Standing Up a New Business Entity's Microsoft 365 From Zero

The challenge

A new operating entity had been incorporated and needed a working collaboration and email environment before it could trade — no tenant, no domain configuration, no accounts. The work had a hard start date and no existing system to fall back on.

Where we came in

A tenant built in a hurry is usually a tenant someone has to secure afterwards. Because this one was being created from nothing, the mail authentication and permission structure could be set correctly at the start, which costs nothing extra then and a great deal later.

What we did

• Provisioned a dedicated Microsoft 365 tenant for the new entity
• Added and verified the company domain
• Configured mail authentication records at the registrar so mail delivers and cannot be trivially spoofed
• Created user accounts and assigned the appropriate licence mix rather than a uniform top tier
• Built the requested distribution lists and shared mailboxes with correct membership and send-as permissions

Where it landed

• The new entity opened on its own tenant with authenticated mail flow
• Licensing was matched to role instead of applied uniformly
• Shared mailboxes and distribution lists were in place from the first day of trading