Microsoft Technology Stack Consulting: Which Pieces You Need and How They Fit Together

Microsoft technology stack consulting looks at Microsoft 365, Entra ID, SharePoint, Power Platform, Power BI and Fabric, Azure and Dynamics 365 as one system: which pieces your business needs, in what order, and how they share sign-ins and data. Lightray Solutions designs and connects that stack, and Edward Pinela, MBA, does the work himself.

One disclosure first. Lightray is not a Microsoft partner or reseller and sells no licences. Subscriptions come from Microsoft or from a licensing provider you choose, so a recommendation to buy something, or to cancel it, earns us nothing.

The first step is a free 30-minute strategy call; send the form or phone, and Edward schedules it with you personally. Stack design is quoted in writing after a short review of your tenant, and later Power BI changes can run on Power BI Flex Support, from $2,500 for 20 hours.

What is the Microsoft technology stack, layer by layer?

For a small or mid-sized business it is six layers on one tenant, the shared Microsoft account that holds your users and settings: identity, everyday work, business applications, low-code tools, analytics, and cloud infrastructure. Each layer has its own products, but they all trust the same sign-in, which is what makes connecting them practical.

That shared sign-in is Microsoft Entra ID, formerly Azure Active Directory. Microsoft's Entra documentation puts it plainly: a Microsoft 365, Azure or Dynamics subscriber is already using Entra ID, because every tenant is automatically an Entra tenant. You rarely buy it separately; you configure it well or badly. The table maps each layer to what it does for a company your size.

Which Microsoft pieces does a small or mid-sized business actually need?

Almost every company needs identity and Microsoft 365 from the first day. Power BI earns its place when reporting outgrows spreadsheets, Power Platform when a manual process repeats every week, Dynamics 365 only when it replaces a CRM or accounting system, and Azure only when you run custom software or servers.

Plan choice matters more than product count. Microsoft positions Business Premium for businesses with up to 300 users and adds device management for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android plus stronger threat protection; a company that already pays for it often has security features switched off. The signals we look for before adding anything:

• Power BI: someone rebuilds the same Excel report every month, or two managers quote different revenue numbers for the same period.
• Power Apps or Power Automate: an approval, intake form or hand-off still runs on email and a shared spreadsheet.
• Dynamics 365: your CRM or accounting system is due for replacement anyway; Microsoft describes Business Central as a business management solution for small and mid-sized organizations.
• Azure: you host a line-of-business application, a database or servers that need to leave a closet or an ageing data center.
• Fabric: data volume, the number of sources or refresh needs have outgrown what plain Power BI models handle comfortably.

How do the Microsoft products share identity and data?

Through two shared foundations. Entra ID gives every product the same user, group and sign-in rules, so access is granted once by role. Data is shared through Dataverse, SharePoint, OneLake or direct connectors, and Power BI reads from all of them, so one report can join sales, finance and operations figures.

Dataverse is the piece most owners have never heard of. It is the database behind Power Apps, and Microsoft's Dataverse overview notes that Dynamics 365 Sales and Customer Service store their data there too, so a Power App can work against Dynamics records without a separate integration. Its security combines roles with row- and column-level rules.

The practical rule we design to is simple: one security group per job role in Entra ID, used everywhere. The same Finance group opens the finance SharePoint site, edits the budget app and sees the finance pages in Power BI. When someone changes role, one change updates all three.

What does Lightray design and connect in your Microsoft stack?

The joins between products, which is where most stacks break. That means a written map of what you own and use, identity and group design, the connections from CRM, accounting and SharePoint into Power BI, automations that move data between apps, and documentation your IT provider can maintain after we hand over.

Each layer also has its own detailed page. Tenant setup, email migration and Teams structure are covered under Microsoft 365 consulting; cloud servers, landing zones and the Azure bill under Azure consulting; app and flow builds under Power Platform consulting; and CRM or ERP projects under Microsoft Dynamics consulting. This page is the view across them.

What we do not do is equally clear. Lightray does not run a helpdesk, monitor your network around the clock or sell hardware. If you have a managed IT provider, we work alongside them, and the documentation is written so they can take over the day-to-day.

When is an all-Microsoft stack the wrong answer?

When the tools you have already work and your team likes them. A company on Google Workspace with a CRM its salespeople use daily gains little from migrating just for consistency. Power BI and Power Automate connect to many non-Microsoft systems, so the right answer is often to connect what you have.

The same applies inside the Microsoft family. A ten-person firm rarely needs Fabric, and many never need Azure at all. We would rather tell you on the first call that your stack is fine and needs two settings changed than sell a project you do not need.

How does a Microsoft stack engagement run, and what does it cost?

It runs in four steps and is quoted at a fixed price after the review, because a tenant with ten users and one with two hundred are different jobs. Platform costs stay separate: Microsoft or your licensing provider bills the subscriptions, and Lightray bills only for the design and build work.

You work with Edward from the first call to handover; there is no junior hand-off. He brings 20+ years of business and technology work and 200+ delivered projects, and Lightray's Google rating is 4.9.

• 1. Tenant review. Licences, users, groups, security defaults, apps in use and the spreadsheets doing system work, with a written summary.
• 2. Stack map. Which layers you keep, add, connect or retire, in priority order, with the reason for each.
• 3. Build and connect. Identity groups, connectors, automations and the first joined Power BI report, reviewed with you on screen share.
• 4. Handover. Documentation, admin notes for your IT provider and a short recorded walkthrough.

Further reading: Microsoft Learn — What is Microsoft Entra?.