Savant Financial - Appetite for Business: Microsoft 365 & Sharepoint Consultants

A 38% uplift in Microsoft 365 Secure Score, delivering stronger protection and peace of mind in a regulated environment.

71%

reduction in low- and medium-severity security alerts following Security policy optimisation

0%

unresolved Priority 1 incidents, with all high-severity alerts investigated and contained

100%

remediation of critical external vulnerabilities identified via continuous exposure monitoring

“It just works. The support is quick and reliable, and it gives us peace of mind that this part of the business - especially the security - is taken care of and there if we need it.”

David Milne, Director, Savant Financial

The Client

Savant Financial is an independent financial planning firm based in Aberdeenshire, supporting individuals, families and business owners. to navigate complex financial decisions with clarity, confidence and personalised advice. As a regulated business, with a strong focus on long term relationships and client care, Savant Financial needed secure communication and efficient document management to serve their clients and protect sensitive information. Existing Microsoft 365 provider fell short, lacking the reliable support and technical expertise required in a sector where data protection and security are critical and they needed a partner to quickly accelerate adding additional protection into their systems.

Challenges

Challenges

As a regulated financial advisory firm, Savant Financial needed secure communication and efficient document management to serve clients and protect sensitive information. Their existing Microsoft 365 provider fell short, lacking the reliable support and technical expertise required in a sector where data protection and security are critical.

Key issues:

OneDrive used like a shared drive: All business data was stored in individual OneDrive folders, with no structure or understanding of how Microsoft 365 should be used in a business environment.
Inefficient shared email setup: Staff could not see each other’s sent items, making it hard to track to client emails and leading to duplicated effort.
Security and compliance concerns: As a financial services business dealing with personal and client data, they needed confidence that their Microsoft 365 tenant was configured securely.

Savant Financial needed a trusted partner who could:

Manage and monitor their 365 Environment
Deliver robust, proactive cybersecurity services
Provide expert support for internal IT and endpoint management
Grow with them as their needs evolved

Savant partnered with Appetite for Business for their Microsoft 365 and cybersecurity expertise, reinforced by a strong industry reputation and prior awareness of CEO Sheryl Newman through earlier networking.

What Appetite for Business did

We kicked off our partnership with Savant Financial through our comprehensive onboarding process, strengthening their security posture and ensuring their Microsoft 365 environment was set up correctly to support a more secure, structured and collaborative way of working. The team also selected our SOC service, providing end-to-end, 24/7 security management.

Smoother administration and workflows

SharePoint and Outlook now reflect the needs of a small financial services firm, reducing administrative burden and improving day-to-day operations.

Improved visibility and collaboration

With sent items and shared email visibility fixed, staff no longer need to double-check who responded to what. Communication is clearer and more efficient.

Greater peace of mind around security

The business now feels confident that its Microsoft 365 environment is secure, well-configured, and aligned with data protection requirements.

Reliable partnership for future growth

Appetite provides the guidance and support the client needs today, while also giving them confidence that they have the right partner as the business evolves.

Strong value for money

With a reliable setup, improved security, and quick support when needed, the client views the service as good value – and a critical part of ensuring business continuity.

Client Outcomes

With Appetite for Business as their solution partner, Savant Financial now benefits from a secure, robust Microsoft 365 environment, supporting growth while maintaining their reputation for exceptional client care in a highly regulated industry.

Through continuous security posture hardening, patching and monitoring the team have seen a significant increase in their M365 secure score, improving by 18% in 2025 This uplift reflects a stronger security baseline across identity, device, and information protection, and the team have also seen a dramatic reduction in security noise and risk.

These improvements all reflect the strength of the underlying security controls and the proactive 24/7 response. Plus, we reliably deliver on service expectations . The SOC has delivered on 100% of Savant Financial’s Service Level Agreement (SLA).

Want to get similar results?

Who We Help?

Whatever, your situation we can help you to de-risk and accelerate your M365 adoption.  

For Owners

Small team? At capacity? Don’t know where to start? Work with us and always be in the know with data at your fingertips. Save yourselves the stress so you can digitally transform your organisation and processes. Hold on to and develop talent. Identify areas for more efficiency. Stay secure and compliant and move the business forward.

For IT

Juggling with strategy and small in-house team? With a specialist partner like us we can help simplify management, achieve compliance and guide you on best practice governance and strategy, keeping data secure whilst giving people access to the insights they need.

For Finance

Overseeing a global business? Let us help you go from data to insight to action. Free up cash flow by identifying efficiencies, removing legacy systems and removing bottlenecks. Increasing real time visibility, measuring metrics, mitigating risk and achieving better compliance and transparency.

For HR

Worrying about upskilling or reskilling your talent pipeline to meet changing technology needs and digital skills shortage? Let us help you to boost productivity, knowledge sharing and wellbeing in remote workers. Deliver a best-in-class employee experience from onboarding to offboarding. Provide better access to employee voices to guide, transform and evolve.