Microsoft 365 Partner in Palakkad
For Kanjikode’s manufacturers, dealer networks that reach into Tamil Nadu, and the mills of Kerala’s rice bowl — where the production software expects Outlook, and the shop floor must see only the approved procedure.
We work here from Angadippuram in neighbouring Malappuram district. One office, no branch claimed in Palakkad.
Palakkad’s businesses face two ways at once— outward to dealers across Kerala and to industry across the Palakkad Gap, inward to a shop floor that runs on procedures and drawings. Microsoft 365 matters here in three specific places: the Outlook add-ins that production and ERP software install, which Microsoft’s new Outlook does not run; document control, where only the approved version of a procedure should reach the floor; and dealers, who need your price lists without needing your licences.
Five kinds of organisation we work with here
The last is not a trade at all. It is the outsiders every plant depends on — and the part of Microsoft 365 most often set up carelessly.
Manufacturers in Kanjikode
One of Kerala's largest industrial areas. Plants with production or ERP software that plugs into Outlook, procedures and drawings on the shop floor, and a quality system an auditor will ask about.
Dealer and distributor networks
Dealers across Kerala and into Tamil Nadu working from price lists, schemes and product documents that change every quarter. The question is how outsiders get the current version — and lose access when they stop being dealers.
Engineering suppliers across the Palakkad Gap
Coimbatore's industry is an hour away, and firms here buy from it and sell to it. Drawings, specifications and inspection reports cross the border by email, and which revision a supplier worked from is a question with money attached.
Rice mills and agro-processors
Kerala's rice bowl has the mills to match. Procurement records, mill accounts and buyer correspondence, handled by a small office that has never had anyone whose job is IT.
Auditors, consultants and contract engineers
Not a sector, but present in every plant: people from outside who need access to some documents for a while, and none of them afterwards. How that access is given and taken away is most of external collaboration.
Four things Palakkad businesses ring about
The first arrives without warning, because Microsoft moves people to the new Outlook on its own schedule unless someone has decided otherwise. It is the easiest of the four to prevent.
The ERP button vanished from Outlook
Business Standard and Premium users are being moved to the new Outlook for Windows automatically, and the new Outlook does not run COM add-ins — the kind most ERP, document and production software installs. Classic Outlook still runs them. An administrator can stop the automatic move for the people who depend on the add-in.
The floor worked from last year's procedure
Because the procedure lived in a folder where every version sat side by side. A SharePoint library with content approval shows readers only the approved version; drafts stay with their authors until someone approves them.
A dealer left, and can still open our price lists
Price lists were shared file by file, so nobody knows everywhere access was given. Dealers invited as guests to one site can be removed in one place — and guests need no Microsoft 365 licence for most collaboration.
The auditor needs access, but only for the audit
Invite the auditor as a guest to one site, not the whole tenant, and remove them when the audit closes. As a backstop, SharePoint can expire guest access automatically — after 30 days at the shortest, so removal is still the real control.
Document control, the way an auditor asks about it
Five questions a quality auditor asks about procedures and drawings, and the SharePoint library setting that answers each one. Checked against Microsoft’s documentation, 25 September 2026.
| The auditor asks | How the library answers |
|---|---|
| Is this the current, approved version? | Readers see only the latest approved major version (1.0, 2.0). Work in progress is saved as minor versions (1.1, 1.2) that readers never open. |
| Who released it? | With content approval on, a new version stays pending until someone with approval rights approves it. Until then, the floor keeps seeing the previous approved version. |
| What changed, and when? | Version history keeps every version with who saved it and when. Earlier versions can be opened for the record or restored. |
| Can anyone on the floor see a draft? | Draft item security decides. Set to authors and approvers only, drafts are invisible to everyone else. |
| Who can change a controlled document at all? | Library permissions: most people read, a few edit, fewer approve. The shop floor needs read access, not edit. |
The library enforces a process; it does not write one. Whether a quality system passes an audit depends on your procedures and how people follow them. Library design is covered under SharePoint for business.
What businesses here are usually moving off
The first two rows are the same problem seen from inside and outside: documents that exist in many copies, where the right one depends on who you ask.
| Moving from | Typically | What it involves |
|---|---|---|
| Procedures in a shared folder on the plant server | Plants with a certified quality system | Folders become a controlled library with approval. Moving is the easy part; agreeing which version of each document is currently approved is the work. |
| Price lists and schemes emailed to dealers | Dealer and distributor networks | One site dealers sign in to as guests, updated in one place and closed to a dealer in one place. |
| A mail server at the plant | Older manufacturing groups | Mailboxes move by cutover or hybrid. The ERP's Outlook add-in is tested against the new mailbox before anyone switches, not after. |
| Personal Gmail on the sales team's phones | Dealer-facing teams in smaller firms | The address dealers write to should belong to the company, so it stays when a salesperson moves on. |
Districts bordering Palakkad
The rest of Palakkad’s border is Tamil Nadu. All fourteen Kerala districts are covered from the same place.
Microsoft 365 in Palakkad — common questions
helpPalakkad borders your district. Do you visit?
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When it genuinely helps, yes. Tech Geum has one premises, in Angadippuram in Malappuram district, which borders Palakkad, and we do not claim offices elsewhere. Most work is remote; the visits that earn their time are usually a walk through the plant's document folders with the quality team, and testing the ERP's Outlook add-in on a real machine.
helpWill the new Outlook break our ERP's add-in?
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It can. The new Outlook for Windows runs only web add-ins, not the COM add-ins that most ERP, document-management and production software installs — while classic Outlook still runs them and, per Microsoft, is supported until at least 2029 (checked 25 September 2026). Ask the software vendor whether a web add-in version exists. If it does not, keep the people who depend on it on classic Outlook.
helpCan we stop people being moved to the new Outlook?
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Yes. Business Standard and Premium users have been migrated automatically since January 2025, with an in-app notice and an option to opt out, and an administrator can switch the automatic migration off and hide the toggle that invites people to try the new Outlook. We set that for anyone whose work depends on a COM add-in, and leave everyone else to move when they are ready.
helpCan SharePoint handle ISO document control?
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It handles the mechanics: approval before a document is released, only the approved version visible to readers, drafts hidden from everyone but authors and approvers, and a history of every version with who saved it and when. Whether your quality system passes an audit depends on your procedures and how people follow them. The library enforces the process; it does not write it.
helpDo our dealers need Microsoft 365 licences?
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Not for most collaboration. Dealers invited as guests can open the SharePoint sites, files and Teams channels you share with them without a licence of their own. You manage their access; they sign in with their own email address. What a guest cannot do is use your organisation's email or apps as a member of staff would.
helpHow do we give an outside auditor temporary access?
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Invite them as a guest to the one site the audit needs, and remove them when it closes. SharePoint can also expire guest access automatically after a number of days you set — anywhere from 30 to 730 — which is a useful backstop but too long to be the main control for a week-long audit. Removal on the last day is.
helpWhich plan fits a plant?
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Office staff who use the ERP's Outlook add-in need desktop Outlook, which means Business Standard at ₹860 per user per month or above — Business Basic has web and mobile apps only. Supervisors who read procedures and use email in a browser can be on Business Basic at ₹170. Checked 21 September 2026, with Teams, annual commitment, GST extra. Twelve office staff on Standard and twenty supervisors on Basic comes to ₹13,720 a month, against ₹27,520 with all thirty-two on Standard. Dealers as guests add nothing.
helpOur dealers in Tamil Nadu work in Tamil. Does that cause problems?
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No. Windows ships Unicode fonts for Tamil as it does for Malayalam, and documents in Tamil open, print and search like any other. The only thing worth checking is the one Kerala businesses meet with Malayalam: files typed years ago in older non-Unicode fonts, which look right only on the machine that has that font installed.
Related pages
Microsoft 365 Partner in Kerala
The state-wide picture, and all fourteen districts.
SharePoint for Business
Libraries, approval and permissions for controlled documents.
Microsoft Teams for Business
Channels and guests for dealer and supplier collaboration.
Microsoft 365 Administration
Offboarding, licence housekeeping and sharing configuration.
Microsoft 365 Integrations
Connecting Microsoft 365 to the ERP or accounting you already run.
Microsoft 365 Licensing Explained
Which plans include desktop Outlook, and which do not.
Microsoft 365 Pricing in India
List prices in INR, dated, and what GST adds.
Talk to us
Tell us what plugs into Outlook, and who outside needs access.
Talk to us about Palakkad
Tell us what software plugs into Outlook, where your procedures live, and who outside the company needs access. If an add-in has already disappeared for someone, mention it first — it is usually fixed the same day.
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Outlook add-ins protected before anyone is moved to the new Outlook
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Only approved procedures and drawings visible on the shop floor
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Dealers and auditors given access without licences, and removed cleanly
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