How to effectively manage your Microsoft 365 user accounts

Microsoft Office 365 is one of the most widely used business tools around the world, thanks to its easy to use interface, interactivity, and adaptability across operating systems. The cloud-based, subscription model version of Microsoft’s popular productivity suite Microsoft Office, M365 has the same same core applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, plus other apps such as Microsoft Teams, depending on the business plan purchased. 

The appeal of Microsoft 365 for business is the agility and flexibility that enhances business productivity and collaboration. The inclusion of cloud storage and mobile apps allows employees to communicate in real-time, share files, and work remotely at any time from any location.

An important aspect of Microsoft 365 is how to manage user accounts to ensure a seamless and productive workflow for your organisation. Without proper set up and maintenance of local user accounts, your business data and security can be at risk.  

What is the purpose of Office 365?

Efficiency is very important for business. The ability to create, collaborate and communicate seamlessly makes any organisation more effective. Having access to productivity tools that allow people to do their jobs easily from anywhere allows organisations to be agile in their sector of the economy. 

Office 365 is a Microsoft productivity suite with tools like Word, Exchange, Excel and SharePoint. These tools complement each other and work together seamlessly so it’s essential for any business. Because Office 365 is cloud-based you’ll have access to the full-featured experience on any device that can connect to the internet. 

Why account management for Microsoft 365 users matters

In smaller to medium-sized businesses, where there are only a handful of employees, keeping track of who has access to what and other work-related tasks might seem rather uncomplicated. 

However, it can quickly unravel as employees take on hybrid work models, or memos are missed about staff turnover. Things can get quickly out of hand as the complexity of managing multiple users on a daily basis increases. When you can’t manage Microsoft 365 users effectively, your organisation is potentially vulnerable to data breaches and cybersecurity attacks. One of the more common causes of data breaches is employee error, which means it is even more vital to ensure user accounts have robust account management.

How to manage Microsoft user accounts

When it comes to managing Microsoft 365 accounts, IT admins can choose from several ways depending on how they want to create and manage user accounts based on organisational needs. 

The main ways of managing Microsoft 365 user accounts become available as soon as you purchase Microsoft 365: 

• Microsoft 365 Admin Center: accessed by signing into Office.com with your work account and select the app launcher then looking for “Admin”. 
• Azure Active Directory Admin Center: has more features than the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, and admins typically use it to manage users and groups. 
• PowerShell: this option enables admins to automate various tasks from the command line, like adding users and managing their subscriptions.

While Microsoft 365 has built-in security features to take advantage of, such as multi-factor authentication and encryption, some of the ways IT admins can manage account settings include:

1. Create a user: The most common way to create a user is through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. You can do so by simply filling in name, domain, and password settings as well as assigning product licenses
2. Delete a user: deleting a user is as easy as going to the admin page or Windows PowerShell. But if you use directory synchronisation, your only option when it comes to deleting an account is local Active Directory. 
3. Admin roles: when signing up for Microsoft 365, that person becomes the account’s global admin. With this role comes unlimited power to manage your subscription and services. Besides being a global admin, there are four other admin roles to choose from: billing administrator, password administrator, service administrator and user management administrators. Administrators should use separate user accounts for regular tasks and only log into the administrator account when necessary. 
4. Licence management: the Microsoft 365 admin assigns licences to users by accessing either the Active User page or the License page. 

Take control of your Microsoft 365 user accounts

Managing Microsoft 365 users doesn’t have to be complex or complicated. When you’re aware of why effective account management is imperative to keeping your employees productive and your business data secure, everything falls into place. Speak to the Microsoft specialists at INTELLIWORX today about your Microsoft 365 plan.