Office 365 - Setup checklist

You’ve decided to go with Office 365, it’s an excellent choice and has many benefits which are going to help your organisation. But where do you start? It can be a daunting prospect implementing a new system… but have no fear!

We have spoken to our in-house experts and put together a checklist, so you know exactly where to start and what you need to do to get Office 365 up and running.

Plan out migration before beginning including what data you want to move into Microsoft 365 as well as authentication methods.

Ensure you have an external domain and have access to the domain hosts DNS records which will be required to verify domain ownership as well as to add MS365 DNS records.

If syncing users from an on-premise domain controller using AD Sync; check accounts with IDFIX for any errors. Run this multiple times until there are no errors or warnings.

Ensure all users UPNs contain an externally resolvable domain.

Limit the number of global administrators on the tenant. MS recommend a minimum of 2 with long and complex passwords but no more than 5 and to restrict access to other admins to only what is required.

Shared mailboxes do not require a license.  Sign in should be blocked on shared mailboxes for security.

Shared mailboxes have a limit of 50GB stored data before having to assign a license and can only be accessed by a licensed user with correct permissions.

When users are synced from on premise, certain attributes can only be configured via on premise such as proxy addresses.

Enforce MFA authentication where possible.

The Office 365 admin center allow you to manage people, software, and cloud services from one location

There you have it, follow these steps and you will be on your way to enjoying 365. Obviously, every organisation is different so if you have any questions drop a comment and we will get back to you.