Expanding a Microsoft 365-based product into Europe often looks straightforward from the outside.
The demand is there. The technology is familiar. And many of the same buyers exist on both sides of the Atlantic.
What tends to catch teams out isn’t scale — it’s nuance.
European organisations evaluate governance, security and collaboration tools through a lens shaped by regulation, risk and an expectation of clarity from the first conversation. That doesn’t mean the bar is higher. It means the criteria are different.
Understanding those differences early makes growth in Europe calmer, more predictable, and far easier to justify internally.
With that in mind, here are five areas that consistently make the biggest difference when North American teams prepare to grow their Microsoft 365-based product in the EMEA region.
1. Europe doesn’t buy speed, it buys certainty
If North American buyers respond to boldness and velocity, European buyers respond to transparency and predictability.
The region has spent years grappling with questions of digital sovereignty. Even as major providers invest heavily in regional infrastructure, analysts continue to highlight concerns around data autonomy, cross-border controls and oversight. That makes European IT teams ask deeper questions, earlier, such as:
- Where is our data processed?
- What telemetry do you collect?
- What does your product access — and what can’t it see?
- Can we keep sensitive information inside our region?
These aren’t late-stage procurement hurdles. In Europe, they’re part of qualification.
What you can do: Create a simple European Buyer Pack to give to your sales team and resellers. Include a one-page data-handling overview, a governance or risk summary, and a plain-English explanation of how your product interacts with Microsoft 365. This reduces friction before it appears.
2. For European teams, governance is about managing risk, not tidiness
Many vendors frame governance as workspace hygiene: reducing clutter, cleaning up sprawl, simplifying admin.
European organisations view it differently.
A recent report found 83% of organisations face rising “information chaos” in Microsoft 365 environments — unmanaged growth, inconsistent sharing, overshared content and unclear ownership. For European companies, this isn’t about tidiness. It’s about exposure.
Microsoft’s own Data Access Governance guidance reinforces this, emphasising the need to identify overshared or sensitive content across Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive.
For European buyers, governance usually sits at the intersection of:
- external-sharing risk
- lifecycle management
- audit readiness
- data-classification obligations
- day-to-day collaboration behaviour
Your messaging will land faster when it reflects this mindset.
What you can do: Reframe “clean up your Microsoft 365 environment” to “reduce collaboration risk and maintain clarity across your Microsoft 365 environment.” Small shift. Big impact on relevance.
3. You don’t need legal detail — just awareness and respect
A common misconception when entering Europe is thinking you need deep GDPR expertise. You don’t. European buyers already have legal teams.
What they want is reassurance that you understand the landscape they operate in — especially around risk, transparency, and responsible collaboration.
European cloud-sovereignty analysts regularly note that while providers have made “significant progress”, concerns remain around autonomy and cross-border dependencies. Buyers want vendors who acknowledge this context, not ones who gloss over it.
Knowing this importance, Microsoft announced five digital commitments to Europe earlier this year, as follows:
Whilst you’re not expected to provide legal guidance, you are expected to show understanding.
What you can do: Create a short section on your website explaining how you handle data. Not legal-speak, just clarity.
4. Localisation isn’t about language, it’s about empathy
Translating your UI into a native language is useful. But localisation in Europe is more about understanding context than vocabulary. Different regions evaluate tools through different operational realities, for example:
- France often prioritises clarity around external sharing and data handling.
- Germany expects precision, documentation and a clear link between your product and risk reduction.
- The Nordics favour practical tools that streamline collaboration across distributed teams.
- The UK responds well to outcome-focused messaging paired with transparent technical detail.
So you don’t necessarily need region-specific campaigns, simply messaging that reflects the audience you’re targeting’s challenges.
What you can do: Create a lightweight “European Messaging Notes” document for your content and sales teams taking in tone guidance, regulatory awareness, proof points, preferred phrasing. This will help keep your story consistent and culturally aware.
5. European buyers examine your content more deeply than you may think
Europe is a self-education market. Buyers spend a long time reading quietly, comparing options and checking for gaps before reaching out. That means your content needs to meet two standards at once:
helpful enough to be useful, and substantial enough to be credible.
Teams will look for the following three types of content:
Problem-led explainers
Topics that resonate with operational reality:
- managing external access
- governing distributed teams
- understanding collaboration risk
- maintaining clarity across Teams and SharePoint
Evidence and documentation
Not bureaucracy just due diligence. Buyers expect:
- architecture summaries
- data-handling notes
- governance overviews
- clear FAQs
- realistic customer examples and case studies
Ecosystem awareness
Europe’s Microsoft community runs on networks. Co-authored content with partners, MVPs or regional specialists resonates well in this market.
What you can do: Audit your content and label each asset:
- Europe-ready
- Needs adaptation
- North America-only
You’ll be able to spot the gaps instantly.
How Bright Star can help
The differences between North American and European buyers aren’t dramatic — but they are meaningful.
Teams that succeed in Europe tend to slow down just enough to make their thinking visible: how data is handled, how risk is managed, and how their product fits into existing Microsoft 365 environments.
When that clarity is present, growth feels less like a leap and more like a continuation.
We work with companies building on Microsoft 365 to help translate their story into a version that resonates across Europe — clear, confident and grounded in how European teams actually evaluate technology.
That usually starts with reducing ambiguity, not adding volume.
Need help? If you’re preparing to grow in Europe and want to sense-check how your messaging lands, we’re happy to compare notes. Let’s talk.
