I’m having more and more folks call me about Office365. It is usually small offices, dozen PCs or so.
And let’s keep this to Office365. Most of these folks just stare and blink when LibreOffice or the like get suggested. And, in my experience, the basic files are somewhat compatible, but not 100%. Especially when it comes to the “make pretty” stuff.

Usually it’s one of two scenarios:
1. So-and-so got us a subscription, but now they are gone, retired, fired, dead, whatever. How do we add/remove/check status?

2. We have used Office2003 forever and now our (insert provider name/function) won’t support it anymore.

I have always preferred to set stuff like this up under a POSITION (manager, supervisor, etc)rather than just somebody (oh, we will just use Susie’s account, then Susie leaves and the credentials leave with her)

And of course, this only becomes an issue when it has to be dealt with RIGHT NOW!

So, what’s a good plan here?

Microsoft provides business licensing for Microsoft 365.

The *business* then owns the account and the individual files that might be stored on the servers (rather than the individual users). An Admin is designated, but an Admin just administrates, the business still *owns* the accounts. The business can designate a new Admin, revoke Admin status, or designate multiple admins.

^^^
Kind of what I was thinking, set up a MS account for “XYZ” business, then give those credentials to the Admin for that business.
Still not id10t proof, but at least id10t resistant.

Assuming we’re talking a business bigger than an owner and a couple employees, but small enough they don’t have a full-on business network setup:

User accounts with business Office 365 (vs personal) can have product licenses attached, or can have an admin role enabled, or both.

You can have multiple admin accounts without paying for product licenses for any of them.

To minimize fuss, I would think a business should have at least two admin accounts, one used by whoever actually does the Office 365 admin and one used by someone else (for small businesses, this second account might just be the owner’s user account?).

Even if that isn’t done, if a business is using business Office 365 and the business is paying for it, if someone runs off with the only admin credentials, there has to be a way to call MS and get stuff reset.

If someone in the company just set up personal Office 365 for everyone and paid for it themselves and bailed, the company would probably be screwed on that and just need to start over.

We switched to Office365 in January. We don't have IT and its not practical for the 15 people we have, so we contract out to a local network services company. They handle the maintenance and any upgrades we do to any of our data services (phones, servers, workstations, and security system, building access). We have someone that can add computers and accounts to the system, but it's not cost effective for us to do anything else in house.

Business Exchange online aka O365 has a great portal and control of users and services including the office software.
Add or remove users as necessary.
Beneficial for 5 users and up.

Have the company set up a couple of "IT/Admin" email accounts.

Say "MainIT@wegotgibblets.com" "FinanceIT@dontspamus.com" (using the companies real email domain), but using an easy to remember but hard to spam (no "admin@... or "finance@) words that are on evert SPAM list of addresses)

Then use these accounts for IT purchases, setting up outside services accounts, like O365, and then permit the "appointed" it person(s) or accountants or other trustworthy and accountable folks to manage/use these accounts, and like anything that touches money, make sure good strong passphreases are used, kept secured and changed, especially if any of those accounts are used by anyone that leaves the company or position of trust.

Set recovery email account, phone numbers, PIN, etc. to highest level of trust to prevent anyone from resetting or locking, misusing accounts.

(is a good idea to set similar email accounts with specific "naming" as the "business account" in cases where a person's name is often used.)

Nothing more troubling than to have "sally@ourcompany.com" leaving, and now Ted is in the seat, and cannot access "services accounts, banks, etc." because no one can access Sally's email(s), or Sally deleted everything, changed passwords and her cell phone was her own, and there went that number.

You can add as many "admin" roles to the O365 account, and you can add/delete the number of users and products licenses at any time. So, if you have fairly high turnover due to up and down of people needed for the company, you can disable a licensed product, and it stays "available for issue" to the next person. Or you can simply delete it, and then add a new one down the road. So, the billing can be month to month, or yearly for any or each MS product licensed.

For email and documents, you can create "null accounts" that allow you to "park" email boxes and Document data" when a user is removed, so the mailbox can be tied to another user's account to migrate, or manage as required. But you must be diligent to make these effective, as retention after removing a user is 30-90 days.

Having an outsourced IT management, it is paramount that the company ensure that they have control over all this information/accounts/billing/administration and "top level" control, so the company does not find itself in a jam if the IT folks, go out of business, fire someone, or someone leaves and the company is out in the cold trying to prove they need to access, change accounts that the IT folks set up.

(like domains registered to the IT company, and not the actual company, subscriptions to applications, services, etc.)

A bit long, but things to think about when staring at the servers in a rack and all them blinking lights and fans whirring, but "nothing is working" and you call the IT folks, the recoding says: "This number you have dialed, is no longer in service, pleas check the number, and dial again..."