This client, operating in the food industry, came to us with a bit of a patchwork quilt insofar as their Office 365 was concerned. Some users were using old-fashioned POP mailboxes with Office 365 Business Premium licenses (a waste since the mail side of the license wasn’t being used), and with only partial configuration on the 365 portal. The rest of their Network was fine in terms of file storage / security but for some reason, the in-house member of staff who’d been tasked with this move, had run out of ideas and decided (sensibly) to call in the Cavalry!
Solution
Our first job was to assess the actual needs of the business along with the current state of affairs, and then develop a mini roadmap, of sorts, to make the transition. In effect, this consisted of reviewing the software status of all users and setting out licenses accordingly, making sure that only those users without the right Office license, got Office 365 Business Premium whilst at the same time, the other users could be set up with Exchange Online Plan 1 (email only) to run alongside their current Microsoft Office package.
We also took care to set up;
Aliases– e.g. Tom Smith from ABC Company might have an email address of
tom.smith@abc.com but might also need t.smith@abc.com and tomsmith@abc.com. Aliases are free!
DL’s – Distribution lists. Here, a list is given an email address and a membership, with its Members receiving email. For example, Tom and his colleague Sarah might both receive email sent to accounts@abc.om
Permissions – Super-users might need access to other people’s entire mailbox, or just their calendar, with full or “read only” permissions. We established what was needed and set it up accordingly.
Outcome
The firm’s email “layout” is now clear, logical and easy to understand. Nemark didn’t actually need to do anything further as this was a single-case job but in fact, the client was so happy that they’ve used us for several “higher-difficulty” jobs since, and we’re currently in talks with them about formalising their IT Support arrangements with a view to lowering their annual costs. Mighty oaks from little acorns grow!
