www.office.com/setup Blogs: Signing up for the Office 365 is a really straight forward process. You can buy licenses and start the tenant creation, or you can start a trial (30 days) and then add licenses with in that 30 days. Scroll down below where I will walk you through the Office 365 tenant creation.

Important Information

Microsoft has two main service lines for Office 365 and three main pricing options (SKUs) within each service line; Office 365 Business and Office 365 Enterprise. For an interactive workbook to compare all the features of all the plans, use the following link; Office 365 Service Comparison.

FAQ

What are the major differences between Office 365 Business and Office 365 Enterprise? Short answer is that it’s all about the features you get and size of your business. Office 365 Business has a cap of 300 licenses, so if you are over that the go right to Enterprise. With the Enterprise SKUs, you get more features, but you have to pay a bit more. Take note that with the Business plans, there are limitations not seen in the Enterprise plans. Those limitations include: Microsoft support, Exchange hybrid, Active Directory Connect, SharePoint Online features, Exchange Online features, Microsoft FAST Track support/migrations and Office features. Make sure to do the research and buy the right plan for your business.
Can I switch between Office 365 Plans? YES, you can upgrade/downgrade and switch between Office 365 Business and Enterprise plans.
Can I mix Office 365 Plans? YES, you can have one tenant with some Office 365 Business licenses and some Office 365 Enterprise licenses. Keep in mind the 300 license cap for the Business licenses.

Important Decisions

The decisions here will be needed for the next section, where you will be opening your trial tenant. There are two important pieces of information that need to be taken seriously and cannot be changed once the tenant is created. It’s impossible for you and/or Microsoft to change this information once the tenant is created.

Country – Selecting the country will result regional information Microsoft uses to deliver the right services. If will also determine the location of your tenant. This can be very critical for keeping data in your own country. This can’t be changed because Office 365 services can vary by region.

Tenant Name – Selecting the correct tenant name is vitally important, because this name is client facing and is used for SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business, along with the SMTP domain assigned to your tenant. You can add your own public SMTP domain after the tenant has been created. – SharePoint Online – https://TenantName.sharepoint.com – OneDrive for Business – https://TenantName-my.sharepoint.com/personal/UserEmailAddress/

Tenant Creation

Below I will cover the steps required to open a free trial of Office 365. The steps are identical for Business Premium and Enterprise E3. If you know you want to buy and setup your tenant right away, then use the Buy Now button. An extra step will be added where purchase the number of licenses you want.

Open Internet Explorer

Navigate to Office 365 Business Premium or Office 365 Enterprise E3

Click or

Microsoft Step 1 – Enter your Company Information (1) Your selection from steps 2 and 3 shown (2) Enter Country Important (3) First Name (4) Last Name (5) Email Address (6) Phone Number (7) Company Name (8) Size of Company

Click Next (9)

www.office.com/setup Blogs

Microsoft Step 2 – Create Your User ID (10) Enter a name for your admin account (11) Enter the tenant name Important You can still add your own public domain name after the tenant is setup (12) Enter Admin Password (13) Confirm Admin Password

Click Next (14)

www.office.com/setup Blogs

Microsoft Step 3 – Verification Select Text me or Call me. Microsoft needs to prove that you are not a bot trying to open tenants. They can call you or send you a txt verification code.

www.office.com/setup Blogs

Microsoft Step 3 – Verification Continued Enter the verification code that was texted to you or follow the prompts for the phone call. Click Create my Account

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Microsoft Step 3 – Completion The account provisioning process will kick off.

www.office.com/setup Blogs

Microsoft Step 3 -Login to the tenant

Click You’re ready to go to be redirected into your Office 365 tenant. This will start a 30 day trail of Office 365.

www.office.com/setup Blogs

Now that you have a trial tenant created, follow the next post in the series to add your own domain to Office 365. If you are using GoDaddy, then use this post, Adding a Domain to Office 365 that is Registered with GoDaddy

Link to original Post: http://office365support.ca/signing-up-for-the-new-office-365-2/