365?

Yes. Power Automate is Microsoft's native automation platform built into Microsoft 365, and it is well suited for automating workflows that live entirely within the Microsoft ecosystem — document approvals in SharePoint, automatic notifications in Teams when a form is submitted, calendar event creation from incoming emails, and similar tasks.

For automations that cross platforms — connecting Microsoft 365 to Zoho CRM, QuickBooks, Sage, or other external tools — we use Make, Zapier, or custom-built automation depending on the complexity and volume involved. Power Automate, Make, and custom builds are not mutually exclusive — we use whichever is the right tool for the specific workflow.

Can you connect Microsoft 365 to our other business systems using the Graph API?

Yes. The Microsoft Graph API provides programmatic access to Microsoft 365 data — emails, calendar events, contacts, Teams messages, SharePoint files, and user account information. We use the Graph API to build custom integrations between Microsoft 365 and external business systems where a native connector or automation platform does not provide sufficient access or control.

Examples include pulling Microsoft 365 calendar availability into a custom booking system, syncing Teams channel messages into a CRM record, or automatically creating SharePoint folders when a new project is created in your project management tool.

Graph API integrations are scoped and built custom per requirement. We assess whether a simpler integration approach achieves the same outcome before committing to API development.

Security & Admin Console

What Microsoft 365 security do we actually need as a small business?

At minimum, every Microsoft 365 account should have multi-factor authentication enabled on every user — not just administrators. This single step blocks the vast majority of account compromise attempts because a stolen password alone is no longer sufficient to access the account.

Beyond MFA, the next priorities are conditional access policies to restrict sign-in from untrusted locations, and correct DNS authentication records to prevent your domain from being used for email spoofing. For businesses on Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Microsoft Defender for Microsoft 365 adds Safe Links, Safe Attachments, and anti-phishing protection on top of this baseline.

We review your current security configuration and provide practical recommendations based on your actual risk profile — not a generic enterprise checklist that creates more friction than protection.

One of our Microsoft 365 accounts was compromised — what do we do?

Contact us immediately. A compromised Microsoft 365 account needs to be contained and remediated quickly — the longer an attacker has access, the more damage they can do, including setting up mail forwarding rules to intercept future emails without you knowing.

Remediation involves resetting credentials, revoking all active sessions, reviewing and removing any mail forwarding rules or inbox filters the attacker may have added, auditing what data was accessed, and implementing the security measures that should have been in place to prevent the compromise in the first place.

Call us directly for urgent issues — do not rely on email if you suspect the email account itself is compromised.

Can you manage our Microsoft 365 admin console on our behalf?

Yes. For clients on a monthly support plan, we manage the Microsoft 365 admin console on your behalf — adding new user accounts when staff join, disabling and archiving accounts when staff leave, adjusting licences, managing shared mailboxes and distribution groups, and handling any configuration changes your environment requires.

This means you do not need to log into the admin console yourself or understand how Microsoft 365 administration works — you contact us, we make the change, and you receive confirmation when it is done.

We are paying for more Microsoft 365 licences than we have staff — can you fix this?

Yes. Overpaying for unused Microsoft 365 licences is extremely common — particularly when staff have left and their accounts were never properly decommissioned. We audit your active licences against your actual user accounts, identify unused or orphaned accounts, and remove the licences that are not needed.

We also archive the data from departed staff accounts before removing licences, so you retain access to their email history and files without paying for an active account indefinitely.

Costs & Ongoing Support

What does Microsoft 365 setup and migration cost?

Setup and migration costs are scoped per client because the work involved varies significantly based on the number of users, whether migration is required, the source platform, and how many other systems need to integrate with the Microsoft 365 environment.

A straightforward setup for three to five users with no migration is a materially different job to a ten-user setup with a legacy Exchange migration, Teams configuration, SharePoint build, and QuickBooks email integration. Giving a single price without understanding your situation would mean either overcharging you or underscoping the work.

We scope and quote clearly before any work begins — so you know exactly what is included and what it will cost before committing.

Are Microsoft 365 licences included in your fees?

No. Microsoft 365 licence costs are paid directly to Microsoft and are separate from our setup, migration, and support fees. We advise on which plan and how many licences you need as part of scoping so you have a clear picture of the total monthly cost — Microsoft licence fees plus our support fee — before making a decision.

Microsoft 365 Business plans are priced per user per month in US dollars, which means the rand cost fluctuates with the exchange rate. We factor this into our planning conversations so there are no unexpected billing surprises.

Do you provide ongoing Microsoft 365 support after the initial setup?

Yes. Once-off setup is available for businesses that just need to get up and running. For businesses that want ongoing management — user changes, licence management, troubleshooting, security reviews, and admin console management — we offer monthly support plans that cover the Microsoft 365 environment as part of a broader IT support retainer.

A combined plan covering Microsoft 365 management, general IT support, and website maintenance under a single monthly fee is available for businesses that want a single point of contact for their entire technical setup.

Can you support our Microsoft 365 environment if you did not set it up originally?

Yes. We take over management of existing Microsoft 365 environments regularly. We start with an audit of your current configuration to understand what is in place, identify any gaps or risks, and document the environment properly before taking on ongoing support.

This audit stage is important — it means we are not making assumptions about how your environment is configured and we can catch any existing issues before they become support problems.