Office 365 Shared Mailbox Tool

In Office 365 for education, as it stands today, creating shared mailboxes involves using Windows PowerShell which, to the uninitiated, can be complex task. As an aside, it’s worth getting to grips with PowerShell as it’s a great way to aid managing the service!

Shared mailboxes are useful for generic aliases, for example “reception@myschool.sch.uk” or “itservices@myuniversity.ac.uk” as they provide a way to give multiple users access to a mailbox without having to be an alias of somebody’s own personal mailbox; this has the knock-on benefit that should your receptionist, or IT services team leave, the shared mailbox remains for their successors to pick up – no downtime or change of aliases for your end users.

Each shared mailbox has a 5GB limit, and does not require a licence. The great news is that there is a free tool that makes creating shared mailboxes in Office 365 for education much easier. Introducing the GUI-based Shared Mailbox Tool…

The free download provides a simple way to create shared mailboxes for your users, check out the Office 365 community Wiki for the step-by-step guide on how to use the tool:

Create Shared Mailboxes with GUI-based Tool

Once you’ve configured your shared mailboxes, why not take a look at how to use them in Office 365 via OWA.