Microsoft Office 365 – Service Request Emails Incorrect Recipients

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https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IgiXS3YMT-4/UDZzIAwWhlI/AAAAAAAAL7I/klX_JQtLNws/s320/Microsoft+symbol+2012.png I am noticing of late that people are asking questions regarding the alternative email behaviour for elevated user accounts in Office 365 and want confirmation of what email’s these elevated users should receive in terms of

  • service update notifications
  • billing (monthly invoices / notifications
  • password reset emails

User accounts that have Office 365 Administrator Roles require an alternative email address to be specified. This alternative email address is specified below as I am sure we are all familiar with:

- This email address has to be outside of your organization, most companies tend to user a personal email address.

alt_email_address

When the account is elevated and the alternative email address is specified this is also copied to the ‘Business Email’ attribute that is shown for each user under there communication preferences and it is the ‘Business Email’ value that determines where Microsoft should send email such as Service Update Notifications, Marketing Information etc. This email address is synchronised to the commerce platform.

To find this field, login to portal.microsoftonline.com > select the “cog” found on the top right hand side > click ‘Office 365 Settings’ > Select “Contact Preferences”

business_email

IMPORTANT: This email address initially will be the alternative email address as it would have been copied when initially set when elevating a user account.

NOTE: This email address can be a corporate email address unlike the alternative email address and so it is recommended to change this to be your CORPORATE EMAIL ADDRESSS to prevent service update emails etc. from being sent to your private email address.

  • If you do this then if the commerce system fails to remove the data when an account is deleted, it will prevent legal issues maybe happening with emails being sent to ‘ex-employee personal email addresses’
  • If you do this then if the email address fails to be removed it will send the email to an address that no longer exists potentially and an NDR will be generated and email would not be delivered.

Summary:

Alternative Email Address = Is used for Password Reset Notifications ONLY

Business Email = Used for Microsoft Online Service Communications such as Service Notifications, Compliance Notifications, Marketing Emails etc.

To prevent such issues it is recommend changing business email to a corporate email address to prevent emails being sent outside of the organization to personal email addresses

Further information can be found here regarding contact preferences:

Public : - https://office.microsoft.com/client/15/help/home?Shownav=true&lcid=2057&ns=O365ENTADMIN&ver=15&HelpID=O365E_ChgContactPreferences

If you have any further questions, please be sure to comment.

Thanks,

James.