Four Important Decisions to Make Before Setting Up an Office 365 Account

I wrote a blog post back in October 2013 about “How to Get a Free Non-Profit Office 365 Subscription in Canada” – and recently realized that it contains key points that are relevant to ANY organization looking to get started with Office 365.

[NOTE: Since originally posting this in April 8, 2014, I have added two more important key points that all organizations should keep in mind.]

In the spirit of de-cluttering, here they are:

#1 – IMPORTANT: Make sure you choose the exact plan (i.e. Not-for-Profit, business, etc.) you want to use when you sign up for a demo Office 365 trial.
Why: Whatever domain you choose for you demo cannot be transferred to a different plan after it’s setup.

#2 – IMPORTANT: Make sure you choose the exact domain you want to use when you sign up for a demo Office 365 trial.
Why: Whatever domain you choose for you demo cannot be changed later.

• Domain = The portion of the user ID that appears after the @ .
• It is used to generate the URL for your internal SharePoint team site collection. Choose wisely.
• You cannot purchase a custom domain name for your shared SharePoint site collection.

Tip: Plan ahead. Pick 2 or 3 preferable user IDs in case someone has already taken your top pick. Keep the user ID short, title focused, and organization-focused.

#3 – IMPORTANT: The first user that is created is the primary “tenant administrator” (i.e. full control, “god” mode) – this cannot be changed later. Choose wisely.

#4 – IMPORTANT: Understand that any files or data you upload to the demo Office 365 environment will be deleted if you let the trial expire and do not sign up for a paid account (or apply the free TechSoup NFP  licenses).

*

Last Updated: July 22, 2015

Note: This post was updated this post to delete all references to “external public SharePoint websites” as they are no longer exist/available via Office 365.