We are now going to look at the next step for transforming my grassroots football club with Microsoft 365.
Once your registration is approved
You now have a choice to make between two options
Selecting Microsoft 365 Business Basic
Selecting Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Understanding Microsoft 365 Business Basic
Microsoft 365 Business Basic option allows you to have 300 licenses to utilize for your club. So you can give every single coach and volunteer in your club an official account to represent the club.
One of my biggest bug bearers is seeing clubs advertise an email address similar to this; – walsalllionsunder10@gmail.com – telfordtigerstournament2023@hotmail.com
This doesn’t provide the club a lot of flexibility or control over the information that is sent to their email addresses.
I have picked out a number of key products under Microsoft 365 Business Basics plan which I will discuss
Microsoft 365 Map of all features available with Microsoft Business Basics Plan
Azure AD for Office 365
Azure AD for Office 365 is how user identities are created and managed including guests that you may want to allow access to resources in your Microsoft 365 tenant
Exchange Online is the platform for managing email accounts. Each user mailbox requires a license but if you are running a tournament for example and require multiple people to access the mailbox. Instead of using a license on a “User Mailbox” you would get a created “Shared Mailbox” which doesn’t require a license.
There will be an article going into Exchange Online in more depth.
Screenshot of the Exchange Online Admin Console
Microsoft Forms
Microsoft Forms enables users to create surveys to gather data, a good usage scenario would be collecting player information or information about teams wanting attend your tournament.
Screenshot of Microsoft Forms – Blank Form
There will be an article going into Microsoft Forms in more depth, as I will demonstrate how I collect player information in an attempt to track their journey at the club.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams has become a very popular platform for grassroots leagues to host league meetings virtually. All Microsoft Teams features are immediately available but there may be some functionality that might require additional licensing at cost, for example Direct Calling to UK Domestic Numbers.
Office for the Web
With this license you only have access to the online versions of Outlook, Word, Excel, etc… but however, while you don’t have a license to install the full client on a laptop or PC. You can utilize the mobile apps from all Andriod, and iOS devices with no issues.
OneDrive for Business – Plan 1
Microsoft OneDrive for Business is Microsoft’s cloud storage and file sharing solution and competes with Google Drive Enterprise, Dropbox Business, and other professional-focused solutions. Each user that has a license within the Microsoft 365 will have access to 1TB of cloud storage.
Power Automate for Office 365
Power Automate is a platform that can automate tasks if an action has happened, for example;
When a Microsoft Form is submitted, send an email to X
When a document is updated, send an email to X, Y, Z
I will be going into detail later in this series on how I am keeping the Player up to date via Microsoft Form submissions.
SharePoint Online – Plan 1
This is probably one of the most important parts of the whole tenant, SharePoint is an internal website for your club. You can add nearly anything you would like. In my screenshot you can see;
Links to Club Contacts
Wholegame System
Club Documents
Training
Links to different leagues
Understanding Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Microsoft Business 365 Business Premium has all the above functionality but with Premium, you get access to a lot more but are limited to 10 free licenses. You would then need to pay for any additional licenses if required.
I believe Premium would be overkill for most clubs but ultimately the decision is yours
Microsoft 365 Map of all features available with Microsoft Business Premium Plan
In Part 3 – Add a custom domain so your username, and email address don’t contain onmicrosoft.com.
