Microsoft Office 365 ??? Exchange Online Implementation and Migration

Chapter 1. Getting Started with Office 365

Welcome to the world of Office 365 - a cutting edge way of increasing productivity by harnessing the power of the cloud.

By reading this chapter, you will learn what plans are available for your business, how to decide which option to take, and how to get your Office 365 subscription underway.

Throughout this chapter, we hope to provide you with guidance on how to determine your requirements. We will provide you with information on the choices and the decisions you will need to make. We will also provide you with examples of real-world customers of Office 365.

Let's begin by looking at the different options available under Office 365:

Office 365 plans
Office 365 Business - considerations and limitations
Office 365 Enterprise
When to use a plan and when to pick a la carte
Options to start your subscription
The sign up process

Office 365 available plans

At the heart of Office 365 are two essential subscription paths a customer can go through:

Office 365 Business: https://products.office.com/en-us/business/office-365-business
Office 365 Enterprise: https://products.office.com/en-us/business/office-365-enterprise-e3-business-software

There are several other variants available to individuals, non-profits, education, and government which include a combination of features from the Enterprise plans at a lower cost:

Office 365 Personal: https://products.office.com/en-us/office-365-personal
Office 365 Nonprofit: https://products.office.com/en-us/nonprofit/office-365-nonprofit-plans-and-pricing
Office 365 Government Pricing: https://products.office.com/en-us/government/compare-office-365-government-plans

In this book, we will focus on the Business and Enterprise plans, but check whether you qualify for the Nonprofit or Government Pricing plans to lower your operating costs.

The main difference between the two subscription types is that under the Business plans, the subscription provides high value but no licensing flexibility, and a maximum limit of 300 users. There are also several other limitations, which are addressed further in this chapter.

There are a number of different ways to purchase these:

Directly on the Office 365 Administration portal
From a Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP) (for example, generally a telecommunications provider or Microsoft partner that resells Office 365)
From a Microsoft licensing reseller (for example, an IT company that supplies Microsoft Open Business or Open Value licenses)
From a Microsoft Licensing Solution Provider for those with School/Campus/Select/Enterprise Agreements

Navigating the Microsoft licensing maze can be challenging; most people can get quite confused by all the various plans and licensing models.

The best approach is to write down what features and functionality you want for your organization, including your people plans for the next three years. Then arrange people into groups that require similar feature sets. Users in the office may require an Office 365 Enterprise E3 license which gives them the desktop version of Office with e-mail, but users who work remotely may only require an Enterprise E1 license and utilize the online Office applications.

Once you have grouped your users together, you can then look at the Office 365 subscription plans and make the right decisions. If you're still lost, you may need to work with a Microsoft partner who specializes in Office 365 to help you make the right licensing choice.

Office 365 Business – considerations and limitations

The Office 365 Business plans provide amazing value and functionality for small and growing organizations:

Bundle	Features
Business essentials	Exchange Online Plan 1 (Hosted e-mail) SharePoint Online Plan 1 (Collaboration and document management platform) Office Online (Web-based office programs, Word, Excel, and so on) OneDrive for Business Plan 1 (Unlimited file storage, similar to Drop Box and Google Drive) Skype for Business Online Plan 1 (Instant messaging, video calling, and conferencing) Yammer Enterprise (Social networking for business) Sway (Used to create presentations and interactive content)
Business	Office 365 Business (Office desktop applications) Office Online OneDrive for Business Plan 1 Mobile Device Management (Manage mobile settings, security, and remote wipe) Sway
Business Premium	Exchange Online Plan 1 Office 365 Business Office Online SharePoint Online Plan 1 OneDrive for Business Plan 1 Skype for Business Online Plan 2 (Includes the same options as plan 1 with additional ability to integrate with on-premises PBX systems, and also includes enterprise 24/7 support) Mobile Device Management Sway Yammer Enterprise

For many businesses, it will provide far more functionality than they may ever utilize, but there are some key limitations that must be considered prior to purchase.

User count limited

There is a hard limit of 300 users in the Business plans and there is no way around it. However, if you do need to go above this restriction, it is possible to upgrade to Enterprise plans where there is no user restriction. Switching plans is easy and can be done at any time using the Switch plan wizard available from the Office 365 portal.

Doesn't include e-mail archiving

Unlike the Enterprise plans, Office 365 Business does not allow for the addition of a mailbox archive on top of the existing 50 GB mailbox. What is possible however is to segment the existing mailbox into an archive area (for example, 5 GB of your 50 GB). It is also worth noting that this archive folder is only available when online with Outlook or via Outlook Web App because it is not cached as part of the user's Offline Storage Table (OST) file, and so it cannot be viewed offline.

Office Suite does not include Access

If you currently utilize Office Professional in your organization, it is worth noting that none of the Business plans include the use of Microsoft Access. If some users require the use of Microsoft Access, you will need to assign an Enterprise E3, E5, or Office Pro Plus license to those users.

Doesn't include Skype for Business Cloud PBX

If your business wants to make the most of cloud technology then you will want to consider moving your on-premises telephone system to a cloud-based solution. None of the Office 365 business packages include Skype for Business Cloud PBX, which allows the users to make and receive telephone calls using Skype for Business.

Doesn't include the rights to install Office applications on servers using Remote Desktop Services

If you are using Remote Desktop Services (RDS) within your organization, you will want to install the available Office applications which come with your business subscription. Unfortunately, none of the business level subscriptions include the rights to use shared computer activation, which is required to install Office on RDS servers.

When to use a plan and when to pick a la carte

Now that you know a bit more about the Business and Enterprise subscription levels, let's delve deeper into helping you make a choice between them.

The Enterprise plans contain similar feature sets to the Business plans, but are able to go above and beyond their limitations.

Some key benefits and features are:

No limit on the number of users
Ability to mix and match license types
Access to more applications and features
Increased usage rights, such as shared computer activation

Let's look at some scenarios where you might choose one subscription type over the other:

Scenario

Plan choice

Professional services firm of six people:

Planning to grow to 30 people within 3 years

Business Essentials

Start-up recruitment firm of 10 people:

Planning to grow to 70 within 2 years

Business Essentials

Established audio engineering company of 27 users:

Have been operating for 9 years

No growth plans

Business Essentials

Architectural firm of 12 people:

Have been operating for 6 years

No growth plans

Need storage space for drawings

Business Essentials

SharePoint Storage

Call center company with 40 staff:

10 in the office all day, five remote workers

25 shift-based call center staff who don't have their own PCs and simply need access to e-mail and the company intranet

Enterprise:

E1 (15)

K1 (25)

Franchise coffee house with 40 staff:

30 staff at head office

10 franchises managers

Want to perform Business Intelligence with SharePoint Server 2016 Enterprise on-premises, and let franchise managers access the reports

Enterprise:

E1 (10)

E3 (30)

Medical services with 120 staff:

Exchange 2016 on-premises

Using other intranet system

15 staff require video conferencing

Enterprise:

Skype for Business Online Plan 2 (15)

Hospitality services company with 700 staff:

Exchange 2003 on-premises

300 staff at head office

400 staff spread across eight offices

Legacy phone system, want IM and presence, and video conferencing for management

SharePoint on-premise, heavily integrated with CRM and other systems

Enterprise:

Exchange Online Plan 1 (700)

Skype for Business Online Plan 1 (600)

Skype for Business Online Plan 2 (100)

Financial services company of 5,000 staff nationwide:

Lotus Notes

25 percent of workforce is permanently mobile

10 percent of workforce is primarily limited to Line of Business Application

Has Enterprise Agreement which includes Office

Enterprise:

E1 (4,500)

K1 (500)

Automotive manufacturer of 30,000 staff globally:

GroupWise

IBM WebSphere for intranet

Cisco CallManager telephony with Unified Comms

30 percent of workforce is factory-based

Has Enterprise Agreement which includes Office

Enterprise:

Exchange Online Plan 1 (17,000)

Exchange Online Plan 2 (3,000)

Exchange Online Kiosk (10,000)

As you can see, there are quite a number of choices and scenarios available to organizations of all types and sizes. Making the correct choice involves identifying the requirements and which options address them.

Options to start your subscription

There are many ways to get started with an Office 365 subscription. Some of these ways include:

Working with Microsoft on a license agreement (through a licensing reseller)
Working with a Microsoft deployment partner
Signing up for the service directly on the website using a credit card

Note

If you decide to sign up directly on the website using a credit card then you have two options when checking out your purchase. You can choose to pay monthly or commit to an annual subscription and enjoy a cheaper rate, saving you money.

Let us now explore these options in the following sub-sections.

Working with Microsoft on a license agreement (through a licensing reseller)

Chances are you are only working with Microsoft if you have a large set or a combination of licenses you need to purchase. An example of this would be if you are an Enterprise customer seeking specific contract requirements and a combination of licenses, outside of Office 365, in a suite for your users. Specific contract requirements, and suites of licenses are typically sold as Enterprise Agreement (EA). The benefit of an EA is that it allows an organization to leverage a number of Microsoft products, for a single per seat cost. If you are an EA customer or plan to be one, the sign-up process is different. When you sign up for an EA, you will typically receive an e-mail with two options:

The first option is to attach your license to an existing Office 365 trial account
The second option is to create a new account with your licenses assigned

If you have already purchased licenses in an existing account, it may be difficult for you to have Microsoft attach licenses to this account. Microsoft may ask you to recreate an account in this scenario.

Working with a Microsoft deployment partner

If you are working with a Microsoft deployment partner, there is a good possibility that the Microsoft deployment partner will be able to help you through this process. A Microsoft deployment partner has the ability to send you a customized link. This link can be a trial or a set of licenses to be purchased. The benefits of a Microsoft deployment partner sending you a link are twofold. The partner can help ensure you have the right licenses and the partner obtains benefits while being associated with your subscription. These benefits include subscription notifications for changes/upgrades and there are financial benefits. The notifications/changes are of benefit as the partner can work closely with your organization to ensure you are prepared for upcoming changes. The financial benefits a partner receives are specifically related to the partner being an adviser for your subscription.

Signing up for the service directly

The last option is to sign-up for the service directly. Chances are that you are taking this approach if you are not signing an EA, or are not working with a Microsoft deployment partner, and are planning to trial or move to this service on your own. Often, organizations sign up for the service ahead of working with a partner or Microsoft on licensing. If you have signed up for a trial service, but plan to work with a partner or Microsoft, it is recommended not to purchase licenses until you have requested their advice on how to proceed. The impacts of purchasing license prior to engaging Microsoft or a partner can mean reallocating enabled accounts or a delay in how soon Microsoft can apply the EA licenses.

In all cases, we leverage the Office 365 admin portal, https://portal.office.com, in a similar way. Before we get started with the Office 365 admin portal, we need to sign up for the service.

The sign up process

We recently learned about the various subscription options. Now it's time to sign up for the service. In the following steps, we are simply going to sign up for a trial-based subscription. This will allow us the flexibility to choose how we add licenses in the near future.

You now have a decision to make. Do the Enterprise plans include the features you require or do you have more than 300 users or plan to grow to more than 300 users in the near future? If yes, then you need to create an Enterprise trial. Let's take a look at the process to give you its overview.

To get started, let's head over to the Office 365 site. Simply go to http://www.office.com/ and sign-up for a free FOR BUSINESS trial from the home page, as shown in the following screenshot. By default you will be directed to sign up for a Business premium trial. If you require an Enterprise trial follow the link See all plans and pricing options for Home or Business. Locate the Enterprise E3 Free trial link at the bottom of the page:

Click through to create a trial account. Your next page will be a sign up page. This page will require you to enter your business information. You will also be selecting your tenant name, which is important for a few reasons, as follows:
- Your SharePoint service URL includes your tenant name (for example, office365laba.sharepoint.com)
- It will be your default e-mail address or account name for your users, until you add your own vanity domains
- You will reference this name for support concerns
- It will be used to associate your Enterprise Agreement licenses to your subscription
Your e-mail address is also a very important field. The e-mail address you add on this page will be the default e-mail address that receives messages from Office 365. In addition, subscription information and errors that may occur with your integration components will be sent to this address. Ensure you add an e-mail address that you plan to monitor.
Tip
It's a good practice to create a new e-mail address setup as a group or shared mailbox so that it can be received by multiple people. This is useful when employees go on holiday and you need access to the e-mail to manage the Office 365 account.
In the following screenshot, we enter all the required details and press Next to continue:
The subscription name is important, but in the long term your users may never see it, if you apply a vanity name (a vanity domain is a simple name to mask a more complex domain behind it). During the sign-up portion, you will have an opportunity to check to see whether your subscription name is free. If your name is taken, try a few others until you find the name that fits your organization.
Note
Just remember, once you set the tenant name you can't change it later, so ensure it makes sense and looks presentable. So avoid adding numbers just to move on to the next step.
In the following screenshot, we settled on cloudadmin@office365laba.onmicrosoft.com for our lab environment. Press Next to continue:
Next you will need to enter and verify your phone number. To prevent fake sign ups, Microsoft has instituted a phone-based authorization process. Ensure you are near a phone for this part. Enter your number and press Text me to receive your verification code, as shown in the following screenshot:
Once you have received your text message, press Create my account, as shown in the following screenshot, to begin the process:
The Office 365 environment creation process is relatively quick. Once you have pressed Create my account, you will be shown a progress screen with some important details, as shown in the following screenshot. Make a note of these details so you can refer back to them as required:
Within a few short minutes, you should be shown that the environment setup has completed, as shown in the following screenshot. Click on You're ready to go... to continue:
After pressing You're ready to go..., you will automatically be logged in to your environment and within a few minutes all services will be ready, as shown in the following screenshot; however, provisioning times may vary:

Congratulations! You have created your Office 365 tenant with an Enterprise E3 trial. In the following chapters, we will explore the setup processes required to fully configure your tenant to meet your organization's specific requirements.

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Amazon verified reviews

Cookiemonster Apr 19, 2018

Perfect, just the sort of technical book I was looking for to assist my planned migration, thank you

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RDiver Sep 11, 2016

This book is a must-have for anyone about to embark on the move to Office 365 for your company. Learn from the experience of the authors to ensure all the requirements are met for a successful migration of your existing email into Exchange Online.The chapters will provide all the information needed to make informed decisions on licensing and configuration, and then walk you through a range of scenarios from simple migration to more complex Hybrid solutions to maintain connectivity with on-premises Exchange and Skype/Lync environments.The chapters are easy to read and provide plenty of visuals to follow along with.

Mark Jt Payette Jul 08, 2018

We are moving to Office365 and this does a good deal to cover the transition.

M. R. Rainer Nov 26, 2017

I am about 1/3 of the way through the book. Outstanding. Clear, detailed, with links to helpful external content.

J.E. Fisher Apr 01, 2017

too technical

Bundle	Features
E1	Sway Mobile Device Management Yammer Enterprise Skype for Business Plan 2 Share Point Online Plan 1 Exchange Online Plan 1
E3	Sway Mobile Device Management Yammer Enterprise Azure Rights Management Office 365 Pro Plus Skype for Business Online Plan 2 Office Online SharePoint Online Plan 2 Exchange Online Plan 2
E4	Sway Mobile Device Management Yammer Enterprise Azure Rights Management (Helps to protect and secure business data within Office 365) Skype for Business Online Plan 3 Skype for Business Online Plan 2 Office 365 Pro Plus Office Online SharePoint Online Plan 2 Exchange Online Plan 2
E5	Same as E4 but includes Skype for Business Cloud PBX
K	Sway Mobile Device Management Yammer Enterprise SharePoint Online Kiosk Exchange Online Kiosk

Microsoft Office 365 ??? Exchange Online Implementation and Migration: Plan and execute a successful Office 365 Exchange Online migration with ease , Second Edition

What do you get with eBook?

Microsoft Office 365 ??? Exchange Online Implementation and Migration

Chapter 1. Getting Started with Office 365

Office 365 available plans

Office 365 Business – considerations and limitations

User count limited

Doesn't include e-mail archiving

Office Suite does not include Access

Doesn't include Skype for Business Cloud PBX

Doesn't include the rights to install Office applications on servers using Remote Desktop Services

Office 365 for enterprises

When to use a plan and when to pick a la carte

Options to start your subscription

Note

Working with Microsoft on a license agreement (through a licensing reseller)

Working with a Microsoft deployment partner

Signing up for the service directly

The sign up process

Tip

Note

Summary

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Microsoft Office 365 ??? Exchange Online Implementation and Migration: Plan and execute a successful Office 365 Exchange Online migration with ease , Second Edition

What do you get with eBook?

Contact Details

Billing Address

Tip

Note

Key benefits

Description

Who is this book for?

What you will learn

Product Details

What do you get with eBook?

Contact Details

Billing Address

Product Details

Packt Subscriptions

Frequently bought together

Table of Contents

Recommendations for you

Customer reviews

Filter reviews by

People who bought this also bought

About the 3 authors

FAQs